CAGE BIRDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23507, 18 November 1939, Page 10 (Supplement)

CAGE BIRDS

A.S., Bay of Plenty.—Canary and budget gar breeding notes'as requested will be forwarded. '■ •

E.J.G., Hamilton.— Canary breeding notes will be forwarded. You should not delay in letting .the canaries pro to nest. P, .Mcß., Matamata. —Postage for the notes has been received, for which many thanks. It is hoped.that tliey will lie of use to both yourself and your school mates. R.L., Waihi. —The budgerigar breeding notes will be forwarded at once, and it is hoped that they will clear up your difficulties.

W. 8., Paeroa. —Budgerigar breeding notes as requested will be forwarded. The price is the postage. Your offer, however, is appreciated.

E.H., Dominion Road. —The canary breeding notes will bo forwarded to you. As you have been cutting out answers to the questions which interest you for so long, your scrap book should now contain much valuable information. It is suggested that you compile a reference, as it will then be so much easier to look under the particular heading and then turn up the page where tho answer is given. •Having the information is one thing, but being able to quickly turn it up is another. R.G., Tauranga.—Budgerigar: It is not possible to give you the colour of the progeny you can expect. While the greywing blue is quito definite as regards the cock bird, the hen, being a yellowish green colour, indicates that sho may have had a very mixed ancestry. Predictions concerning the colour of. tho progeny aro only possible when the colour of the parents is definito and conforms to one of the recognised standard colours. The information you ask would require more spaco than is given in this column, but much of it would be contained in tho breeding notes which will be sent to you separately. G.G., Whitlora.—Canary: It is not possible to mako tho cock bird bathe more often if lie has not the inclination, but as the weather gets warmer he will probably bathe at least once a day. Probably something is wrong with tho size or shape of the bath you are using. Normally, birds are very keen indeed to bathe, and in fact, for exhibition purposes, some people lcavo a largo dish of water in front of tho cage nil day long. To wash its head, take an old shaving brush and a piece of good soap. Wet the bird's head with slightly warmed water and then make a lather aiid remove the dirt. Rinse with clear water, not chilled, and wipe with a soft cloth. Allow the bird to sun itself and dry. Remember that dandelion leaves and roots arc exceptionally good for feeding prior to the breeding season, but should not be used after the hen has gono to nest. The other questions you ask are fully treated in the notes.

R.K., Paoroa. —Canary Breeding: Conditions in Auckland and Paeroa for the breeds ing of canaries should he very little different. Possibly you would Ret some good information if you consulted Mr. A. Bridges, of Paeroa, an expert bird fancier. The canary breeding notes will be sent as requested. You must have been doing something different to have lost the birds that you have when yon had previously been successful in Auckland. The old-fashioned hard-boiled egg and biscuit is not always sufficient for the rearing of voung birds, and it is thought that the real reason is that the composition of tho biscuit is not what it used to be. Methods of manufacture change, and quite likely some of the ingredients now used in the biscuits are not as nutritious as they once were. You are recommended to 'use a canary rearing- food specially made for tho purpose and containing all the necessary vitamins and mineral salts .Your further experiences after you have adopted the method-outlined in the notes will; be interesting to hear in view of- your diffi- : culty in Patroa and success in Auckland. , E.T., Kailaia.—Canary: See answer above. : Notes on cana'ry breeding will be forwarded.

