I've never owned a bird before,although I have cared for a few for short periods including an African grey (loud,demanding and squawky!) and some collared doves (I did a training project on them at uni and taught one of them to come on command,step up on command and walk in a little circle, they were quite fun but I thought they should have had much more space and felt a bit sorry for them being in captivity). I didn't think I would ever want to own a bird.
However I was in a local pet shop early last week and heard a lovely song...went to see who was producing it and it was a lovely little canary singing away. I just stopped by him for a while listening. I really enjoyed it! Now I can't stop thinking about him. His song was just lovely and even made me laugh as at times he inserted some noises which could have been mimicking the guineapigs wheeking.
So I've been researching canary care, housing requirements etc. However I still have lots of questions.
How much/often does a happy healthy canary sing? How loud is it, e.g if canary is housed upstairs will him singing be audible downstairs? How much mess does a canary make? Do they like to fling seeds out of their cages etc? Do canaries get stressed/bored being caged all the time (I have a dog who really couldn't care less about birds but canaries are so tiny I wouldn't want to risk him getting hurt accidentally!).
Also my house is quite quiet,especially compared to the busy pet shop that he seems to like. Would it upset him? I could maybe put a radio on quietly or something.
Thanks in advance for your help
![Happy :)](./images/smilies/1.gif)