Any one here own canaries?

[Jenny_RS]

I just got a pair of canaries last week. the female is a year and 2 months old, and the male is 4 months old. they get along okay, but sometimes they bicker and the male gets really aggressive. now, he hasn't hurt her, and sometimes she get's "fed up" and does to him what he does to her which is what i call the beak and wing dance lol they just open their beaks to each other and strech out their wings. like i said, no one has gotten hurt, but the last time i had canaries the female plucked literally all of the feathers off of the males head (for what reason i don't know). Anywho, my canaries just seem to be having disputes sometimes, and I just don't want either of my birds to get injured. I have put in 2 different food cups so that each bird eats as the male is more dominant and sometimes prevents my female from eating. any suggestions?

[Joey]

Well I was going to get a canary a few months ago but decided not to...arent they agrresive towards each other?I think I read that when there is a male and a female the male can kill the female by being overley agrresive so you are supposed to put each bird in a separate cage and they do some kind of signal that they are ready to mate...not sure though..Ill go look some stuff up right now.

[Joey]

I found this:
"You can sometimes allow more than one canary to share a flight cage for part of the year - but never can you keep a group of canaries in the same cage, no matter how large it is, for the full year! If you want them to share a flight, fine - but you will still need to have *at least!* one cage available for each and every bird you have, as somewhere along the line, you will need to use it to separate them!"

"It can be confusing, because canaries are photo-sensitive birds, and thier personality will change according to the season - so birds who get along just fine during the summer, or in the early fall, will be seriously trying to kill each other, if they are kept together during breeding season... (late winter, spring)

"If you want to have more than one bird in a cage year-round, you will be far better off to get birds from a more social species, like budgies or zebra finches...

"Canaries (and most other species which sing pleasant songs) are not social, they are territorial, and one male will try to claim the entire inside of a cage, no matter how big it is! If you have other males in there, they will be constantly trying to challenge that - and sooner or later, somebody will die, indirectly through starvation and harrassment, or outright through fighting, and being killed directly - which way it actually happens depends on the personality of the birds involved...

So I did remeber something..lol:)

[Jenny_RS]

thanks, i will take it into consideration. i know my dad wants to keep them together but if things do get out of hand between them then i will have to seperate them... unfortunately.

[Joey]

Well not for ever only for the season or whatever is in that paragraph.Place them together when it comes breeding time..I guess it is sad though how birds cant live with thier own species!:(

[Tiki<3Polly]

well i used to have to canaries that had babies....but the female died and we dont know why

[Joey]

Did you get to raise the babies?Are canaries harder to raise than budgies?

[Tiki<3Polly]

well no because the male ate the babies! but i heard that it is harder to breed them because u have to raise the chicks urself , u have to take every egg they lay out , and put in dummy eggs and then raisde them

[Joey]

wow really!How?In an incubator?:eek:

[Tiki<3Polly]

ya u do:) :) :)