 |
|
To read any issue of Flock Talk, use the links below.
ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 147, © 2006
No reprints without permission
Sponsor's Space
Table of Contents
The folks at Bird & Cage aim to provide bird keepers with a great selection of good quality birdcages and accessories for great prices, along with some of the best customer service you will find anywhere, and their csutomers all agree, they do a great job!
They've provided a lovely wrought iron canary flight cage as part of the Grand Prize in our Photo Contest, so don't forget to enter your photos for a chance to win!
You can save 20% ever day in the Sidewalk Sale of overstocked cages. On the rest of the site you will find breeding cages, cage accessories, stands, and some of the best flight cages anywhere. There's even free shipping to the continental US!
A recent customer says,"I wanted to let you know that the 4130 cage stand arrived and I love it! It is quite sturdy and rolls with ease - even fully loaded. And it fits (and organizes) my breeding cages perfectly (24x16x16). Thanks Elaine!"
For a full selection of cages and cage accessories, visit BirdandCage.com.
Help Needed
Table of Contents
Do you know of a great bird site which deserves a review? Maybe you have a favourite tip or trick that you like to use, or know of a product that has made your bird's life better or easier to manage in some way? Why not share them with other readers? Send us tales of how you cope, or how your birds confuse and puzzle, interest and amuse you, and we will share them with the rest of our readers in a future issue. Just send an email here.
Links
Table of Contents
- Home
- Contest
- Products
- Articles
- Basic Care
- Breeding
- Health
- Moulting
- Photographs
- Flock Talk
- Canary Cam
- Birds Board
- Canary FAQs
- Canary Cam DVD
- Canary Song CD
- Books & eBooks
- Probiotics
- Bird Cages
- Cage Accessories
- Questions?
- Contact
- Contact
- Links Pages
- Privacy Policy
- Testimonials
- Site Map
"I love your website, your information has made me a very well-informed canary friend/owner. Thank you."
"Thank you for your love of birds and your commitment for helping those of us who are learning to share our lives with our feathered friends!"
"I cannot thank you enough for your kind and considerate responses to all of our questions. Your website has really been a wonderful find for us! And we absolutely love your canary CD!"
"Just a short note to tell you how great your ezine is... As a long time bird lover I thank you for your wonderful mag. Keep up the great work!"
"Hi Robirda! Thanks for your thoughts. My little one is singing as loudly as ever. He looks much better today. Your advice was most welcome; I'm particularly grateful about the recipes! I sent you the same amount the vet charged me; you have done no less than he did. You are a real blessing to all of us canary lovers the world over."
"Thank you so much for the book on canaries. That is a really nice book. I needed one, because I bought my Mom two canaries, a male and a female, we don't know anything about them. I'm so glad to have this book, I couldn't believe how much was in there. Thank you so much!"
"You have the most informative and helpful small bird site on the Web. I have found your information priceless and inspiring."
Welcome to Robirda's Companion Bird eZine
For breeder or pet bird owners who care.
Website News
Table of Contents
SALE! For the next 96 hours, every order of Avi-Culture® avian-specific probiotics that you buy from Robirda.com will be doubled, for free! www.robirda.com/aviculture.html
We now have 9 dozen lovely photos entered into our Flock Talk Photo Contest, with more arriving just about every day! See what's been entered so far at www.robirda.com/flockphotos
There's still time to sumbit your own photos, and find out if others find your birds as beautiful as you do! Our sponsors have supplied some great prizes - over $800 US dollars worth! Voting commences on July 4th, and runs until midnight July 14th. Winners will be announced in our 150th issue, Sunday, July 16th.
For full contest details, see: www.robirda.com/contest.html
Feature Article
Table of
Contents
by Julio Valella
Dallas, Texas, USA
Copyright © June 2006
My first experience keeping birds was a mercy mission at age 7 in my native Cuba. While playing in the pine trees at my grandma's home in western Cuba I found an injured ‘Tomeguin del Pinar’, the feisty little green and yellow throated singing finch, known in English as the ‘Cuban Melodius’. That little guy was bloodied, unable to fly, and thrashing about on a dirt path. He recovered fully and was a caged singer for about a year when he was finally ready to fly. I was 9 and reluctantly set him free.
A few weeks later my uncle brought me two pairs of beautiful yellow roller canaries, a present from his trip to Europe. And in shiny new wire breeding cages! I had become a ‘bird keeper’ and I've been keeping birds ever since, except for two short breaks, first when I came to the U.S. at age 12, and second when I moved to Texas and traveled heavily for my job.
I've always loved canaries, and also bred English Budgies, several kinds of finches (including Cuban Melodius), and even bred some ‘Tumbler’ pigeons in my teens.
In America I've always had canaries. Song canaries were first, then later I took up colorbreds, my favorites to breed; the genetics are fascinating. I have Mosaics in Red, Yellow Agates, Agate Opals, and Brown Opals, and some recessive whites, as well as clear yellows and reds (Lipochromes); recently I acquired Lizards and Fifes.
