Breeding season is upon us for both the short day and the long day breeders. They might be in different 'stages' of the season but they are all hormonal right now in one degree or another. I am going to ABBA tomorrow to get supplies and starting the breeding season diet for the canaries this weekend and I will start the parrots the week after. In truth, I could have already started it because I have birds already nesting but I like to make the season as short as possible so I always wait a bit before I give them the green light.
This year, I am going to set up one single pair of canaries to breed: Luca and Maria. They are already 4 and 5 years old and at their very prime, which is the best time to 'continue' the blood lines keeping them nice and healthy. I will be putting the male in a flight cage in my dressing room/walk in closet in front of the window and the female in a smaller cage next to it and start feeding condition food as well as give the female nesting materials and a nest. I will post pictures of the entire process for your enjoyment [there is NOTHING cuter than newborn teeny tiny pink-naked canary babies!]. I am planning on keeping the females and giving away the males but, as I am only allowing one single clutch, this is still kind of up in the air until the babies are born and I can tell what I have in terms of gender... Oh, and, this year, I am going to make my own conditioning food for the canaries as well as the hatchling food for the babies because the commercial ones that are available all have egg and soybean meal - wish me luck on this because it's my very first try but I have been doing research on this for some time now and I think I can do it. I am also going to ask the owner of ABBA which company he uses for testing the nutritional values of his mixes and whether he would allow me to pay him in advance and use his account with them to test mine [and, if I can get this, I will also test the gloop so I have exact values for it].