Spooked canary

[frillwing]

Whenever I feed or water my bird or put my hand in the cage it gets scared, hopping from one side of of the cage to the next. What do I do to get the canary comfortable to the point where it will perch on my finger?
What happened was when I first bought my bird the bar spacing in my cage was too big and I had to chase down the bird by hand and place the bird into a new cage.Ever since then it seems the canary has stopped chirping/singing. Any suggestions?peace.

[Dave]

It is rare for a Canary, or most finches for that matter, to become finger trained.

Some suggestions:

---keep your bird's cage where you are, so it almost always sees or hears you.

---keep a towel or the like over the top of the cage and at least two sides. Many birds are calmer when their cage isn't open on all sides. I think that the best cage, for the bird, is a box cage where only the front is cage bars or wire; the rest is solid or covered. I had some birds that were very skittery calm down when put into a box cage.

---put your hand in the cage and just leave it there, palm up, being quite still, for several minutes at a time. Don't do anything else, just have your hand in the cage.

---after a few weeks of that, delay for several hours the food it eats first. For my birds, that is either greens or boiled egg. Have some of that in the palm of your hand.

---Does your bird get the chance to fly free in its room? Canaries are so curious, and will investigate everything. If the room is dim and you are sitting at a desk or table, with a light, they'll eventually land there and check out the table. I had a Canary that ate breakfast with me every morning, hopping around the table picking up crumbs.

[frillwing]

Does the phrase, “you can’t teach a old dog new tricks” apply to canaries?peace

[Dave]

frillwing, I have kept other finches, and now have only Canaries. They are the most daring and fearless of the birds I've kept. They'll eat almost anything, and they get into everything they can reach.

I have a large walk-in aviary, about 150 square feet. If I leave something in there, the birds are on it. Newspaper, dried grass, wood, my radio, tools--anything in there gets investigated.

I've read that Ravens and Crows are considered smart, because they don't seem to lose their juvenile curiosity as they age. Squirrels are probably like that too.

Canaries seem to have some of those qualities. I've not tried it, but I think you could indeed train one to come to your hand--if you're patient.

[frillwing]

.

[lovezebs]

frillwing

In the Finch world Canaries are actually some of the most calm birds I've come across. They are intelligent and curious and in time can become fairly tame.

That said, Canaries (like Finches) are not really hands on pets.... unless they're hand raised from the nest they won't enjoy being held or handled.

If you're looking for hands on birds, I would recommend hand raised Hookbills.

Please share a bit more about your cage, size, location, etc.