Canary: Tweetie and the Timbrado

[Melissa2006]

I didn't know the first thing about canaries but we adopted a great little American Singer over the summer and called him Tweety. He was in a very small cage, those little $15 arched carry cages?

So we got him a nice big 18x30x36 and placed the perches so he could fly around and all, and more toys which he loves. He sings wonderfully.

I'd also downloaded some amazing sounding MP3 files of timbrado canaries several months ago.

Then we were at the bird Expo here in Denver yesterday, a guy had two cages of timbrados, one males, the other females.

I asked him if a timbrado would be ok with tweety and he says "yes", so we got one.

I was concerned that two males in the same cage might not get along, but he pointed to the cage there, full of males, so how could I argue with that?

But I asked, being they were different species, would they still be ok? He said sure, that it was like putting a dutch boy in the same house with a italian boy, they'd be fine.

So we got one. He has unusual coloring, with all yellow on the right side, very pretty.

http://lakewoodcolorado.net/RMSA/timbrado.JPG

So we brought him home and released him in there with Tweety. At first Tweety was showing his open beak to the new guy but they settled down and by the time the lights went low and it was time to sleep, they were both tucked into their feathers on the same perch, about 3 inches from each other, so I figured that was good.

But then this evening I saw a bunch of flittering around in there, and it looked like the timbrado was chasing tweety around, so I'm not sure now.

Should these guys get along ok, or was it not a good idea putting them in the same cage?

[5borders]

Melissa,
First, you sound very nice and come across with a big heart. The gentlemen who sold you the bird, was speaking in half truths. From a breeder’s perspective, sure many canaries can be housed together, especially at a bird show where hundreds of people are gawking at them. Not the most conducive environment to see any creature in a normal state. From the American Singer and Timbrado aspect, he was correct, no problem there. The problem lies with personality and gender. Canaries are solitary creatures and prefer to be. It is a human thing to think they need company. Two canaries can get along, thus why I said he was speaking in half truths, but in general they never do, especially two males. Even if they did get along, one would instantly become dominant and the other, I must say it, my opinion, “a shell of themselves”. Most times, housing males together can only be achieved with numbers of three or more, not two. The rest is up to their personalities. Some are mild mannered and others, well, little tyrants. Please watch them closely, and be prepared to place them in separate cages. What you described is the first sign of asserting dominance and gaining control of the environment, via the Timbrado. The second will be bloodletting if the Timbrado chooses to make it so; the last will be tweety’s death. You can watch and see, but I would bet by the time I read this and responded, the birds have told you what you need to know. If they settle down, it will occur again when breeding season comes around, or at the least fester under the surface. The best thing is another cage for the Timbrado. Your cleaning chores will expand but your environment with two males near each other will increase in song. Two types of song at that, and after the molt next year you will notice the two birds will start learning each other’s songs, or at least phrases.
P.S. Most people selling at these shows are only interested in selling period. Some will speak in half truths, others will plain out lie. They want to move bird’s period, and generally do not care how or to whom. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good people selling, but the numbers would be 1 in 50. I even caught a reputable seller at a show and confronted him. There was a bird in a cage full of males, as Melissa described. He was a great looking bird but something caught my eye. I asked to see him and if they minded me catching and holding him. After examination, the bird had scaly feet, which prompted my asking to hold him. It was not a problem or infection it was a true sign of age. They were selling all of these birds as this year’s birds, meaning less than 1 year old. This bird, from the scales was at least 5 years old, and after examining it, I could see where the bird’s band had been cut off its leg, most likely a band showing its true age, thus the reason they cut it off. I looked at the guy; he knew immediately what I was thinking and offered the bird to me for free. I obviously declined and would let everyone in my canary club know who and what he was. These people are not breeders although they breed birds. They are either brokers or are bird mills, to use a common term. I am not saying the person Melissa bought from is such, just generalizing. True breeders care about their birds and only sell to people they choose to. I always say, find a bird club near you and speak with the breeders within the club, they will be honest and will educate you, because they don’t just have money involved in the breeding but also true heartfelt time and effort. If a person you are buying from cannot tell you the lineage of the bird, who its parents were and it’s family history, either they don’t know or don’t care. Not caring is just plain inexcusable, not knowing needs more investigation, but how they answer that will tell you whether to run or not as well. Sorry Melissa for getting off topic a bit, well a lot actually, but this happens a lot and should be addressed. Lastly, a word of caution, when anyone buys from this type of environment, the bird should be quarantined for at least a month, before introduction to any of your other birds occurs. This is just for safety/precautionary purposes. In a cage in another room away from any other birds is fine. Just somewhere you can watch and evaluate its health to make sure nothing surfaces. There are some people who go as far as to remove their shoes and wash their cloths after going to a birds show to avoid bringing anything home. This is a bit much for me but I understand it, that many birds in one area with no one knowing, hey birds like people, put 1000 in a room and chances are someone has something that could be passed on.

