Father and Son Canaries challenging each other?

[Adam21]

We have 9 Canary's total, they have been getting along fine in two cages opened up to each other. One of the baby boys who's around 6 months old now or a little more that is a carbon copy of his Dad has been fighting with his father or his father fighting with him in the past couple days. The son sounds like his Dad in every aspect and sings like him too. He's probably the best singer out of the Baby's. Lately him and the father have been chasing each other and almost hurting each other. I separated the father first and he went crazy because he wanted to be with his wife. I now separated the boy and he's doing the same thing his father is doing, flying all over and chirping. I don't know what this means, does he want to be back with his family or does he have a mate there, because they are all siblings and I hope it's just that he wants to be back with this family.

Anyway when I keep them together half of the time they sit on opposite perches in the cages opposite to each other and fly to wherever the other flies to staring each other down and poking their beaks through the cages at each other. Is his father teaching him to be dominant in the wild and this is natural and will wear off or are they challenging each other over the territory? Will this stop? Because I don't like separating them and plan on getting a flight cage for all of them. It's only him and his father disrupting the peace. :/

I have also put a mirror in the last couple days as a fun toy, and I wonder if this has anything to do with it? Before they would only fight at night over their sleeping spot and everything else was relatively normal.

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[Adam21]

I separated them and just caught the boy trying to mate with his mother it appears, not sure what is going on but I put the mother back with the father and one other child canary. And going to keep it that way.

PS: Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

[finchly]

Hello, I am glad you separated them. Male canaries can possibly kill each other. Best to keep males separate.

Just FYI.... You may read that you should not have males with hens when rearing chicks. My males have proven to be good parents, maybe more attentive than the hens. So I leave them together.

 

[Adam21]

Now the mother and little daughter are fighting in the same way, lol, I had to separate them too. They are still following each other even while being separated in different cages. I also had to separate two sisters who were not getting along. I guess these birds are very territorial. The mom likes to fly across the two perches at the end of the wide cage and she likes to play in her own way. The little daughter must have been copying her or taking over her hobby so now they don't get along. Oh well, lol.

The son now pretty much believes he owns the other cage and if I let the father in he starts throwing a fit. So I wonder how this would work if I got a flight cage , which is I want to do ....

 

[finchly]

I have 4 in a flight and they bicker. Do you have multiple perches and feed stations? Do you have toys, swings, or fake plants in there to help them feel separate when they need to? All of this has a lot to do with the fighting.

Also do they get out of cage time. Flying around can help them burn up some of that energy.

 

[Adam21]

I have 4 in a flight and they bicker. Do you have multiple perches and feed stations? Do you have toys, swings, or fake plants in there to help them feel separate when they need to? All of this has a lot to do with the fighting.

Also do they get out of cage time. Flying around can help them burn up some of that energy.

I have 9 total, put 4 in one cage and 5 in another. I have a mirror for each cage which they like a lot and several other toys. I put two wooden perches on each end of the cage so fly they can fly across and get some exercise. If a flight cage could enable to live together peacefully I will consider it, but would need to add some toys and larger perches. The issue is the son is claiming the other cage as his territory basically. And now he is feeding one of the daughter canaries, so it seems like they will become a couple soon. It was pretty funny the mother canary was staring at them from the other cage while he was feeding her. They are fine now with this current 'rotation', lol. No fighting at least.

 

[finchly]

I probably wouldn’t breed them - if you are saying they’re related. Also canaries are generally not bred until they are over 1 year old.

Not saying it’s never done, but it helps them health wise to wait. Canaries that have been breeders only live 5 yr on average; those that are pets tend to live 8-10 years.

 

[Adam21]

I probably wouldn’t breed them - if you are saying they’re related. Also canaries are generally not bred until they are over 1 year old.

Not saying it’s never done, but it helps them health wise to wait. Canaries that have been breeders only live 5 yr on average; those that are pets tend to live 8-10 years.

I'm not breeding them, originally only had one canary and he was lonely so we got him a girl. They had two clutches and I threw out the nest since. We don't want anymore babies and we are keeping them as pets of course. Family friends have asked my parents to take one of them as a pet and I've refused, want to keep the family together.

The issue now is the one of the boys and one of the girls are a couple now. There are no eggs so far and I'm not giving them a nest. Not sure to prevent him from trying to mate with her. They haven't so far I believe, but he has been chasing her around a bit and feeding her which are signs that they are trying to mate. Either way I'll throw out the eggs, can't sustain more than 9 canaries, that's plenty.

 

[Adam21]

So the boys were doing fine together in two cages opened up to each other. Yesterday they began fighting over one of the girls. So now I had to separate them and they keep making this annoying whiney noise even while separated. One of them is very frustrated and wants the girl. He won't bother with one of the other girls in the same clutch, poor girl is being ignored. And the Dad in the separate cage thinks the boy is throwing a fit at him so he starts making the same noise in his own cage and they're trying to poke each other with their beaks from each cage. It's funny but obnoxious. Hopefully he gets along with the one girl and they all quiet down.

 

[finchly]

Can they see each other? Block their line of sight.

 

[Adam21]

Can they see each other? Block their line of sight.

Yes they can, although seems like he has calmed down and is trying to make mends with the girl that wasn't getting attention, lol. I put them on a table but sometimes move the father and mom to another table if needed. Thankfully everything is working out now, Canaries can be a handful sometimes but for most part are easy going birds.