Last Green Singer Question I Promise!

[sammyj]

First thank you everyone who answered my last post about Birdie Bird.

So here is the final question and million dollar question. I spoke to my breeder and she has a female green singer. She is willing to let me try it out and see if that helps Birdie Bird. She also mentioned maybe getting a grey singer and having him in a separate cage and hope that his singing will encourage the other one to sing. Or lastly, buy 2 less expensive finches and put them in with Birdie Bird for company.

My fear of adding a female is that he now really won't sing because he has nothing to sing about (he has the girl!).

My fear of buying a male singer is that he is going to get lonely eventually like Birdie Bird and I will have 2 lonely birds!

My fear of buying 2 less expensive birds is that it won't help and I will have 2 birds that I really didn't want although they are kind of cute when they groom each other.

See this all started because I work from home and the days are very quiet. I wanted a little friend who would sing in the morning and wake me up and while I was doing my work, he would flutter and play and sing. Silly I know.

If I bought the grey singer, could I put him in the same cage as the green singer with a divider? My cage is large enough to do so.


All the help is really appreciated!

[Hilary]

I only have my experience with my one pair of singers, so hopefully somebody who knows them better will also chime in, but I would try the hen. I have a pair and the male sings every morning. I would make getting two finches my second option - at least he'd have company. They are very active little birds, so dividing the cage to add a grey would be last on my list.

[Rayray]

send me the million dollars

try the female green singer and you might lucky , and even without her at a moment he will start to sing and calling for a female

Ray

[Mannikin_luver]

Why dont you get a female and put her in a cage next to the male? Or divide your current one to where he can see her. I think hearing and seeing her would induce him to sing! Then when you were ready you could introduce them together!

[Sally]

I'd go for a female Green Singer. I wouldn't get a male Gray Singer, because they also can be somewhat aggressive with other Serin males. I also wouldn't get a couple of less expensive birds--now you would have a trio, and trios rarely get along with no problems.

[FinchDegg]

Firstly i wouldn't recommend buying 2 "cheaper" finches if you really dont want them ...

Secondly if this lady is willing to let you "try" this female (If no purchase necessary snap her hand off ) .. this would be best option ... as for not singing cause he already has the girl .. thats only half the job

and Thirdly ... If it were not for questions where would the point be for needing such a cool forum ??

[Ian]

Hi,

I have just seen your last post and without reading the others I assume that you have a single green singer that is not singing? I have found that the biggest stimulant is the presence of another male (seperate cage of course) to provide competition. They will sing back and forth to each other to try and out do one another.
A male song bird of any species sings for two reasons.
1. To advertise his territory to other males.
2. To advertise to the female what a good specimen he is (which he does by having the most varied, loudest or melodic song).

So adding a female will NOT stop him from singing because he still has to convince her that he is a viable mate.

However a bird will need to be in peak health in order to sing and green singers will have a small song for the off season and an elongated song for the breeding season. The female also sings but it is a much simpler song but similar to the `off season` song of the male.

I have also had birds that were glorious singers at the dealers premises but once rehomed became mute, that is until they settled and reaccustomed there selves to my lighting and photo period etc which can take many months. Light is however a key factor and a good dose of brightlight will stimulate him to sing along with the sound of other (even wild) birds if you can open a window.

In short give him time and ensure that he has the b est possible diet with daily vitamin supplements and company.

Keep us updated , there are never too many questions.

[solo_birdlover]

This is my experience with my Green Singer male. This is a bird that I got at Petsmart. It was the only one singing out of a bunch of other males and that's why I picked it, because I think you shouldn't buy a song bird unless you see it sing first. This bird started singing the very moment I put it in a new big cage and I was so happy because it just kept singing and singing and singing. It was like that until I got a female a couple of months later and it just stopped. No more singing at all. Nothing. Just mute. What's worse, the female didn't want anything to do with him even though he was always affectionate with her.

A couple of months with the same, then I got another younger female and the same thing, no interest on the part of the female and no singing on the part of the male. I then decided to separate them and put the female in an adjacent cage but with a newspaper between the two so they couldn't see one another, but that didn't help with making him sing. I was really frustrated because the main reason why I got this bird was to help with my depression since I live by myself in a cold area with a mostly cloudy weather and thought a song bird would lighten up things for me. Getting a female was a mistake I tell you but I was feeling kinda sorry for him being alone in the cage. Well, now I have a buddy for him in the cage. It's my male Cordon, while the female Singer is in the other cage with the female Cordon.

And here's the advantage, it turns out the male CB has a beautiful song that I never even knew he had and now that he's separated he sings at least a few times every day. The whole time he was with the female they were both mute. Now, thank god the Green Singer is starting to sing again after maybe 4 or 5 months of complete silence. He doesn't sing like before but still. So now I have the CB male and GS -in one cage- singing togather sometimes and the female CB too, though nothing like the CB male. No aggression whatsoever on the part of the GS in either cage. The two cages are next to each other and they all can see each other and still sing but every time I try to put the female GS with the male he stops singing.
I think if you want your GS male to sing don't put a female with him. Maybe this isn't the rule but it seems the case at least for some. The other observation, GSs aren't like other finches in that they don't cuddle or preen one another like other finches. I have never seen mine sit close togather, preen one another, or sleep next to each other like other finches do.
To get my GS to sing, sometimes I play loud music or go to Youtube and play a clip of a GS sing. Usually he starts singing especially when he hears loud music. You can try putting a female with him but I don't think he'll sing. I heard the best finches for morning songs are male Strawberries since they're early risers with the most beautiful songs. Mine was neither though, when I had one.

[sammyj]

Thank you mature, it really did help.

I took the female singer back. She was so lonely. My male didn't want anything to do with her and kept peeping at her everytime she would come close to him. She would literally sit there and cheep all day and night, I swear she never slept. I felt so bad for her, she was so sad. So I decided it wasn't fair and took her back. That was the best thing that I could have done for that bird. When she went back into her cage, she flew next to her mate that she was originally with and they started to sing and bathed and flew with each other. It was the perfect site. I feel good about the decision.

Now my darn bird is sitting alone again looking depressed. I don't know what to do with him.

I have never heard of a Cordon, I will have to look that up.

Thanks again.

[JezeKat]

I had one for a few weeks it used to love to sing to my Java.
I do know that utube really helped him learn his song.


but my singer was really um off. he would sleep hanging on to the cage. most of the time upside down.

[Ian]

Green Singers are very closely related to Canarys, people who have purchased `singing` Canarys only to find them mute upon intorducing them to there new home are also fairly common. You can google `my canary wont sing` and read some of the excellent articles.

[solo_birdlover]

Sammyj, it's good that you took that female back. Like I said, from my own experience, if you want your male to sing don't put a female with him. If you decide you don't really care about his singing then you can try another female in the future and give them some time to get used to one another, however, sometimes that doesn't happen and the only way is try another mate.

I don't know if you have any other birds but if you do you can put your Green Singer next to their cage. If you don't, then get at least another finch to keep him company.

Cordon Bleus are beautiful finches. The male has a short sweet song but it doesn't sing all day long like Canaries. Unlike GSs, a CB pair likes to stay close togather all the time, allopreen and sleep side by side.

jezekat, that's the funny thing about GSs. They like to hang upside down. My female used to sleep hanging from the side of a plastic plant.