Part 2

About ten minutes a day is all that is required for the care of a canary and its cage. If you have children, let them share the daily routine. Without realizing it, they will learn valuable lessons in kindness and responsibility.

The normal schedule of canary care is simple. Each morning give your canary fresh seed and a supply of fresh water in clean cups. Daily or on alternate days feed a bit of green food. Occasionally give him a small amount of a treat such as song food. Keep a cuttle bone and a French's Bird Biscuit in the cage. Allow the bird to bathe daily, or two or three times a week. Keep the perches and cage clean, and a covering of gravel on the floor.

These are the essentials of canary care. More detailed information appears below. Follow the suggestions made here, and your canary will reward you with joyful song and years of happy companionship.

THE CAGE

Place the cage at eye level in a room where the temperature is moderate and fairly even. Choose a light corner or a place near but to one side of a bright and cheery window where the cage is never fully in the direct sunshine and is away from drafts. When introducing a bird to a new cage, place the cage away from the light. For an hour or two guard against any noise or movement which may alarm the bird until he is accustomed to his new home. It is not necessary to cover the cage at night unless the room cools off rapidly to low temperatures or is frequently lighted.

Modern cages are usually made of steel, and are rectangular in shape. Those having a floor size about nine by fifteen inches are most popular. The drawer tray should work smoothly. Lower perches should be arranged directly beneath upper perches to avoid fouling, and just far enough in from the ends to prevent the tail feathers breaking against the cage bars. Seed and water cups should have smooth edges to help prevent loss of feathers about the head and neck.

Perches should be of soft wood, preferably in both oval and round shapes, and with different girths, to simulate the varied perching conditions encountered by wild birds. The broad surface of oval perches provides particularly good support and relaxed, strainless perching. Gravel-coated perch covers are not recommended as they furnish an excellent hiding place for mites and are irritating to the feet.

If possible, choose a sturdy, simply constructed cage with a minimum of cracks, crevices, and joints which are difficult to scrub. Many cages are made in such a way that their entire bottoms are removable. This is convenient when giving the bird a bath, cleaning the cage floor, adding gravel, and so forth. Always place your hands on the sides near the bottom when lifting such a cage. If you were to place your hands at the top of the cage, the bird would probably be frightened and fly out the open bottom.

CAGE CARE

Routine cage care is as essential to the cage bird's well-being as a regular supply of fresh food and water. The cups and perches should be cleaned daily, therefore an extra set of each is desirable. Clean cups are filled with fresh seed and water in advance and along with clean perches are set in the cage when the soiled cups and perches are removed, scrubbed, and dried for use the following day. Uneaten seed can be poured from hand to hand and the husks and chaff blown off, then added to fresh seed and reused. Damp or wet perches are thought to be harmful.

Take out the drawer tray and dump the soiled gravel. Wash the tray with hot suds; rinse, dry, cover it with fresh gravel, and replace it in the cage. One advantage of the removable cage bottom is that if it is soiled it can be withdrawn and cleaned just before the clean drawer tray is replaced.

Once a week the cage should be completely scrubbed with a stiff brush, good suds, and hot water. Be sure all cracks and crevices are cleaned out for they are breeding places for red mites. While this is going on the bird may be allowed free flight if the room is safe; otherwise it should be transferred to a temporary cage.

FOOD

Your pet's good health depends on good treatment, good housing, and good food. The canary needs fresh water, nutritious food, and proper amounts of minerals and vitamins. Like other members of the hard-billed finch family, the canary's main food requirement is seeds, as its sturdy seed-cracking bill indicates. In nature he finds supplies of calcium and other minerals for bone, feather, and egg production, in addition to seeds and greens. Although he is not primarily an insect eater, the canary relishes insects and their larvae, as do other members of the finch family.

VITAMIN B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} SUPPLEMENT

Some years ago, poultry experts discovered one reason why chickens that ran outdoors were superior to those always kept indoors and never allowed to run free. Those permitted to scratch outdoors were benefiting from something in the soil, something derived from animal matter: The scientists called it APF, meaning animal protein factor. They learned to isolate it and to put it into diet supplements for livestock. The results were amazing; poultry grew faster and larger, hatched more eggs, reared more hatchlings, and replaced moulted feathers more quickly.

The scientists then discovered that the most important component of APF for growth and hatchability was a red vitamin, B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~}. It was found to be one of the most effective therapeutic substances known for its weight. As little as 1/200th of a teaspoon of pure B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} to a ton of livestock feed is considered adequate!

B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} was first isolated from liver by research workers in England. Since then processors have learned to extract it from fermentation products at a more reasonable cost.

The R. T. French Laboratory, noting the effect of B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} on poultry and hogs, began a long series of tests with canaries and parrakeets. French's had pioneered in the past in packaging bird seed, in air-washing it to remove dust, in eliminating the over-use of hempseed, in producing a balanced bird diet, and in the use of yeast and wheat germ supplements. This Vitamin B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} research was a part of French's never-ending program of bringing to bird owners the new products and techniques of science as soon as they can be authoritatively documented. A year passed before French's laboratory reported these four apparent facts:

1. B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} is non-toxic 2. B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} improves the palatability of the food to which it is added (birds like it) 3. B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} promotes feathering 4. B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} hastens the development of young birds.

The significance of the last two points is important to all bird owners. In moulting, for instance, the loss and replacement of feathers is a severe tax on a bird's general health, and an improperly feathered bird is at a great disadvantage. Furthermore, nutrition experts place great importance on the growth and development which foods produce in young animals and birds. Foods which support the best rates of development are naturally considered the most desirable.

Vitamin B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} was included in the formulas for French's Bird Biscuit and French's Nestling Food only after the company had been convinced that the addition of B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} would be a real contribution to canary and parrakeet nutrition. Bird owners will do well to feed vitamin B{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT TWO~} regularly. This can be done by keeping the biscuit in the cage at all times. Sick or run-down birds, in particular, should have the biscuit or the nestling food.

ABOUT FEEDING DAINTIES

Most persons like to give their pets a treat now and then. An occasional treat is always relished and is usually beneficial. Wild seeds you have gathered are excellent. French's Song Food and French's Bird Biscuit are treats most canaries enjoy. French's Sunshine Food is especially helpful during winter months. These French's treats are excellent nutritional supplements which the canary enjoys. Follow the directions on each package, and your canary will be benefited out of all proportion to the small amount fed.

BIRDS NEED MINERALS

Extensive research with chickens has indicated that for proper nutrition and good health birds require quite a long list of minerals, some in fairly substantial amounts, others in only minute traces. The trace minerals and many of the others are present in sufficient quantity in the foods regularly fed.

Calcium is required in larger amounts and is best supplied by keeping a cuttle bone in the cage at all times. The cuttle bone is the backbone of the saltwater cuttle fish and provides a ready source of calcium and several other required minerals. If the cuttle bone becomes soiled or dusty, replace it with a fresh one. Add a tiny pinch of salt to a treat cup of Song Food or Sunshine Food once a week.

Occasionally dry and sterilize a few egg shells when you are using the oven. Crushed and sprinkled in with the gravel, these make good supplemental sources of calcium.