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ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 158, © 2006
No reprints without permission.
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Canaries are photosensitive; that is, their bodies react to the changing length of days and their physical systems adjust in accordance to the season, breeding during the lengthening days of spring, moulting during high summer, when the days are still warm but gradually becoming shorter, and establishing their territories and developing their songs during the fall and the shorter days of winter.
Since this is the case, why then are there problems reported every year by canary breeders encountering...
by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © Nov 2006
Hearing of canaries attempting to breed unseasonally is nothing new; every year stories are told of canaries who continue to try to breed right through the summer months into fall, putting off their moult until sometime in the fall, or even well into the winter. Other stories tell of canaries who suddenly, for no apparent reason their owners can decipher, decide to try to begin breeding sometime during the fall or winter.
These attempts are often blamed on mismanaged lighting, and indeed, lighting (ie, the length of days the canaries are experiencing) is an important factor. Especially when the length of the day appears to be increasing, it's well known that almost any canary in good physical condition will begin trying to breed.
But what about those cases where the lighting has been managed properly and daylengths are decreasing, yet a male canary continues to feed and breed his mate, or a hen canary eagerly continues to make nests, lay eggs, and incubate them?
The fact is that canaries do not breed strictly by daylength alone. While length of day is of primary importance to the canary body as an indicator of season, several secondary seasonal indicators (or 'triggers') exist as well. In the natural world, these secondary indicators act in conjunction with the primary stimulus of lengthening days; together, they provide an unmistakeable signal to wild canaries of the arrival of spring, and breeding season.
While none of these secondary triggers act as strongly on the canary body as does photo-periodicity, still, they can have the effect, alone or in combination, of 'pushing' the canary to attempt (or continue to attempt) to breed, no matter what the lengths of the days are.
One of the most important of these secondary triggers, is the availability of water. This has strong significance to the canary's instincts in several ways. Plentiful water means easy access to water for bathing; and most canary breeders will acknowledge that free access to bathing can help to bring a canary (hens in particular, but also the males) into breeding condition.
In the wild, however, availability of plentiful water is also an unmistakeable indicator of the presence (or imminent arrival) of foods suitable for raising chicks; soft-bodied, high-protein insects, and soft, easy-to-eat, vitamin-loaded sprouting seeds, especially those of grasses and other similar plants.
Both the insects and the sprouting seeds are quite high in moisture as well as protein and other essential nutrients to raising chicks, and they generally can not be found unless the weather is damp enough to encourage their presence.
Thus, plentiful availability of water tells canary instincts that adequate food for raising chicks will be available soon, even if it is not available now. On the other hand, even if water is not plentiful, if the diet being provided to canaries is rich in protein, fats, and/or vitamins, particularly if some or all of these foods are softer or high in moisture, canary instincts will try to push the bird's body into breeding - NOW, before the supplies run out.
So, a plentiful water supply and a protein and/or fat-rich diet can act to trigger unseasonal breeding attempts no matter what the length of day the canary is experiencing - or, for that matter, can have the effect of pushing our canaries to put off their normal moult, in favour of continuing to breed.
Warmth is another secondary trigger which can help to encourage canaries to breed, but this particular stimulus appears to be of less importance than the availability of water and proper foods for rearing young; no matter how warm the weather, if protein-rich foods and a reliable supply of fresh water are not present, few if any attempts at breeding will be made.
The canary's response to these triggers is, in part at least, the result of the presence of an instinct to attempt to perpetuate the species whenever the opportunity arises. This instinct is very strong, and is present in most (and probably all) avian species living on our planet. After all, birds in the wild encounter heavy predation, and if their species is to be successful, they must raise enough babies each year so that, no matter how many youngsters (or adults) are lost, there will be enough individuals remaining to carry on and hopefully increase the overall species population.
In fact, many avian species pay little to no attention to the length of their days, intead keeping their breeding attempts for those times when the climatic conditions and available food supply will support producing and feeding youngsters. These species are known as 'opportunistic' - when they realize that conditions seem right to allow successful breeding, they will seize the opportunity and attempt to produce and raise young.
Species such as canaries, who react primarily to the changing length of their days, are known as 'photo-sensitive', but that doesn't mean that their instincts to perpetuate their species are any weaker! It simply means that these particular birds require more complex changes in their physical surroundings and diet, in order to convince them it's time for breeding.
This being the case, what's to be done with a canary (or canaries) who persist in attempting to breed unseasonally?
The first step in solving such a riddle requires a thorough understanding of the pressures environmental conditions will put on a canary, during the process of forcing it to make the attempt to breed. Once these 'breeding triggers' are thoroughly understood, it should no longer be difficult to discern which element or elements necessary to breeding are present.
Once this understanding has been arrived at, from there it will usually be a fairly simple step to determine just what changes will need to be made in the bird's lighting schedule, environs, or diet, in order to discourage further attempts at breeding, and to foster a return to balance with the season.
It's important to remember, during the process of achieving this balance, that any eggs laid should not be thrown away! This will simply encourage the hen to lay more. You might as well leave her a nest, too, since otherwise she will choose someplace else to lay her eggs; perhaps a seed cup, or a corner of the cage floor. Each position will make cage maintenance more of a chore for you, so leave her the nest - for now.
Meanwhile, continue to adjust the environment to reflect the end of breeding season by removing bathing water, and at the same time reducing or eliminating all soft foods, particularly any that are rich in proteins or fats.
At the same time, be sure to see that any egg-laying hens are given a nestful of the fake eggs sold by many suppliers of canary breeding accessories. These can't hatch or go bad, and the hen can proceed to incubate her 'eggs' to her heart's content. This will in turn help to make her less susceptible to succumbing to the urge to lay more eggs, which will assist in conserving her physical resources.
Those same physical resources will be very useful to her once she has stopped trying to use them to breeding unseasonally, whether assisting her to undergo her annual moult, or survive the winter with plenty of energy to spare when springtime, and breeding season, finally arrive for real.
Either way, you'll make life easier and better for both you and your canaries, and some day you may even be surprised to find yourself wondering why you ever thought that it was so difficult to keep your canaries from breeding unseasonally!
by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © Nov 2006
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Check out our bird-lover's products, in order of popularity!
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Song CD
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Do you like to keep your canaries singing? Encourage your canaries to sing more with our CD, featuring Robirda's canaries in full song. Or, use it to call more wild birds to your yard, or to make your pet parrots more comfortable in your home.
You'll get 12 16-bit true-stereo tracks, each averaging almost 5 minutes long, for a total of over 58 minutes of canary songs, with no distracting background music. We've even posted a short sample for you to listen to!
We receive many positive comments from happy customers, so we're sure you'll be pleased. One recent customer told 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.
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