FINCHforum

I have 3 canary hens that are now supposed to be resting and going into moult. It took forever for them to stop laying the random infertile eggs after they were separated from their mates. Now they are fussing at each other, mounting each other and going through the complete act , and singing voraciously!

Did not experience this last year so it is new behavior. I have 3 hens singing almost as well as the males. For an inexperienced person, they would never know they were females singing! Anyone else experience this type of behavior???/

Have you cut back on or eliminated the eggfood, the leafy green veggies and the sprouts? Have they begun to moult? I would only offer carrots, kale cabbage and sweet potato and eliminate all other "springlike" veggies for a while. The hens still seem like they are in breeding mode, but that should come to an end with the shortening days. Bob

Thanks for the suggestions Bob. The main problem is with 2 hens at the moment....believe it or not a mother and daughter! I put them in the "convent cage" so they would stop laying the infrequent infertile eggs. I thought it would take their mind off of mating to be in with other young hens. They spend the entire day staring each other down, trying to mate with each other , and the occasional bickering along with voracious singing.

Since they are in with other young hens, there is alot of moulting going on and they have also started moulting but it has not deterred their wanting to mate with each other. I give everyone broccoli, leafy lettuce, celery, apple, mango, and oranges at different times obviously. They usually get one veggie and one fruit choice a day. Two or three times a week everyone moulting gets hard boiled egg too. I have tried the carrot and sweet potato but none of my canaries will eat them. Honestly I have not seen anything like these two hens! I just wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this type of crazy behavior with their hens.

Thanks for your input and advice.

The only time I've had "issues" with canaries laying or moulting out of season, (basically no rhyme or reason to anything thay did) was prior to someone setting me srtaight as to their seasonal requirements regarding diet and light. My first year with canaries was a mess - total chaos. Pretty smoothe sailing ever since. Bob

Hi there,

Canaries ARE very crazy with the mating season! I have an 11 yr old Male canary, Kevin, who never stops trying to mate with the other finches during spring (I have a star finch and zebra finch). He gets extremely frustrated , as I won't let him near them at this time, and ends up mounting the tops of the cage!

This sounds fairly normal behavior comparatively. Perhaps all canaries get a bit wound up at "that time of year".

Thank goodness everyone has calmed down and are now in full moult mode. Here in Mexico moulting goes from July until October at times. Thanks for the post replies.