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Can someone help me? I have canaries, quite a few. And Im wanting to breed them the right way. I really dont understand the light stuff. So when is the actual breeding season for them? How do I get there lighting right? Why do some hens want to lay now? And I cant seem to stop them from laying eggs. I have all of my canaries in a big flight together. Everybody gets along. I feed pellets, seed, eggfood, liqiud calcium, vegs, fruit, etc. I've heard of a dimmer for the lighting, where do I get one?

Thanks,

Cathy

Is any one an expert on zebra mutations? I have a female, looks like she is white but she has the black stripe by her eye and faint lines on her tale. Can anyone tell me what she is? I can send a pic to an email.

There's much more to breeding canaries than can be said on this forum. I suggest buying a few books and google 'breeding canaries' to learn how a lot of breeders are raising their birds.

I don't don't of any breeders who have success with pairs in an aviary. Besides the problem of fighting between the males, there's no way to keep track of the bloodlines.

I don't think you need a dimmer but you will need a timer for your lights. Try to get one that you can hardwire into the light switch if there are no plugs to your lights. Timers can be found at any hardware store.

To sex your zebra finch...........males will have a red beak, hens have orange. Plus, the male sings.

Here are a couple of good sites.......

http://www.aaawebmaster.com/canary/breeding.htm
http://www.robirda.com/canbreed.html

My male canaries are all put in separate cages if they are not breeding having them together they will just fight. I put my pairs together in February each in a separate cage. As for the lighting start raising the time of light a little bit every week until you get to about 12 hours of light. I have my lights on timers. I do not feed my female canaries egg food until it is coming into breeding season. Trying to breed canaries in a flight cage isn't a good idea. Some of your canaries are laying eggs probably because the amount of light they are getting. If you cut down the light your females will probably quit laying. Breeding season is over for canaries. If you let them keep laying eggs they will not be in condition to breed next year also it is not good for them. Hope this helps.

I used to have my canaries in an aviary outside during summer, but during breeding season they were put inside and paired up in seperate cages. I also used light timers. It seems like you're feeding them a pretty good diet. During breeding seasons it is especially important for females to get plenty of calcium and egg food, and maybe a vitamin supplement.