Male vs Female Vents

[FrogsGoMoo]

We recently adopted a "male" Canary last weekend to potentially breed with our female (she keeps laying eggs and brooding all day) and we haven't heard him sing yet, so we haven't exactly 100% confirmed if he's actually a male yet. We checked their vents and I can clearly tell a difference between the 2, but I'm not entirely confident about what I'm seeing.

"Male":

http://imgur.com/Q4Lrwh6

Female:

http://imgur.com/tyPML97

For some reason, Imgur wouldn't let me upload the female video, so I just used a screenshot of the video instead since it still gets the point across.

But I can clearly see the blad spot on the female for brooding purposes, and the male is completely covered and has a piece sticking out from the vent area. Is this the indicator for a male?

Thank you.

 

[.........]

I can't help you with a lot of your questions about the vent way of telling, but maybe @finchly can
Where was he bought from? Did they tell you how they knew he was a 'male' ? If the place you bought him from was a pet store or sketchy person they may be lying as most people only want males because they sing
This often depends on the particular bird, but one week is still pretty in the settling in phase which if he is tense then I doubt he will sing even if he is a male

 

[finchly]

He looks like a male. Is he over 9 months old? Play some canary songs on YouTube and see if he sings.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

I can't help you with a lot of your questions about the vent way of telling, but maybe @finchly can
Where was he bought from? Did they tell you how they knew he was a 'male' ? If the place you bought him from was a pet store or sketchy person they may be lying as most people only want males because they sing
This often depends on the particular bird, but one week is still pretty in the settling in phase which if he is tense then I doubt he will sing even if he is a male

He was bought off of Craiglist. The only indication she stated that he was a male as she exclaimed how "erect" he looked. Which kinda makes me question the validity of her claim. But yeah I'm not expecting him to sing yet. One of my Societies didn't sing for almost a month after I got him, and now he sings constantly.

He looks like a male. Is he over 9 months old? Play some canary songs on YouTube and see if he sings.

The previous owner claims he's a year and a half. I've tried a few times playing Canary songs for him and nothing so far. I'm going to try again this weekend and possibly let it play for a few hours and hopefully, that helps him with some encouragement.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

So my female Canary started laying a 3 brood of eggs this week (gonna remove the nest after she done with these since I'm afraid it might physically hurt her if she lays a 4th considering she laid 12 eggs in a 6 week period), and I've caught the new Canary brooding on the eggs while she leaves the nest to get food. I'm not sure if he/she is actually fully sitting on them since he/she is very skittish with us and the moment he/she spots me, they immediately leave the nest and jump around the cage, but I'm assuming they're taking over egg duties for her while she leaves. Which is great and all, but I'm going to assume this puts a damper on the possibility of the new Canary being a male. Am I correct in this assumption? Cause from my understanding usually only females sit on the nest. Plus they haven't sung yet but we've only had them for 2 weeks now so I'm thinking it's too soon to call it.

 

[finchly]

If it’s the male, it is probably feeding the hen. Have you seen any of. That? When I have 2 hens together, they do share nest duties. I don’t recall male canaries sitting on the nest.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

If it’s the male, it is probably feeding the hen. Have you seen any of. That? When I have 2 hens together, they do share nest duties. I don’t recall male canaries sitting on the nest.

I've never seen them feed her, they hardly ever interact, which adds to my theory of them not being a pair and the new Canary being a female. It just adds up too well. But I caught her sharing nesting duties again about an hour ago, and she full-blown sits in the nest just like the nesting Canary does. It seems like she knows what she's doing, so it's pretty odd the previous owner claimed to have them for a year and a half and for it to be a male, because her behaviors seem to me like she knows what she's doing. It could just be natural instinct that I'm seeing, but either way, I feel like we have 2 hens on our hands!

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Okay, well, so an egg hatched today. Not sure if our last Canary who unfortunately died the night before we got our new Canary is the daddy, or the new one. The timing seems kinda quick considering she laid her first egg 4 days after they were put in the same cage, and the new one acts like a hen with helping to incubate the eggs, and hasn't sung. Yet, our old Canary didn't sing either. So I'm a whole mess of confused but happy right now!

\

If anyone has any advice I'd greatly appreciate it. We were expecting another batch of infertile eggs so when I took a peek at her nest today and saw the baby bird, I thought it was just a clump of feathers and was confused why an egg was missing until it moved. I really want to make sure this baby stays alive especially if it is our old Canary's baby.

 

[finchly]

They’re ok for the first 24 hours not fed, but then be sure she feeds it! Sometimes new moms won’t.

Keep egg food (dry) in there for her at all times to feed the baby.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

They’re ok for the first 24 hours not fed, but then be sure she feeds it! Sometimes new moms won’t.

Keep egg food (dry) in there for her at all times to feed the baby.

She's feeding it thankfully. Have a webcam set up so I can monitor it while I work. But she's constantly feeding it which is great. And so use dry egg food from the store, not a hard boiled egg?

 

[finchly]

There’s a thread where we’re just now discussing this Two Nests

Yes, I put in dry egg food (so it doesn’t spoil). I also am mixing boiled egg with the dry sometimes. @Fife3000 is trying it without the boiled egg.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

There’s a thread where we’re just now discussing this Two Nests

Yes, I put in dry egg food (so it doesn’t spoil). I also am mixing boiled egg with the dry sometimes. @Fife3000 is trying it without the boiled egg.

Yeah I've been reading up on that thread and keeping up on it. But just saw your post about it, thanks as always for your advice!

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Well, after 46 days, Paprika finally sung for us!

http://imgur.com/S90cFwS

I walked into my office after hearing all my finches freaking out, so was worried about a bird escaping, and turns out Paprika decided to finally sing! Brown Sugar was chirping for him, so I guess he decided to start singing. It's honestly adorable how "inconfident" he is. It seems like he either hasn't sung in a long time, or is still learning. Curious if previous owners would spray him with water or something whenever he would sing. Would certainly explain his lack of singing, lack of singing ability, and why he's so finicky with us.