I bred Fifes 15 years ago and loved them, and I'm enjoying them again. In my humble opinion Fifes have by far the best personality of all breeds, and are a joy to work with. I tried Glosters with limited success and after 4 years opted to switch to Lizards which I'd wanted for many years. I'm retired and enjoy my aviary and all my canaries.
My undergraduate was in Biomedical Electronics Engineering, my third and final major after pursuing architecture and civil engineering, key interests for me. I've enjoyed working in those fields as well. Like many US engineers I studied business, got my MBA and spent the last 20 years of my career in marketing and business development.
Engineering and Management took me to far away places. I worked in Italy, France, Mexico, Australia, Singapore, China, and other Asian and European countries. Everywhere I traveled I sought out bird keepers and visited their clubs and marts.
Recently I was asked to be interim director of a children's science museum. To my pleasure, bird keeping played a part even in this effort, and I was able to help them repopulate their display aviary where children can closely observe and learn about English Budgies, their preening, diet, social activity, and nesting habits.
The sum total of all wisdom I have to share with you about the fundamentals of breeding can be expressed in two short words. "Emulate Nature." That is it. To fully enjoy breeding captive birds, including caged canaries, simply emulate Nature.
The first and most critical factor for the success of a breeding program is Conditioning. Conditioning is about overall health, vitality, and fitness of your breeding stock. Tennis players describe ‘match tough’ as their ultimate best conditioning, which they can only achieve by successive competitive match playing. Not just training! This concept is the closest analogy I have seen to the Conditioning of breeding birds.
It is possible to breed birds that are not in optimum or best possible condition. But, it is always better, easier, more successful, and a greater joy, to breed only birds in Superb, or Ultimate Condition. Let us examine Nature on this point.
Nearly all birds approaching breeding season engage in Eating, Exercising, Hygiene, and Competition that, combined, results in their achieving superb conditioning.
Watch mockingbirds, sparrows, and most other common birds in yards & parks. They eat more, especially tender greens, protein rich insects, worms, milky seeds. They fly more, aerial combat defending territory and pursuing mates, capturing food prey, and doing courtship singing and dancing; some during moonlit nights! They bathe more, preen meticulously, and achieve and keep plumage glistening. They fight, defend, conquer, and chase much more; all others, whether competitors or strangers, are driven from their chosen territory, potential nesting sites, and food resources.
So, under the most critical success factor of Conditioning we have those important four items to provide our breeding stock: eating, exercising, hygiene, and yes, competition.
Each of these items, especially the first three, is a topic well covered in books, papers, commercial catalogs and products, and at club meetings and bird shows. Deservedly so as they are important, and factual knowledge on these is quite useful to bird keepers. The fourth, competition is far less often considered.
My point here is that important as these are, it is specifically their combined effect which produces the Conditioning that is critical for successful breeding of your stock.
As bird keepers we must pay attention to each of these four important items. As breeders we must do that and more. We must manage these elements as a set, for their combined effect; to achieve proper preparation of our breeding stock for success. If you have not thought about this in this way until now I invite you to try it!
Food, Flight, and Hygiene essentials are understood. Competition needs clarity. So, let us visit Competition in our context as bird keepers and providers.
While observing Nature, learning from observations, and emulating natural processes we must never forget that we keep birds and ‘provide them’ their needs. Sometimes well, sometimes not so well. Competition makes a huge difference!
We read about segregating males and females, and separating males as they come into breeding condition and begin to compete and fight. Breeders do this early and a few do this always. I do not. I prefer to manage competition among males.
My objectives are first to provide them some natural challenge and stimulation in dealing with competing males. My view is that this challenge stimulates hormones and triggers instinctive behavior which promotes progress toward Superb Conditioning.
Secondly, avoid deaths and injuries because we keep birds in confined space with very unnatural territory, virtually little or no cover, and zero possibility of escape by flying away. Careful, frequent, detailed observation must be done to track degree of competing aggression, defense, and stress levels; with immediate removal of weaker males before they are stressed or injured, and final separation of highly conditioned males, before they become over-aggressive bullies.
Two very useful male flight tools are single perches between two plates, and multiple sheltered drink and food stations. These offer defensible positions, "cover" that a challenged bird will take, that usually is enough to end the fight. Sheltered drink and food sources enable all the males to feed well and grow stronger as competition is ongoing.
Males will progress slowly at first and more quickly as they peak. Therefore with fewer and fewer males remaining together, more food, space, and flying space available accelerates their peak conditioning.
The last three to six males achieve this within a few days, then it is best to empty the Flight and place them in breeding cages. I prefer to do this when my hens are clearly ready to nest, and pair them. So until then I do my best to keep the males in Flights.
The earlier removed weaker males go to a male Flight, and those weaker males generally improve and will achieve their peak conditioning as well, within a few days to 2 weeks at most of the early ones. I've found age to be the main indicator for how soon a male reaches Condition. Two and three year old males will usually be the earliest, followed by younger and older.
Pairing has a Competition element too. The natural pairing process is competitive, with two or more males (possibly with adjacent territories), doing their best to attract and bond with a female. Even when not strictly territorial they compete for hens. So, the hen sees and hears two or more males seeking her attention and pair bond. Often the strongest, best conditioned male wins.