[Melissa2006]

Thanks for the thoughtful post Rudi. Yes, it's now obvious to me that the seller was more interested in selling than in the welfare of the birds! I hate that behavior!

As soon as I read your post just now, I grabbed another cage for the timbrado and separated them! It was already getting obvious that Tweety was getting the bad end of things, he was in the bottom of the cage picking at bedding to try to eat, and looking depressed.

We even had a spare cage already, an 18x18x24 that was our lovebird Georgie's first cage here when we first got her. She was our very first bird in 2006 and is my own little shoulder pet sweetie, as we got her right as she was weaning and she's always been a great pet for me because of that. http://lakewoodcolorado.net/Georgie/Georgie.htm

We soon got her an 18x30x36 but this one is plenty big for a canary. I put food and water in there for him and will get it set up gradually with a cuttle and toys. Thanks so much for clarifying what I immediately started to see was going on with these two ( the timbrado was dive bombing Tweety some last night! ) , before it was too late for Tweety!

The timbrado has a band on him that says 10 so at least he's probably hatched this year.

We adopted Tweety through one of our clubs, the RMSA's AAB ( Adopt A Bird ) program and dont really know how old he is.

Good news - as I type, I'm hearing canary song from in there again!

So now that things are safe and calmed down, what do you think of that unusual left-to-right side coloring on the timbrado?

Thanks again Rudi!

[Melissa2006]

Follow-up: Neither of them was singing when they were in the same cage, but now that they're separated, about 8 feet from each other, BOTH are singing fantastically! This is so cool!

[SandraK]

Now you'll have to post photos of Tweetie too so that he doesn't get jealous. I checked out Georgie and she's a beautiful little lovie and she's abviously well loved as well as loving.

[boomer girl]

I am happy Rudi told you what to do and now both of them are happy and singing. I also want to see Tweetie since it is rare for me to ever see a Canary. I also tried to look at your sweet little lovie and the link was not working

Can you tell we love to see pictures of birds here? I for one just love looking at all the cute birds we have here.

[Melissa2006]

Now you'll have to post photos of Tweetie too so that he doesn't get jealous. I checked out Georgie and she's a beautiful little lovie and she's abviously well loved as well as loving.

Oh yeah, the best lovebird that ever was.

Thanks.

Tweety:

Looks all dignified, eh? Like he's got his dignity back tonight?

I got a Canon SD4000 IS Powershot for my bday this year, with the latest greatest photo technology in a nice purse sized cam, and it does low light photos without flash, and even let me zoom in on the little guy to take this one.

Just added a couple more at http://lakewoodcolorado.net/TWEETY/
One of Lucy, our new Yellow Naped Amazon, and one of Peko getting a scritchie tonight.

The canaries must be real happy in there now, they're doing singing competitions since this afternoon, and it sounds incredible!

[Melissa2006]

I am happy Rudi told you what to do and now both of them are happy and singing. I also want to see Tweetie since it is rare for me to ever see a Canary. I also tried to look at your sweet little lovie and the link was not working

Can you tell we love to see pictures of birds here? I for one just love looking at all the cute birds we have here.

Yeah, what a nice bunch of bird people.

Please try the link again, it works here:
http://lakewoodcolorado.net/Georgie/Georgie.htm

Sometimes the net is funky.

