Aussie Finch Forum

Been given 4 canaries & have them in a 3m x1.8m aviary, what could I plant that the canaries wont devour, they seem to eat/strip everything in sight

Plant some in pots and rotate or cover the plant in an "aviary wire" cylinder with a wire top on.
I use tagasaste and saltbush but there are plenty of varieties you can use. Green Panic is a good plant if covered. As the plants grow through the wire the birds pick at them.

And if you want something that can remain in the avairy for visual appeal, try bottlebrush, but start with something at least a metre high. So it has already started to toughen up.
LML

Had the canaries in another cage with a "tea tree" looking shrub & they almost stripped that before I moved them to this aviary, but it's bare of any plants. Maybe native grasses ??
Never had canaries before & I'm amazed at the amount of damage they can do to a plant, let alone the amount of food they consume.
Finches are more forgiving

I have the wife's "singing" canary cocks in with my finches. They are brilliant for teaching the finches to eat something new as they do seem to love anything I put in the aviaries.

Yes that's all they are good for but the parrot finches can do the same thing. The only plants that will survive canaries are real like plastic plants that are available in so many real like forms these days. Imo, house your canaries on their own and enjoy a nice planted aviary for your finches, in the breeding season your canary cocks will upset the harmony in your aviary with aggression to each other and possibly your finches. Craig

I’d start with something like bottle brush, But buy a pre developed plant so it has a head start. Just make sure it isn’t root bound. If you have a Bunnings near you that’s a good place to get one.

Have run a few canaries with the Finches for many a year and experienced none of the problems you mention Craig. The aviaries are 5m long so may give the birds room to move.
Have also found in some of my pure finch aviaries that many a plant has been destroyed quickly. Lost quite a few bookleaf conifers in an aviary with only 4 pairs zebs and another in a mixed aviary. They also destroyed a Bottlebrush. My large flight aviary has bamboo and a large tagasaste, ( watered from the overflow of drinkers that are automatically on 4 times a day from my bore) that I keep pruned within the aviary. These are continually being stripped (presumably for food and/or nesting material), but do manage to keep regrowing new leaves and stems.

I mix canaries and finches and have done almost all through the past 35+ years to some extent. Posatives and negatives. But agression has never been a problem, possibly due to always trying to keep even sexs.
LML