American Singer Canary Breeding - lighting is everything

Bird breeding begins with conditioning. Conditioning refers to the incremental increase of light and nutrition which brings canaries into breeding condition.

Light regulates all phases of canaries cycles from the breeding season which, for American Singer canaries, begins January, February or March to molting mid to late spring and the conditioning period in the fall. Canary breeding will begin when your lights reach 12 to 12.5 hours of light mid winter to early spring depending on when you want it to begin based on your lighting cycle.

How is the light regulated, and what type of light is best? American Singer breeders regulate their lights with timers. Ideally one should increase or decrease their lights by 15 minutes each week or 30 minutes every other week. Natural light achieves the same. What natural light doesn’t offer through your windows is the full spectrum of light that birds get outdoors. These rays Do Not penetrate through glass windows. Full spectrum lights are important for All birds. They are available at Drs. Foster and Smith.

Once your birds are approaching breeding condition you will need some supplies.

Choose a small open nest. Plastic, mesh and bamboo are some of your choices. Choose your nest liners and nesting material. I use jute exclusively but there are several options.

Decide which nestling food you are going to use. This is mixed with a little water and chopped hard boiled egg. Soak seed is another excellent soft food for your birdie parents to offer their young. Abba.com offers soak seed. Other good soft foods you may add include couscous, chopped cooked brown rice and sprouts.

Don’t forget to put fresh cuttlebone and other sources of calcium including calcium supplements for your egg forming hens.

American Singer Canary Breeding

American Singer canary breeding and showing is very rewarding and fun. If you love canaries as I do I hope you will consider American Singers if you are looking for a great hobby!

Dividable breeding cages are ideal for breeding canaries. With them you can safely introduce your male to the hen. Hens will build their nest and start kissing or feeding each other through the bars. It is now safe to open the divider and your canaries will breed.

Hens will lay one egg each morning until their clutch is complete. Usually 3-6 eggs are laid. You should remove the eggs, and replace with plastic eggs, each day and place them in a safe container at room temperature until the fourth day when the eggs are retuned for incubation. Turn each egg twice daily until they are returned to the hen. Removing the eggs helps to ensure that the babies hatch on the same day. This will increase their survivability.

Baby birds grow very quickly. In one weeks time feathers begin to grow. By six to nine days they begin to lift themselves up to eliminate along the edge of the nest. This is when babies are banded. After nine days their legs may be so large that getting a band on becomes difficult.

At fourteen to eighteen days babies start leaving the nest and they are eating on their own by four weeks old. It is truly amazing to watch this very quick transformation from a tiny fluffy hatchling to a nearly full grown canary in only one month.