C.E.S., Wellington.—Talking Budgerigar: Wait until the youngster has been out of the nest for five or six days. Select que with the biggest head, as that is most likely to be a cock bird. Offer it the ordinary seed mixture, but increase the amount of hulled oats. Offer a little rolled oats in addition and a piece of millet spray if obtainable. Make sure that the bird itself is eating by watching for seed husks. If not, return it. _to its parents for a day. At one time it was thought' to lie necessary to hand-feed the bird with oatmeal porridge after it had left tho nest to make it tame, but tameness can be secured if you win the confidence of the bird just as it becomes independent. Let one person only attend to its needs and get the l)ird accustomed to the human hand touching it. Cut the wingfeathers of one wing back about an inch, enough to properly unbalance its flight. Keep the bird out of hearing of other budgerigars. Let the one who attends to it repeat its name over and over again. One trick that assists in teaching is to touch the bird with a finger or with a pencil while you are repeating the word you wish it to learn. Suitable names are "Peter" and "Dick," both favourite names for talking budgerigars. Patience is necessary—you may have to wait three months before tho bird makes a definite attempt to sneak, but after the initial difficulties of speech are over, the vocabulary can bo rapidly increased. E.L., Pukekohe. —Muling: An interesting letter two or three times a year from yon is always welcome. Norwich liens are usually used for muling purposes because they produce a mule of larger size. Usually, however, a Norwich hen is a bad feeder and a reserve of two or three good feeding common canaries is advisable. Tho production of a light mule is mostly a gamble. Different successful mule breeders often uso methods directly the opposite of each other. Sib-bred hens for muling purposes are for sale in the Old Country, but not here. They are birds line-bred for generations for their pure yellow or pure huff colouring. It is good practice to take a first nest of canaries, before introducing the muling cock goldfinch. Unless the chaffinch is an exceedingly quiet bird (and this is very improbable) you are not likely to succeed with it. You are mor.c likely to be successful with the chaffinch cock and canary.hen in a small out-door aviary, but success with this muling pair is most improbable. The greenfinch canary mtilo is easily achieved. Write to Mr. R; T?ae, Eliot Street, New Plymouth, re linnets. The green singing: finch and roller hen will probably hybridise successfully. The green singing finch was first successfully bred in New Zealand by Mr. F. D. Potter in 11)33. '.Phere are no untoward difficulties in breeding these- finches, which require n certain amount of live insects on which to feed their young. The' cock bird is distinctly more highly coloured than tho hen, the yellow in particular being more intense. The green finch should sing constantly on tho approach of the breeding season, and keep any other cock birds even of different species away from tho hen. >-

BY TAILFEATHERS

j, A., Mount Eden. —The canary breeding notes will be forwarded. See other rcp.ics to canary questions.*-

M.D.. Manurewa. —The canary breeding pamphlet will be forwarded to you. You should pair your birds up at oiicc.

P. 0., Newmarket. —Budgerigar breeding notes as requested will be forwarded tcr you. You will probably bo able to find plenty of green tood in your own locality.

M.G.. Khyber Pass. —Canary:. As you are experienced in budgerigar breeding. you w»'! soon master the different details in canary breeding. With the budgerigars you mention, do not forget that a little cod liver oil soaked seed is wonderfully effective in building up the bones of the young birds, but keep cuttlefish and sea shell sand in front of them all the time, as it is a combination that ensures success. The vitamin D from the cod-liver oil assists the body in tho assimilation of the carbonate of lime obtained from trie cuttlefish and the sea shell rand. Your canar- ; ies, being prizo birds and therefore probably highly bred, cannot be expected to be tne same as the no-trouble budgerigars, lho sug-. gestions offered for the second round 01, canaries arc as follows: Feed small quantities 0/ one of the already-mixed proprietary canary-rearing foods to which the bird has bpcome accustomed before she lays her eggs, i Biscuits of various kinds cannot be recommended when made by the present-day manufacture, as they are minus -some of the in-, grcdients such as butter. You have probably produced the trouble by overdoing the feeding of dandelion, this being very stimulating and causing the bird to be more con-, cerned about future offspring than her present nestlings. Dandelion seed and leaves should be used with the utmost discretion and their use discontinued whon the hen has gono to nest. Some canary rearing notes will ho forwarded to you. which will give you information on which to work. Better luck with the second round, and provided the canary rearing food is acceptable to the hen, you should not have further trouble. "Orpington," To Kauwhata. —Poultry do not strictly come within the scopo of this column, but it is suggested that the real troublo with your pullets is gapes, a tiny ■worm which breeds down the windpipe. Take a small wingfeather, moisten it with wood turpentine, push it down the throat, turn it round and you probably will withdraw small worms on tlie feather. Another remedy is to make a strong solution of garlic and water and introduce a few drops of this solution into the drinking water of the birds. A French .remedy for gapes in pheasants is mostly composed of essential oil of garlic. Some bird shops sell a proprietary medicine for treating gapes in pheasants and poultry. Fumigating the birds with carbolic acid which is heated in a small iron spoon over a flame, will cause , the birds to cough and sneeze and so get rid of some of tho worms causing tho obstruction. A piece of camphor in the drinking water is supposed to be a preventive. Separate the birds that apparently are suffering, from the other birds, and treat the sick ones as above. Gapes are usually brought on through letting fowls and pheasants live in a small fowl-pen which has become "fowl-sick" by being used for fowls for many seasons. The ground must have a spell, be turned over, salted and limed and for preference a green crop grown and then dug in. It is advisable to put young poultry on thoroughly fresh ground each year, while success with pheasants cannot be attained unless they are given clean pens, annually. For this reason, the portable chicken pen has much to recommend it as it is easily shifted on to fresh ground each week. There should be an officer of. the Department of Agriculture somewhere in your district who could be called in for expert advice.