I like to supplement egg food with dry nestling food (KJ and Linda Brown Recipe posted on this blog earlier) and hard boiled egg till the chicks are banded. Once banded, I stop giving the pure hard boiled egg and add greens and this mix which contains cooked quinoa, cous cous with poppy seeds prepared by adding boiling water or very hot water to cover with some olive oil and fluffed with a fork, and then some processed broccoli. Hens are also feeding some of the Nutrena Crumbles.
Once the first chick leaves the nest, I add quartered hard boiled egg again to start the weaning process. Once they are eating well, I stop the pure hard boiled egg. Too high protein keeps the chicks too lean!
Good morning, Linda! Thank you for such a wonderful and informative blog! I am a happy owner to two lovely canaries, and I have been searching the web to gain more insight into my canary hen's little brain. She had not yet started nest-building, although my male has been singing his heart out from his cage, trying like heck to impress her. After viewing your photos, you've given me an idea. I like your (I'm guessing) corncob bedding that you use on the floor, so I'm thinking of removing the wire grate and using the bedding, which would allow me to put the nesting material on the floor without it falling through the wire grates, as it keeps doing. To combat the loss of the nesting material, I tried placing a small glass bowl on the bottom of the cage with materials in it for her to pick out of, but all day long when she's not eating, she is laying in the glass bowl as if she's sitting on a nest. ???! We are a family of four, hoping our Eggman and Lemon will kind of start to show our children about nature, not necessarily the breeding portion, but the laying, incubating, hatching, and rearing of the young. :) Anyway, I just wanted to stop in and let you know I'll be following you from here on out! I love your pictures, your birds are simply gorgeous! Ours are just pet store birds, but we still think they're wonderful. Eggman is a soft feathered, yellow buff and Lemon is an intensive yellow. Thanks again!
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