How to Mate Yellow Canaries

Yellow canaries are pleasant, popular birds that are generally easy to take care of. For these reasons, many bird-lovers prefer to own and breed yellow canaries. Whether you want to mate your yellow canaries to add to your own flock or to sell them, there are a few techniques you must know and adhere to in order to successfully---and safely---mate your yellow canaries.

Things You'll Need

• Breeding cage with solid and metal dividers

Instructions

1. Feed your canaries food that provides adequate nutrition for mating and nesting canaries. Petcraft.com recommends giving the canaries access to vitamin-enriched seed at all times, and a small dish of nestling food once a day. In addition, the canaries should receive a small piece of fruit or vegetable, grit and a cuttlebone daily.

2. Place a male and a female yellow canary in a breeding cage that has a solid divider, in addition to a metal divider. Keep both dividers down and place your female on one side and male on the other, suggests the canary breeding information website petcraft.com.

3. Observe your female canary and note if she is building her nest. If she is, remove the solid divider, leaving the metal divider in place.

4. Watch your canaries to see if they are "kissing," or touching their beaks to each other. Once they are, lift the dividers and allow them to interact. When the female is ready, she will crouch down and mating will likely begin, according to petcraft.com. Observe your canaries for any lovers' quarrels; if you notice them fighting, separate them immediately.

Tips & Warnings

• If mating was successful, your female yellow canary will lay four or five green-and-brown-speckled eggs in a day or two, states the bird website avianweb.com. The female, also called a hen, will sit on her eggs for about 13 to 14 days, and then they will hatch.

• Yellow canaries typically mate in the second half of March, according to avianweb.com. Breeding times are typically designated depending upon the number of daylight hours the birds experience. Petcraft.com states that if you cover the birdcage from dusk to dawn, the canaries will likely mate around Valentine's Day.

• Place the cage in sunlight and make sure the cage contains perches, food and water bowls and sand or newspaper to cover the floor. In addition, add an accessory that can help your female build a nest and a crib that contains hemp or burlap. Most pet stores sell canary nest cups to aid your canary in her nest-building.

References

• Pet Craft: Canary Breeding for Beginners
• Avain Web: Breeding Canaries