How many years canaries live and what does it depend on?

Canaries today are often found in Russian families as pets. These birds are loved for their benevolence, perspicacious mind and injustice. From the article you will learn how many years canaries live in the wild and at home, as well as what factors affect the life expectancy of these birds.

In their homeland, in the Canary Islands, these cute birds prefer to move in small flocks of up to 15 individuals, rarely lingering in one place. In the wild, their diet consists of seeds of seasonal plants and small insects. Most of all, these birds love cabbage or lettuce leaves, so they often settle close to human villages.

Unlike other birds, canaries are real neat. They just love swimming in water and generally consume more water than other birds. To feel safe at night, these birds gather in flocks and stay overnight on tall trees.

As soon as the nesting period begins, the canaries go in search of a pair and move away from the entire pack. Their nests, made of their down of plants, moss and dry grass, these birds place high above the ground in the inaccessible crowns of trees. Clutch usually consists of 3-5 eggs, which are hatched by the female for two weeks. An interesting fact - during this time the male leaves the nest only in search of food, and the rest of the time entertains the female with singing or protects her from other birds and animals.

About 2.5 weeks after the birth of the chicks, they begin to intensively learn to fly, drink water and get their own food. In this the male tirelessly helps them.A little later, he leaves the chicks and returns to the female, which is already building a new nest in another place. In one nesting period, canaries can lay eggs 1 to 3 times. After the end of this period, the couple returns to their flock or seeks a new one.

Typically, canaries are preferred to be kept in small metal cages for poultry or in spacious enclosures. In such conditions, these pets, of course, are not threatened by dangerous animals, as in the wild, but there are also disadvantages in this content.

Canaries are very delicate pets in terms of maintenance and care, and therefore their owners will need maximum attention and patience. The life span of the birds depends on factors such as nutrition, living conditions, care, heredity, as well as the attitude to the pet of the owner himself, which should be paid attention to when keeping the canary.

• Heredity. An inexperienced owner often does not pay any attention to such an important factor as heredity and a predisposition to diseases. Most often this is due to the fact that the pet was not purchased in a specialized nursery, but from the hands where no documents were provided, a pedigree or a veterinary passport. When buying canaries, even if you purchase a pet in a trusted nursery, carefully examine the appearance of the bird. It should be active, without wet feathers near the anus or beak, feathers should fit snugly on the body and not be tousled.
• Loneliness. Like all domesticated birds, canaries are simply incredibly social and active. They are unable to do without someone else's society for a long time and are constantly trying to attract attention: they call to games or just tease. From the lack of attention on the part of their owners, the canaries literally languish and become isolated within themselves. All this can lead to disastrous consequences - depression and apathy, from which it is difficult to remove the bird. To avoid such problems, breeders advise placing cages with birds in the apartment so that the owners are always in the field of vision of the canary - so it will not feel abandoned.
• Other pets. Experts advise keeping canaries either singly or together with an individual from the same flock of the same age. If you decide to make friends a young and relatively old canary, then this is unlikely to work out. The same goes for different species. It is especially worth protecting this bird from other pets. Canaries will never have friendship with cats and dogs, only gloating and teasing.
• The climate in the room. The room in which your feathered pet lives must be clean, with an average level of humidity and without temperature changes. It is important not to keep the canary in direct sunlight or leave it near the windows - the bird can get sick from drafts. These birds feel best in a dry but ventilated room with a temperature of at least + 22 ... 24 degrees Celsius.
• Purity. Natural cleanliness was transmitted to the canaries from their ancestors living in dense forests. These birds do not like when their cage or aviary smells dirty or bad. From poor hygiene, these birds become silent, inactive and restless. There are frequent cases of manifestation of aggression when the bird rushed at the owner or tore off feathers from itself.
• Diseases As soon as you begin to notice strange behavior behind your home canary, or you observe signs of some kind of illness, immediately take her to the vet. In the case of such a tender organism, like a canary, self-medication can be fatal.

Feeding is the most important factor on which health, mood, cheerfulness of the canary, and even how many years it will live, depend. That is why this item will be considered separately from others. When feeding canaries at home, follow the recommendations of specialists.

• Food for these birds should be not only saturated with vitamins, but also balanced. The best option would be special feed for canaries - no mixtures for other birds are suitable here.
• The most difficult stage in feeding the canary is nesting, as well as molting. At this time, the bird needs a special fortified diet.
• Canaries just love greens, so in the spring and summer seasons include plants like dandelion (namely leaves, of course), plantain, sorrel, lettuce.
• Of vegetables for canaries, carrots, apples and bell peppers will be useful. It is better if the vegetables are fresh. Do not forget that vegetables and fruits should be thoroughly washed before serving.
• As additives to the main food in the canary feed, you can add sunflower seeds, buckwheat grains (ground). Approximately 2 times a month, the diet can be enriched with boiled egg or cottage cheese with low fat content.
• Some experts advise giving canaries disinfected river sand (as a top dressing).
• Calcium is an extremely important component for canaries, and therefore it will be useful to add a little chalk or crushed eggshell to the food. Chalk can be conveniently hooked and hung right in the cage.
• So that the birds can survive the winter without problems and not get sick, sometimes charcoal should be added to the diet (you can buy it in a pharmacy). It serves as a universal medicine.
• And also do not forget to rinse the feeders from time to time, change their contents to a new one, so that mold does not form there.
• Overfeeding the canary is not worth it, even if the pet with all appearance shows that he wants more. No more than two tablespoons of food per day with supplements will be sufficient for adult birds.

If you want to let your canary fly, stick to certain rules.

• Close all the windows tightly, close the doors. This is still a wild bird that wants to be free and can even fly out into the street. In addition, with open doors or windows, there is a chance that they will slam shut from a draft and injure your pet.
• Remove all pets from the room. Even if it’s a cat that just climbed under the sofa, or a dog that, it would seem, never offends a fly.
• The room should not have any open containers with liquids. As already mentioned, these birds love to swim and drink water, and therefore they can simply be poisoned by carelessly abandoned chemicals or stagnant water.
• If you are releasing a pet in the kitchen, make sure that the burners are not turned on and that there is no boiling water anywhere. It should also be tightly closed at the time of the bird's walk ventilation.
• In general, try to keep your pet in sight during such walks.

See Caring for Canaries below.