[boomer girl]

George is so adorable, what a little cutie pie with a amazing website built special for him. I LOVE lovies!!

I love Tweetie and thanks for posting a picture of him for us.

[Melissa2006]

George is so adorable, what a little cutie pie with a amazing website built special for him. I LOVE lovies!!

I love Tweetie and thanks for posting a picture of him for us.

Thanks. If you read further down the site, "he" turned out to be a "she", which is why we call her Georgie.

[Birdmanca]

That was an interesting story about gettin a partner for your bird, and the problems that happened afterward. I once had a bird that was a bully bird, and had to put him in a seperate cage. However, many times, new birds I had did get along well together. More so than the occasional one that causes problems. Good Luck with your 2 birds.

[sweetytweety]

i love love canaries
never used to but our garden has been transformed
all the canaries live separately...sharing only with a pair of finches
they all sing...
we have a red factor...a yellow and a yorkshire who has a song that ssounds like china chimes
when they all get going it is paradise
we give them tonic seeds as well as ordianry finch seed
and lots of greens
they love weeeds and seeded grasses and go nuts over banana and cucumber
they ignore toys
but do enjoy a shallow dish bath
dont leave the bath in for long...they dirty it

[5borders]

Melissa,
Glad to hear everything is good, especially the tone in your own voice. Not all birds, like people have even temperaments. Some are just plain bullies, this isn’t bad, it is just who they are and we need to watch for them. Some breeders actually look for that trait, (bully type) and get rid of them, or rather, get them out of their stock so as to not pass that trait on. I apologize again for ranting. I keep thinking about it all night, praying you didn’t take anything wrong, as in your decision to get another one would affect tweety adversely. I had some birds a few years ago a doctor wanted really badly. After he kept at me, I finally gave in, but on one condition. He wanted 24 birds and two specific males, (one: a perfect ¼ variegated crested Gloster and the second: an intensive red factor). I told him under no circumstances could those two be anywhere near each other. If they were even in two cages set side by side, they would try and kill each other thru the bars. That knowledge came from experience in watching them bloody themselves actually trying to do just that. While I yelled, telling them to calm down to give me a chance to rearrange things so I could move their cages away from each other. I truly am glad you and the birds are ok. On the other hand I have some that you could put with any other bird and they’re like, “hey that’s where I sleep, but you know what, go ahead, I’ll sleep over here now, and help yourself to the food first, I’ll wait”. It all depends on their personality. Oh, about the timbrados coloring, nature is funny sometimes and timbrados are bred for their song not their look so it is not uncommon for the variegation to be like his. LAstly, Georgie is great I wnet to your site. I used to have a lot of lovebirds, but two things were evident. One: one love bird is a true joy and friend, multiple lovebirds, well they gave me up for lent. Two: Only for me, Large numbers of lovebirds talking all at once is like a symphony wraming up, a large number of canaries all singing at one is the symphony hitting irs stride.

[Melissa2006]

i love love canaries
never used to but our garden has been transformed
all the canaries live separately...sharing only with a pair of finches
they all sing...
we have a red factor...a yellow and a yorkshire who has a song that ssounds like china chimes
when they all get going it is paradise
we give them tonic seeds as well as ordianry finch seed
and lots of greens
they love weeeds and seeded grasses and go nuts over banana and cucumber
they ignore toys
but do enjoy a shallow dish bath
dont leave the bath in for long...they dirty it

Wow, how interesting! I could really get into canaries from this post alone. LOL

Yeah our Tweety loves chopped broccoli too and it's great for all the birds. When we got our cockatiel Peko in 2007 at the age of 7, his previous owner had only been feeding him parakeet seed, so we went to Excello Fortified Cockatiel mix and then added the chopped broccoli later and he's been thriving and has never looked so good!

Thanks!

[sweetytweety]

thanks for posting
it is a beautiful afternoon here and i feel like the world is alive with song
the tiels are tiel-ing out their tunes and the canaries are trilling and whistling
how happy the neighbours must be lol
all song and none of the mess! i should rent out the surrounding airspace !
i just gave them fresh cucumber and some kiwifruit...dont know how theyll take to that