feeding canarys

[amalan11]

I have just got 2 pairs of Roller Canarys and am wondering if anyone has these type what seeds do you feed them in what qtys ? I was reading an article that sugests half canary half rape seed .Im wondering if thats a bit rich I feed my current standard fyfes on a mix of about 40% each budgie/canary 7% each rape /niger/poppy ..although they only eat the budgie when all the rest is gone they seem healthy.
Oh and of course they get fresh green seed/corn /pear/apple and cucumber a few times a week

[west finch]

Last breeding season I dropped the finch mix from my canaries diet and used canary and canola seed + greens + new home made soft food and managed to breed 110 young Glosters . So I guess it worked

[Craig52]

I have just got 2 pairs of Roller Canarys and am wondering if anyone has these type what seeds do you feed them in what qtys ? I was reading an article that sugests half canary half rape seed .Im wondering if thats a bit rich I feed my current standard fyfes on a mix of about 40% each budgie/canary 7% each rape /niger/poppy ..although they only eat the budgie when all the rest is gone they seem healthy.
Oh and of course they get fresh green seed/corn /pear/apple and cucumber a few times a week

amalan11, Stick to what you are feeding now,its is pretty much perfect except for the rape seed.You dont need to feed rape if you are feeding niger. Craig

[amalan11]

ok thats re asuring..I dont think iv ever seen Canola seed,I will ask around ..Id liketo try it if westfinch had such success ! gosh thats amazing 110 chicks .
I get such differing oppinions as to what to feed them and when .I suspect they would be happy to live on gunea grass seed if They could have it ,unfortunatly the season for it is nearly over so im looking for healthy alternitaves

[VR1Ton]

Canola is rape. When I was breeding Red Factors, I used, 4 parts canary seed to 1 part finch mix as the standard diet, when breeding & moulting, I would also give black seed, 2 parts niger, 1 part rape, 1 part maw(poppy), & 1 part linseed. Each pair got about a teaspoon of this along with hard boild egg with egg & biscuit, & what ever greens I could get my hands on, particularly found of Comfry, & milk thistles. I would use a 10 ltr bucket of thistes in about 3 days for 8 pr of canaries, & bred about 80 a season. The thistles were placed in a glass fruit juice bottle, in water & a bottle full would last about a day when rearing chicks.

[amalan11]

..oh had no idea ,solves going and asking in a shop at least! thanks lol
I have masses of milk thistle growing and will try them on it ..cant recal giving the Canarys that.Just googled Comfry and have never seen it before will see if I can get some and grow it for them.

[Canary]

I agree with all the above feeding comments.

Comfrey is hard to get, unless you grow your own.

I feed my canaries buck choy or pak choy which is readily available in most fruit & vege shops and the major supermarkets.

The other green that I get is chickweed and the birds love that more than any other green feed.

[Redwing]

west finch, are you willing to share your soft food recipe? Always on the lookout for good tips.

[djb78]

Amalan11 I do a similar mix to what you us, a mix of millets Canary red panicum and canola all mixed with equal portion except the canola which is half portion. I haven't seen many of my finches eat Niger except for the siskins. Milk Thistle (sow Thistle) are eaten madly and any other greens also, egg food and fruits are also good as what you have stated. Not much to say about the rollers except that they have a nice song. Treat them like any other Canary with food and water and breeding no real difference between them and boarders ECT. Good luck.

[VinceS]

I have been searching looking for what regime works well for feeding greens, plus I had been wondering if the voracious appetite of my canaries for greens is normal. From this thread it sure seems it is! I had canaries before, both aviary and breeding cages and I remember they loved milk thistle and dandelion so was always throwing it in, but I don't remember seeing the kind of Demolition Derby routine that just three rollers are doing now in my month old cage!

At first I thought it amusing, every bit of green hanging above perches was machined off at canary reach height. Then they would go round and attack plant by plant until it was just a stick. I joked "It seems the primary job of those steppable plants we put in the aviary last weekend was ............to be delicious!!!"

So two weeks ago I got serious. Bunnings kitted me out with four 600mm rectangular pots and organic soil plus about 60 lettuce seedlings around 10cm high, the open leaf type with a few varieties. The idea was to leave a tray in for a week and let it recover for 3 so a nice steady supply of greens was available for not much trouble. After a week I gave them a tray, typically 150mm - 200mm leaves in it. By the end of the day it was stumps and loose leaf bits. OK, gave them a couple of days off and then slipped the next bigger tray in, took them nearly a day and a half to splat that lot, not sure if what is left has any chance to recover! I am holding the others back until they look more like a forest of lettuce before trying that again....

Yesterday put a full leafy style lettuce from the supermarket, it came with roots so I guess grown hydroponically - it was about a 300mm circle. I planted it, mostly for support, and it was a dribbly mess by mid afternoon! What are these birds thinking???????? Well obviously it is OK by them, they look extremely healthy and the one male is really finding his voice now. It was supposed to be 2 males, one female and I was going to pick up another female but lucky I didn't as it seems I have two already!

Its all good, but I am just wondering if anybody has cracked a regime that works practically to provide greens at something that represents the rate our feathered friends want them? And I am struggling with just three, what are their kids gunna be like

As a by the way one of the great chores with canary keeping was the daily (supposed to be bi-daily) egg and biscuit production. I always used to do this with, um - eggs and biscuit, funnily enough! When I was at the Gunnedah sale I got chatting to the Vetafarm bloke (was it Mark?) and he really knew his stuff. A surprise for me was that they have a new formula "Superior Egg & Biscuit Formula" and he categorically assured me that their tests are clear this stuff is much better than their old formula (whatever that was) and the real deal. So now we can just sprinkle it out of a packet, well that's a real chore gone thankfully! I give them a bowl of it in the seed box and it certainly seems to be popular. The aviary has about 30 finches, a coupla quail and the Demolition-squad canaries, but I don't know who's eating what exactly. The canary mix hopper drains three times as fast as the finch mix, surely 3 canaries ain't doing that so it must be popular. Might switch over to just canary mix when the other runs out.