Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1885-04-08
Care of Canaries.

The first things necessary IN taxing
care of birds, as in most other tnlngs'
g common sense.
Get a medium-sized cage, if you have
but one bird. Don't keep your bird IN
little bit of a cage. Let him nave
room to exercise. Whenever ! see a
bird in little cage L wish the owner
might change places with the poor
thing awhile. For convenience IN
cleaning always keep paper in the bot
tom of the cage, and sand too when 1t
is obtainable. 1t keeps their feet from
becoming sore.
Every morning put in clean paper
and sand and give cold fresh water;
also fill up the seed cups.
Let them have a bath every day II
they will use it. Sometimes they will
not 20 in and they should be taken in
the hand and washed. They will soon
learn to prefer bathing themselves, and
will 90 in without help.
Wash the cages all over at least once
week and the perches and swing about
once in two days. Besides seed, give
them to eat cuttlebone, a piece of
which should always hang in the cage,
piece of boiled egg or cracker oc-
casionally. Peppergrass every day if
it can be found, if not lettuce, cress,
plantain seed; in fact almost anything
green that is not poisonous, they will
eat. Mine even eat fuchsia and rose
leaves when they can get at them. If
your house plants are troubled with
plant lice let your canaries loose IN the
room where they are. The birds are
very fond of the insects.
Let your birds out in the room every
few days to exercise their wings. Ii
you want them tame enough to catch
easily you will have to handle them a
great deal while they are young, even
before they leave the nest. l find it
impossible to tame old birds that have
never been petted. Never having had
sick bird cannot give any cures for
their diseases. Some write of their
canaries performing tricks. never
had one that would do much of that.
[ had one, though, the tamest little
mite, that would perch on my finger
and take food from my hand, and at
night he would 60 to sleep perched on
a finger. He used to hop up the fingers
of my hand ladderwise.
To raise birds have large cage for
your pair of birds; the double ones are
perhaps best but they are expensive.
Make nest of a collar box or the
end of bird seed box, cut long enough
to leave it about square. liz this
with cloth but do not put anything else
in. The birds will do that Put a few
ravelling and small pieces of paper and
rags in the cage and the birds will ar
range it to suit themselves. The bird
will commence setting as soon as the
first egg is laid. They will commence
Matching in about thirteen days. In
about four weeks they will be in full
feather, and commence to try to singh in
about six.
For feed for the little birds, take half
the yolk of boiled egg and cracker
or two crumbed fine, mix this and add
a bit of water to make it stick together.
Fill half an egg shell with this and put
it in the cage. Both birds will feed the
little ones. Leave seed in the cage all
the time and the little birds will soon
learn to eat it.
Do not hang your birds out in the
wind, especially the young ones. Hang
them out on the porch in the summer
time, but not where the sun strikes full
on the cage. Just few minutes in the
hot sunshine will cause a canary to
open its mouth and gasp for breath.
And do not leave them out doors nights.