Cardboard box nest

[Flight Feathers]

So I have made my canaries an open cardboard box nest. I am guessing this should be okay for them to raise babies in? They had already built another nest and the female was sitting in it but I destroyed that nest and have put them in a smaller breeding cage with the cardboard box nest instead.

[Dave]

The box shouldn't be more than 4" on each side, and about 3" deep. Watch that the eggs / chicks aren't on bare cardboard. If that is is case, make a nest for her. If the chicks are on bare cardboard, they won't be able to get a purchase on it with their feet and their legs won't develop properly. (They'll get splay leg).

I've used boxes, the lower few inches of a 2 liter soda bottle, or the lower few inches of a .5 gallon milk jug. Anything will work, it just has to hold the nesting material.

If the nest is full of material to the top edge, take some of it out. There should be a depression in the nest so the eggs stay together. Otherwise she'll drag an egg / chick out when she leaves the nest.

[Flight Feathers]

Okay thank you very much! There is hay in there but she always moves it so that you can see bare ground where the eggs are laid. How can I prevent this? Also she is sitting in her nest now so she obviously likes it which is good!

[Icearstorm]

Flight Feathers

I take sticks about 1/3" in diameter and crunch them up into 1" to 3" long pieces to cover the bottom of the nest with. I then do the same thing with thinner twigs before placing a couple handfulls of grass or hay in and letting the birds add to and arrange it. This has worked well for my society finches and Java finches.

Just check that the nest continues to look normal; I recently had a whole clutch become DIS due to a nest with an overly deep and narrow depression that prevented the eggs from being turned.

[Flight Feathers]

Thank you for your reply! Okay I'll have to see what I can do but hopefully she leaves some hay on the bottom.

Oh no that's no good!

[Sheather]

You can give her some cotton balls, finely taken apart into bits of lint. She will fill the box and will make a nice round depression in it for her eggs. Straw doesnt make a good nesting material and doesn't hold any shape.

You can also use jute twine, untwisted into thin fluffy strands. Just avoid cotton or nylon string or hair, which can tangle on the babies.

[Flight Feathers]

Okay thank you!! She had some fluff in her last nest so I'll see if I can find some more of that.