Making Breeding Simple - Conditioning - Enriched Diet

German Roller Canaries

Border Canary

Birds Love to Nibble on the Edges of Leaf Spinach


Proper nutrition is vital to avicultural success . Diets must be complete and balanced for optimal health and reproduction. It is well documented that a plain seed diet is deficient in a number of nutrients. Prolong feeding of deficient diets results in a multiple deficiencies and ultimately premature death. Formulated pelleted and vitamin enriched seed products address these critical nutritional concerns.

Healthy Diet Made Simple

Having tried a number of formulated pelleted and enriched seed products, one stands out above all the rest, Bird of Paradise (BOP) from Wall Seed Company (316 263-0850 or 1 800 878-2473) wheat germ oil and vitamin coated seed. This product is perfect formula to completely meeting nutritional needs year round. Birds are remarkably healthy when fed only BOP coated seed and water!

Comparison Of Cocks And Hens Nutritional Needs For Reproduction

Seasonal provisions of extra nutrients prior to the breeding season, in addition to lengthen days, simulates natures way to condition in preparation for reproduction. For cocks, both in the wild and in captivity require little stimulation other than lengthened days, vitamin E, and a little soy protein for better vent development.

Although reproduction is not very demanding on cocks, it is very demanding on hens because they have increased nutritional requirements associated with both egg production and also maximum embryo hatching. In order to produce eggs, they require calcium and vitamin D3, higher levels of protein, particularly methionine and lysine, and vitamins A, B12, riboflavin and zinc. Severe deficiencies of calcium and vitamin A can cause complete cessation of egg production. Excess vitamin D3 can also lead to complete cessation of egg production.

To maximize hatchability of the embryo, increased levels of vitamin E, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid, pyridoxine, zinc, iron copper and manganese are needed over what is adequate for egg production. Nutritional deficient hens can produce eggs but low levels of nutrients may prevent eggs from hatching.

Gently Stimulating Reproduction

During the conditioning phase, providing extra vitamins and minerals help stimulate reproduction. This is easily accomplished by feeding a variety of nutritious vegetables such as dark leafy greens such as spinach and kale, frozen peas, corn, cabbage, or carrots two or three times a week. About once a week, offer bee pollen instead of vegetables.

Another excellent way to provide better nutrients is to sprout seed. During this conditioning phase, I like to sprout rape seed but later on I will sprout additional seeds, such as black oil sunflower and mung beans. When a seed sprouts, the tender growing chute has extra nutritional value. Feed sprouts when they have just started sprouting for maximum nutrition.

During the pre-breeding phase hens should not be feed wheat products nor large amounts of egg containing nestling food as this pushes egg laying regardless of their breeding condition. Beware, too much stimulation and canary hens will lay like chickens!