As he does, he drives the other away, and the hen in turn focuses on the conqueror, completes pair bonding, and proceeds to mate and build a nest. Once pair bonded they will defend themselves as a team while raising their young.
In emulating this process a breeder can pre-select two well conditioned suitable mates and provide adjacent contact to both for the hen. This can be easily done in a triple breeder with dividers, hen in the middle, or at one end. Then observing their behavior make a final assessment of best overall match for desired progeny, and leave the ‘conqueror’ while first hiding then moving away the ‘vanquished’.
By doing this one can readily modify the hen's own preference from one to the other suitor. After about a day or two at most of the chosen pair being close they will feed and the hen will position when he sings to her. Put them together and in 99% of the cases the pairing succeeds; they feed, bond and start nest construction.
I will add here that this emulates a natural process but it is not necessary! I often simply take a well conditioned male to a ready hen and see them mate immediately, sometimes the male flying directly from being let loose to copulate!
The difference is these last two birds are not paired. They may bond after being together a while, but they are not paired to start. The bonded pair is strongly attached, and when we bring another hen to ‘double mate’ the male he will oblige and copulate with a ready hen but will then immediately seek to return to his bonded mate. If he is kept too long with the other hen, he may turn vicious and harm her.
In my experience conditioned males pair bonded by emulating this natural, competitive process are always excellent breeders. They feed and protect the hen, will guard and even sit on their nest while the hen feeds, and will be a good feeder to both hen and chicks as soon as he can access them.
I've yet to experience one male pair bonded this way that proves incompetent! Similarly, I've never had one tear up a nest to get the hen to mate again; while I often witness well conditioned but not bonded males do so when left in the cage with the nested hen.
I suggest anyone who follows this method will achieve these results, and invite those who have not done this to try it and to keep good records of their observations then share their findings with their clubs and groups.
I'm not saying this is a better way to do things. I am saying it is a method that closely mimics Nature, conditions and how wild canaries most likely pair. Expediency, not enough stock, timing, and many other reasons may cause me to directly pair birds I want to reproduce. I try to have them well Conditioned.
Other important factors in achieving breeding success are Environment (mainly daylight length), climate, and several ‘trigger factors’ for which birds, and specifically canaries, are highly sensitive. But those are best examined separately, another time.
Hopefully you have enjoyed reading this and found some useful ideas. Thank you!
by Julio Valella
Dallas, Texas, USA
Copyright © June 2006
We're thrilled at the great response readers have been giving our latest edition of Robirda's book, Brats in Feathers, Keeping Canaries.
A recent customer says, "I'm just starting on your fabulous book Brats In Feathers and have learned a ton of things... I'm stunned at how much I have learned in so very few pages! I will devour the information in no time flat! Thanks again. I can't wait to get all the way through... It really is so very complete and informative!"
Another told us, "I ordered 'Canary Tales' by Linda Hogan last year... Although I fully recommend buying her book, I find Robirda's book much more complete, easier to read with less difficulty finding information."
Brats in Feathers is available in a cost-effective black and white format, or you can have us bind in a special full-colour insert, chock-full of fabulous canary photos. Learn more here.
Song CD
Table of Contents
Do you like to keep your canaries singing? Our CD of Robirda's canaries in full song stimulates pet canaries to sing more, and is a popular choice for many canary owners. But its potential uses don't end there! It can also help call more wild birds to your outdoor feeders, or help make your pet parrots more comfortable.
We get a great deal of positive comments from happy customers, so we're sure you'll be pleased. A recent customers tells us:
"Your CD is playing right now and my bird room is going crazy - in a good way! We have cockatiels, parrotlet, budgies and 2 canaries, and we want to assist the canaries with their song, which is why I purchased your CD. Years ago I had a CD for canaries but it had muzak in the background and was awfully annoying to listen to. With yours we can play it in the yard, in the house... wherever all day long and not get sick of it."
Find out more about our Canary Song CD, here!
For You & Your Birds, with Love
Table of
Contents
We rely on YOU to help keep this publication and its associated websites alive.If you find help you need in this ezine or on one of our websites, please consider joining our sponsors.
Read testimonials or find out more about becoming a sponsor. If you're looking for something different, check our home page for links to all our great products!
Our next issue is due Sunday, June 18th. We hope you and your birds stay safe, well and happy in the meantime, and we look forward to seeing you all then!
"Robirda's website, bird board and e-zine are invaluable tools for any birdlover."
"Everyone always asks me why my birds are such beautiful singers and breed such magnificent babies...I tell them that I learned from Robirda! While they give their birds all kinds of 'magical' formulas, I just follow your guide to 'keep it simple.' My birds are now very healthy, and there has been no recurrence of the infection. Thank Goodness!" R.C., Florida
home Back June 4, 2006, Issue 147 Next
Flock Talk Archives 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Dedicated to all those who try to help others on our journey to a better tomorrow.
Copyright © 1994-2008 by Robirda Online. All rights
reserved.
Home | Products | Articles | Basics | Breeding | Photos | Flock Talk | Questions | Contact | Personal | Privacy | Wings-Up Seal | Testimonials | Links | Map