Canary feeding - what do people use?

[Nipper06]

I am a new Canary owner - just wondering what people feed their canaries? Mine is getting an ABBA Canary (seed) mix right now. I plan to possibly incorporate some pellets into his diet too - but I am not in favor of an all-pellet diet.

I've also been giving him mixed "baby greens" (pre-washed salad mix) a few times a week. I put a millet spray in his cage but he mostly doesn't eat it. I hand-feed him occasional hemp seeds and hard-boiled egg pieces, as treats (to tame him) - he LOVES those and takes them from my fingers - but I understand those are rich foods so I limit them to small amounts.

He seems happy - he is "singing up a storm!"

[Sheather]

Your diet sounds good.
Canaries can eat greens on a daily basis and a lot with no issue. I've had canaries eat basically entire dishes of salad by themselves on a daily basis for more than a year and they were in excellent health and never had watery stools or any problems from it. They eat a very large amount of fresh plant matter in nature - and happily take in 10 times more than the exotic finches in captivity at least. They also seem to happily eat a lot more egg than other finches; it seems in general they need less seed and more fresh food to do really well compared to them. I've never had one that liked any sort of insect food though. They usually love fruit, apples being the ultimate favorite, but also grapes. Broccoli is always a big hit too.

Abba is a fantastic mix and what I'm feeding my guy now. I'm also weaning him onto Roudybush pellets though, which is the bulk of all of my birds diets at this time. I'm trying to phase out seeds in the cage completely and offer them only during free-flight to limit the terrible mess they make, and so far he's the only bird who's really not that into the pellet food. My past canaries took to it readily but he's a bit more picky. Right now he'll take it if it's moistened or mixed with egg so I'm looking to gradually offer it less and less altered and hoping he'll eventually become fond of it like my other birds.

Cage-raised canaries are great at returning to their cage to roost and so are generally trustworthy to let fly out of cage and not be too hard to get back in. Mine loves to do so but always comes back home when he's had enough excitement.

[Gouldiandave]

Your diet sounds grand, one of the best foods u can give any bird is tawed out frozen peas, if hes not used to them it might take him a while, but once he does he will devour them

[Nipper06]

So far, my Canary does not "inhale" greens the way my Budgie does. The Canary just nibbles them but I will keep offering them. I know my Budgie was given an excellent diet by his previous owner but I don't know how much greens my Canary got from the breeder who sold him to me.

I did give my Canary (thawed) frozen green peas once - I'm not sure he ate them - but I will try again. My Budgie loves them so I guess I will make enough for the Canary too.

[lovezebs]

Nipper06 & Sheather & Gouldiandave

This is actually quite interesting.
My two Budgies hardly touch any vegetables or fruit at all, even though I offer them daily.
My Canaries, and all the other kids, just about eat me out of house and home, when it comes to veggies (not cooked, raw) and fruits.

Everyone loves LOVES my homemade egg mix , which includes crumbled spray millet and pulverized freeze dried mealworms.

None of my kids will eat pellets.

[Sheather]

lovezebs Nipper06

My budgies are also big veggie-munchers - usually. They're ravenous over romaine and broccoli, they nibble everything else.

[lovezebs]

Sheather

I wonder why my two Budgies don't care for veggies then (?)
I've tried a large variety, and no interest really.

Freeby, will nibble a bit, but I've never seen Opie, touch any of it. Most of what I offer, just wilts and gets tossed.

[Nipper06]

Maybe birds eat veggies if introduced early or maybe it's just "personal preference"? (some like them, some don't).

The former owner of my Budgie came to visit a few weeks ago and mentioned that he likes celery. She brought him a stick of celery too. He ATE the whole 12-inch celery stick in 2 days... it was just completely GONE! I would have never known he would eat celery at all, if she hadn't told me. Yet my 2 Bourke Parakeets just nibble a little on veggies, like my new Canary... a few bites and they are done!



But birds can learn too. My flock of Gouldians were not big greens eaters at first... but now I can put in a whole hand full of greens and it's completely GONE in a few hours!

[paul-inAZ]

I'm new to canaries and have been impressed with their voracious appetites for greens. I give them whatever is handy from my 'frig. -lettuce, broccoli etc. A favorite seems to be baby bok choy which I also happen to like and get inexpensively from a local Chinese supermarket.

Their staple is a canary mix I get from a bulk bin at a farm feed store.

My Bourkes hardly touch greens.

[Nipper06]

I'll have to try Bok Choy for my birds too. I'm sure the dark green leaves are nutritious.

[Malti]

My birds get offered lettuce (not iceberg), apple, peas, broccoli, pumpkin on different days and eggfood everyday. I also tend to use seasonal veggies - atm its spinach.

I also found that birds can be thought by others to eat greens - got a new pair of canaries who didn't touch what I offered so I put them in a split cage with one of mine - soon they started mimicking him and eating regularly.