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Canaries & Canary Cages
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I have no canaries or finches but know a little (very little) about them. What I learned I learned from a former employee who also worked at Vahles pet shop here in Chicago before they closed on 2003. When Vahles closed they were the oldest pet shop in the US (fact not verified by me). Old man Vahle died several years earlier and the kids let the place run down. Vahles specialized in German Hartz Mountain Canaries.
The compartments were used so the males could not see the females. Male canaries sing because, for lack of a better term, they’re horny. Their song is to attract females. In most cases once a female comes into view, they stop singing. Now here’s where it gets a bit weird. If you put 2 male canaries in the same cage, they may/will fight, sometimes to the death. Beauty aside canaries are one of the most vicious species (for their size) in the bird world. A male may fight with a female if they’ve bred and he feels “they're not done”. There’s a whole art/science thing in keeping breeding canaries w/ different dividers. A canary breeding cage should have 2 dividers, one wire and one solid. The solid is kept in place until breeding time so the birds don't fight. After breeding It stays in place until the chicks are hatched. The solid divider is then pulled away to reveal just the wire divider. With only the wire divider, the male can help feed the babies (through the wire) without the chance of combat with the female. Long before Ipods, people would bring multiple Canaries into their homes in very small cages for the sole purpose of music. |
Canary owners enjoy them for their beauty , their size and especially their song. If you walked into Vahles in their hey day you would have seen them in small cage/compartments on one long wall. Hundreds of them.
Categories: Bird Cage Questions, Canaries
Tags: Bird Breeding
Addressing the question of why there is a wire and solid divider included with the model F060 breeder/flight cage is simply to make it the most versitile breeding/flight unit on the market to accomodate the needs of finches and canaries.
Canaries require seperation during breeding. This entails not only seperation but sight seperation too. By utilizing the solid divider, it solves the sight problem. By utilizing the wire divider, it then allows sight after the mating situation has resolved.
This also allows two birds to be housed but seperated in their own environment. By removing all partitions, you then create a co-habitat that converts the cage into an ordinary flight environment, allowing for ample room for your birds.
Trusting this explains the details that went into the developmental thought process with this cage, making it the most versatile on the market today.
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This is an interesting article.
In the first sentence, you mention the finch. I am not certain if by that you consider finches a type of canary.
That aside, we owned a finch for about 12 years (I know, I know, they don't live that long). But, twelve years at least it was.
Anyway, when we bought the bird, they told us that they only sold them in pairs, but that this bird arrived without a companion. I have no idea if by companion the owner meant a member of the opposite sex or not.
That too aside, Grinchley, his name, was a happy bird (we think). Now that you mention that canaries only sing when horny, I'm not so sure.
That also aside, Grinchley sang constantly for at least twelve years.
He particularly liked the sound of the washer and dryer. (We kept him in the laundry room). Turn those machines on and he would drown them out every time.
Once in awhile, we would take Grinchley out of his cage into a small bathroom downstairs, and he would start to peck at the mirror in the bathroom. He would peck really hard at that mirror. Perhaps he saw something in the mirror he didn't like. Whatever, he seemed very intent in making that reflection go away or die.
Occasionally, Grinchley would escape his cage if we weren't careful with him when we tried to hold him. When that happened, sometimes it could be a day or two before we 1) found him 2) were able to capture him and get him back in his cage. We always made sure that when we opened doors during the Grinchley free flying days,he wasn't anywhere in the hallway.
Finally after twelve years (actually I think it was more, but time flies....so to speak, Grinchley died.
We were very sad when we lost that little creature. He was part of the sound of our family. We had a ceremony and buried him in the back yard next to a group of Lilies we have growing there.
Every year when the Lilies bloom we remember the little soul named Grinchley that brightened our home for so long.
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