Adopting Canaries

[dunker817]

Hi all. It's been a while since I visited the forum. All is well with all my birds. I am in an interesting situation. There is a lady with four canaries, two males and two females, who is no longer able to care for her birds and needs to rehome them. I have a large bird room with two canaries in it, one male and and female. The room is 10x11. Is it possible to adopt the canaries and house them in the same room with my own canaries or would the males fight? If I took only the females would the females all get along? I'm willing to adopt all or part if a safe for all is possible.

Thanks,

Layne

[Dave]

I don't think it matters how large the room is, the males will fight. The intensity will increase the closer you get to breeding season. I've seen that in my own walk-in aviary. I took out the extra male canary and housed him in a separate cage, elsewhere in the house.

The females may squabble a bit but maybe not even that. They should be OK together.

Also, at least in my aviary, the male doesn't sing much if he is with a female. The singing is to attract a mate and to establish a territory. Once he has both, he'll probably not sing much.

[Sheather]

We had three adult males for a while, all of which got along. Seperate cages should be totally fine, allowing the different males time out at differen times. They might posture through the cages but won't hurt each other. Or, you might find as I did they don't mind one another at all.
Some breeds of canary are more aggressive than others. My purebred American singer males were more aggressive than my male "kitchen canaries" and red factor.

I have always kept my males with hens year round, and the males sing. It's just not constant, as in a solitary male, but throughout the day.

[lovezebs]

dunker817

Hi Layne,

Good to hear from you again.

The only thing you can do, is try. I house male Canaries in a large flight, and although they might occasionally have words, it's nothing horrible. However, they are related.

You could place the new kids in cages initially, which is a good idea anyway (quarantine new birds).

For the better part of the year there shouldn't be any problems. At breeding time, you may need to seperate them if they get too miserable.

[mick1933]

Hi Layne. I think it depends on the canaries. I have 8 Fyfe canaries in my aviary, 4 hens and 4 cocks and they get along fine. The hens are starting to carry nesting material around with them so I expect them to start breeding shortly so if they are going to fight they should be starting fighting by now. From my experience birds are just like people some are violent and some are placid. The same goes for birds some are violent and some aren't. If I have a violent bird I get rid of it otherwise you run the risk of breeding violent offspring. Just my experience over the years. Regards Mick.

[dunker817]

Thanks everyone for your advice. If I adopted the canaries and they didn't get along, I would feel terrible if one got injured. So I have decided not to adopt them. My canaries are Spanish Tembrados so I don't know if they are an aggressive species or not. The bird mart is next week and I can ask their breeder more about their behavior.

Layne