February 21, 2022
Breeding
I have canaries budgies and cockatiels in 3diferent aviaries for 18 months now .they seem to get along just right doing all the mating things but nothing happening
Question:
Answer:
Hi Linda,
Do you have more than one pair of each species in each aviary? When you breed birds, it’s best to only have one pair per cage. There are a few species that will breed in a colony, if the aviary is really large. But there are a lot of issues with doing this, and generally this is done by for profit breeders. It can produce a lot of chicks, but there is often a lot of inbreeding going on and you have no control over which birds are mating with each other. You end up with lower quality birds by colony breeding. There can also be a lot of fighting, nest raiding and killing of chicks or destruction of eggs. So if you want to raise healthy chicks with longer lifespans, it’s best to only have one pair per cage.
Canary breeding is a lot different than breeding parrot species. They use a different nest, and they generally need a lot more privacy. The presence of the budgies & cockatiels may simply be too disruptive for the canaries to want to breed. A visual barrier might help, but most likely the other birds are going to be too loud for the canaries to be comfortable. The male needs to feel like he is the loudest bird with the best song and he can’t compete with the noise of parrot species. As for why the budgies and cockatiels aren’t breeding, it could be a lot of things. Are the birds all at least 2 years old? This is the minimum age for breeding both species. Are you offering a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets? A seed mix is not going to provide the nutrition they need. They also need dark leafy greens, veggies and some fruit. When you hang the nest box, you also start feeding an egg food to get them in condition. And they should also have cuttlebones. You need to right kind of nest box, attached as high as possible. If the cages are next to each other, you may need to put a visual barrier between them. The nest boxes should only be hung during breeding season. If these birds are outside, your climate may not be suitable for breeding at any time of year. When cages outside, they breed when the weather is warm and the days are longer. But if you live where it gets really hot, or is never very warm, they may not be breeding because of this. If you can provide more details, I might be able to help you out more.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
