Housing canaries together

[fluff86]

I am building another birdcage for my bedroom and I would like to house several male canaries together a group of 3 or 4 males but I keep coming across conflicting information that canaries will fight in small groups but its better to have larger groups of them together.

I don't want to have too many in one cage 4 would be the maximum... otherwise I would need to rethink my plans.

Can I house four male canaries together?

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[fluff86]

I think I might be getting ignored. I'll just have to find out for myself.

 

[MnGuy]

It's probably more that no one has experience with this and therefore, cannot share any insights.

 

[Sarahmoluccan]

It's probably more that no one has experience with this and therefore, cannot share any insights.

I agree! The majority of us here owned parrots thou there are people who own different of types of birds too. Its possible they haven't seen this post or couldn't offer any insight.

I'm afraid I not have any experience with canaries or housing birds in the same cage. So I can only give very generic advice. Like making sure the sizing of the cage in big enough to house 4 canaries. I would assume it would be okay given the right setup and the canaries get along together. But this isn't in my wheelhouse so that's very much a guess.

 

[fluff86]

No worries Thanks for the replies.

What I think I will have to do is, put the cages together and just see how they respond to one another and if all is well then I could give it a trail run, or build a large cage with dividers.

 

[Shezbug]

I think I might be getting ignored. I'll just have to find out for myself.

You will not be getting ignored.
Members (hopefully) won't advise if they do not know the answers... most here are parrot owners, our finch and canary people do not seem to log in as much anymore as the parrot members do. Better to have no replies than incorrect ones.
I can think of a few members who were great with this sort of info but none of them have logged in here for a very long time unfortunately.

 

[fluff86]

You will not be getting ignored.
Members (hopefully) won't advise if they do not know the answers... most here are parrot owners, our finch and canary people do not seem to log in as much anymore as the parrot members do. Better to have no replies than incorrect ones.
I can think of a few members who were great with this sort of info but none of them have logged in here for a very long time unfortunately.

It seems to be the way on many forums now days of all kinds of subjects where all the old experts have gone, although there are still a lot of young canary/finch breeders on youtube but many aren't on forums anymore.

 

[Sparkles99]

That’s too bad. I really like canaries. Let us know how things go, if you decide to try something.

 

[fluff86]

I decided to put two canaries together, they both have genital personalities and so far so good. They even ate some broccoli together... fingers crossed. I've been monitoring them for a good few hours and there hasn't been any fighting.

 

[Emma&pico]

I decided to put two canaries together, they both have genital personalities and so far so good. They even ate some broccoli together... fingers crossed. I've been monitoring them for a good few hours and there hasn't been any fighting.

Glad two are getting on I don’t know anything about canary or flinches but just wanted to say I enjoy your post about them and would love pictures

 

[fluff86]

I will add some photos soon I'll try take some at some point today.

The two canaries living together are getting along well... I guess its all about selecting the right birds to match because some can be very aggressive towards one another and territorial. These two canaries both have genital personalities so I think I've matched those well.

I'm working on a new type of egg food for my birds, what I have discovered that if the food is slightly too wet, slimy or soggy in any way even if its just slightly soggy the birds wont touch it but if its the right consistency like bread crumbs then they eat it. It contains a tiny bit of carrot, kale, spinach, celery, turmeric, a tiny piece of garlic, dried insects, scrambled egg, and couscous. It all goes into a food processor and gets mixed up. They ate a nice amount of it yesterday so hopefully they'll get some more nutrition.

The turmeric I find helps with fighting any infections and the garlic helps with cleaning out there gut and generally keeps them in good health. I have started scrambling the egg now as they seem to enjoying more than the boiled egg. They never eat any of the egg shell, I can never grind it up fine enough so I just provide them with calcium powder supplement instead.

 

[fluff86]

Here are some photos, they are not the best of photos its very hard to keep the camera focused...

 

[Shezbug]

I think you need to be very careful offering foods with garlic- it is a blood thinner and has been known to cause anemia in birds so it is generally recommended to stay away from it.

 

[fluff86]

I think you need to be very careful offering foods with garlic- it is a blood thinner and has been known to cause anemia in birds so it is generally recommended to stay away from it.

I was thinking the same earlier and its better to be safe than sorry. I'll leave out the garlic.

 

[WillowQ]

I did not see your post before; I wasn’t ignoring you.

I have had canaries in the same aviary cage as finches with no violence; several birds in one very large cage. I assume that if it’s a big enough cage, each male or aggressive softbill can have a territory and stay away from the others. I always keep multiple foods and waters available and multiple high perches and nests if applicable, so stress about resources will be reduced.

Nobody was getting plucked or beaten up and I didn’t see any squabbles.

you can find formulas online for calculating number of birds to square inches or square feet of a cage. I don’t know them off the top of my head. But it looks to me like your birds are kept in quite a large cage or aviary. So I would think that housing them together might be ok. I would watch for birds getting plucked or chased or beaten up.

 

[fluff86]

I did not see your post before; I wasn’t ignoring you.

I have had canaries in the same aviary cage as finches with no violence; several birds in one very large cage. I assume that if it’s a big enough cage, each male or aggressive softbill can have a territory and stay away from the others. I always keep multiple foods and waters available and multiple high perches and nests if applicable, so stress about resources will be reduced.

Nobody was getting plucked or beaten up and I didn’t see any squabbles.

you can find formulas online for calculating number of birds to square inches or square feet of a cage. I don’t know them off the top of my head. But it looks to me like your birds are kept in quite a large cage or aviary. So I would think that housing them together might be ok. I would watch for birds getting plucked or chased or beaten up.

I think the issue I had was, I only had one hen and the other males were fighting over her... I then removed the males leaving just the hen and one male in the aviary but what I should have done was to leave just the males in the aviary and put the hen with one male into a separate cage.

 

[fluff86]

When breeding season comes along I'll put the hen and her partner into a separate cage and put all the males into the aviary.

 

[WillowQ]

That sounds exactly right. Put the hen with the cock she prefers, or the best choice if you want babies, and remove the pair from the community.

 

[fluff86]

I got some sad news... one of the male canaries had got into a squabble today. It was singing away nicely this morning but an hour later it was on the aviary floor all wet, I'm assuming one of the other male canaries had beaten him up while they were having a bath in the large water dish. Its having difficulty flying, its feathers are now dry with one wing ever so slightly pointing downwards. I'm really saddened by this. I've removed the canary and put him into his own cage, I'm hoping he wont die and I'll put him in the warm bathroom tonight. He hasn't eaten or drank anything since. I'm really hoping he recovers. If he does recover he will remain as a lone bird in his own cage.