How to candeling your canary and goldfinch eggs

Hi Everybody!
Spring has come and, with good hopes, you will get the question of eggs candeling.
Why eggs candeling? Why let female hatch over empty eggs when you can save her energies let her hatch a real full eggs...
To hatch it's an hard work for every female bird, she need to increase her temperature and burn more energy, this is a very stressful period, better optimize and improve to the best.

When eggs could be candeling?

In my opinion, not less 5th days of hatch continue, this is the minimum time required for a correct evolution from simply egg to first form of  embrayo.

How to candeling ?

You can use simply flashlight, but...be careful while using to don't broke eggs!
You can buy a simply one like this, to control direct into nest with less disturb to female canary, or you can DIY as i done!

You can see while working, i disclose an empty egg!

Any dubts? Leave me a comment!

Nick

Make your own breeding handmade mash!!!

During breeding season it's importat to feed our birds with high balanced food, most important thing is quote of proteins that should be, in my opinion, between 17% and 21% overall.
Since preparation time should start to feed incresing level of proteins and fat seeds, this is need to prepare partner at coopulation.

Ingredients: 

50 gr    Prepared polenta

20 gr    Cornmeal

25 gr    Soybean meal

1          Tablespoon of honey
4          Eggs
500 ml Milk
1          Pot

Instructions:
Beat eggs and keep apart.

Pour in pot milk and put on stoves, when temperature is hot then add eggs.

Adding slowly prepared polenta and spoon.

Continue with soybean meal and cornmeal, spoon until milk is boiling.

Keep boiling a little (never stop spoon) and add tablespoon of honey.

Continue to spoon while is hot and spread over a cold baking tin, reduce as plain height 1 cm.

You can cut in strips and store in fridge for 1 week!

That's all! You've done!

Feel free to leave a comment for more information!

All the best,
Nick

The Goldfincher’s Crossbreeding – European Goldfinch x Canary

It’s popular crossbreeding in Europe, usually it’s most common between finches breeders and canaries lovers.
This crossbreeding creation’s principal purpose is to create a perfect singer, with the canary’s vocal power and goldfinch’s melody.

Usually to get this result it needs crossbreed a male goldfinch with a female canary.

Some breeders prefer the opposite crossbreed, more difficult to realize, the resulting hybrid will have the female canary’s silhouette and the male goldfinch’s vocal system, the final look may be illusory for an inexperienced eye, the result will be a very good singer goldfinch.

In both crossbreeding males and females children will be NOT fertile.

Females hybrids can’t sing at all and are not fertile, but they can be used as very good nurses.

Usually copulation will happens from half April to July (in natural light condition), so the reproducers must be raedy, in fact goldfinchers goes on heat a month later then canarys.

Tip: In case of male goldfinch with a female canary, is possible let her to brood on not fertile hatch until the natural leaving of nest by the female. So we can take off the nest, and replace after a week again along male golfincher.

This problem don’t verify in the opposite case and it’s possible join the couple directly when female golfincher just starts build new nest.

There are many thing to say about this subject, I postpone them to next post!!!

Any questions? Leave a comment!
Nick

Birdhouses & Feeders!!!

Spring has come! then it's Breeding time!
Well, for most part of wild birds, it's time to make family !!!
This is an hard situation for birds, they have to find a safe tree, right partner, nest building material, water and food!
Wow, sweating time for these birds, isn't it??
Ok, how could we help these birds during this difficult period of life?
A good way can be setup a free feeder in our backyard or in the garden, or over a safe tree.

If you're pratice of DIY, can create wood feeder! it's quite easy and chipier!

There are tons of links that teach how make it!
Keep in mind 3 important things while choise your fauvorite:
1 - setup in safe place, be careful rats or other animals can't reach food!
2 - fill feeder once per week
3 - create a place where can collect clean water

Take a look around to find your fauvorite! Spent time will get you nice surprise!

Regards,
Nick

European GoldFinch: how turns face red?

Let's start from the beginning... the very important thing is to keep goldfinch healty... if miss this point all the other tips will fail.
If your European Goldfinch is healty then is following a good diet can pay with impressive results!

During moulting time, a very stressful period for every birds, you have to provide fatty meals, that means more "heavy" seeds in the seed mix.
An important trick could be increase percentage of crushed safflower!

You can switch in diet between safflower seeds and mashed carrots, results would arrive at the end of moulting time...steady & patience ;)

The other important factor is SUN, place your birds under "Sun's shower" everyday if you can!

That's all!Simply isn't it?? The very difficult thing is to apply with constancy these tips!

Try and enjoy!
Nick

What do European Goldfinch eat?

Basically European Goldfinch's diet composed by 3 kinds of foods:

- Seeds:
canadian canary seeds, white and black lettuce, grassland seeds mixture, thistle seeds, small hemp seeds, small sunflower seeds,perilla frutescens seeds, few niger, few linseed.
- Vegetables:
carrot, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, chicory, radicchio, cabbage leaves.
- Meadow grasses/Wild Plants:
dandelion
- Mash:
occasionally, better handmade.

Ask for more informations!
Nick

How should be Cage Breeding?

A good cage for breeding should be in zincate steel at least or more large than 23 inches (60 cm), the best is use a kind with 4 doors on frontal.

Best pratice is to setup few things inside cage, few and clean, this is the motto.

Can't miss at least a manger for seeds and a good container for hard-boiled egg or mash, twizeer for vegetables, dark-blue siphon for water and during love season the nest with nest holder.

The container and twizeer should be cleaned every use, instead manger could be clean every month.
Water should be changed everyday and to clean siphon also.

Very important, for goldfinches in particular, to use tray with grid, for keep away dejections from birds, grids have to raise from tray bottom of 2 inches (5 cm).
I use to arrange cat's litter on tray bottom, this because absorbs and keep dejections tied and dry, and reduce malodorousness.

Interesting the use of grid separator during first phases of "couple building", but I'll speak next post about that!

Enjoy your breeding!
Nick

How should be good Aviary Breeding? External Aviary

Nowdays it's hard to get a good aviary, because needs space, and a set of good tools, this could be expensive...
Now we're going to figure out the main important features, but before we have to distinguish between internal (room, climate control) aviary and external (wild) aviary.

Today we're going to speak about External Aviary:
summarized it's more easy to mantein, because of cleaning but more hard to setup moreover during startup of aviary!
During startup phase you must check well the structure of the aviary, because of weather factors like raining, intense sun, cold, hot temperature, and predators, cats, rats, raptors!!!
The good sides of this choise are natural environment. This allows good healty birds and natural process of breeding.
Every breeder would have an external aviary!

Feel free to ask any question!
Nick

How to Identify a Goldfinch? Sex-determination system.

It's very difficult to identify European Goldfinch's gender because of its low discrepancy between two sexes, especially before sexual maturation, when males can sing, and other factors, are much more evident.

We are going to fix some reference points to determinate sex of Goldfinch ancestral, as it occurs in nature, without mutations.

Male characteristics:
- Flesh tint red mask transhipped on top behind eye.
- Intense black color and marked
- Strikethrough on wing, yellow well defined and marked
- Over-wing is not dirty brown but clearly black
- Flattened head
- Broad base of the bill
- Well and of course... singing


Female characteristics:
- Faded, less vivid red mask, does not transhipped on top behind eye.
- Not Intense black color, not well marked
- Thin Strikethrough on wing, yellow not well defined and marked
- Over-wing is not clearly black but dirty brown
- Rounded head
- Broad base of the bill
- Not singing, but only plays "cheep"

Any Doubts? Contact me!
Nick