Fruits and vegetables

Apples, oranges, bananas, pears, peaches, green peppers, chilli, sweet peppers, canned corn, corn-cobs, cooked broccoli, raw spinach, raw dandelions, raw collard, kale, raw Swiss chard, carrot, carrot tops, and berries. Beta-carothene rich berries, broccoli and carrot is particularly good for colour-bred canaries (Red Factor and Yellow Factor canaries), to give them a rich, enhanced colour in their feather plumage, especially during the moult, when they are changing their feathers.

Small amounts of parsley.

Lettuce is only water and fibre, and contains no nutrients. But the birds like to eat them, so they can be used as a carrier-food for supplements and oil.

Do NOT feed: mango, tomato, avocado, apple seeds, mushrooms or chinese pea pods.

Some Dangerous Foods For Canaries

• Moldy, spoiled and poor grade foods.
• Avocado- the peel and seeds are very toxic to birds. I have seen mixed information about the fruit itself - I would not risk it.
• Coffee and coffee beans.
• Rhubarb leaves- whether raw or cooked, the level of oxalic acid in the leaves is poisonous.
• The green parts of tomato plants.
• Potato shoots.
• The green parts of potato plants.
• Cat or dog food- these can contain bacteria.
• Foods high in oxalic acid should be fed sparingly as oxalic acid can damage the kidneys and bind nutrients such as calcium, preventing proper absorption. These foods include vegetables such as spinach, beets and beet leaves, purslane, chard, parsley, chives, cassava and amaranth.
• Salty foods.
• Chocolate.
• Alcohol- this can be lethal even in very small doses.
• Yeast- uncooked. (Source)
  

Seedmix

Canary seed, rape seed, golden German millet, oat groats, steel cut oats, nyjer, which is more desirable than thistle, flax/linseed, sesame, hemp.

The natural diet of seed eating birds is very rarely dry seed. For the better part of the year, all seed eating birds consume the milky seed directly from the plant. This seed is at its nutritional best. The vitamin content of even the best processed seed is nether consistent or adequate enough to assure optimal nutrition. Natural factors, such as drought, insects, excessive moisture, disease, and molds, make the vitamin levels of seed uncertain. Man made variables, the storage, transportation, and processing of feed, conspire to rob the seed of the vitamins needed by birds. Research has proven that the vitamin supplementation of seed is a must to achieve peak production. (Source: Petcraft)

Feeding canaries on dry seed and water only, is comparable to a diet of bread and water for ourselves.

Hulls should be blown off the top daily and seeds changed when there is nothing left.

Egg food - Soft food - Nestling food - Egg & Biscuit

It takes 25% of the hens body mass to produce one egg! Hard-boiled eggs with the shell gives her proteins and calcium, which is much needed.

Rotten egg food kills! It should not be kept in room temperature for longer than an hour. Dry commercial egg food can be served in the evening and kept over-night, for the next morning's breakfast.

"One Cup" Nestling Food

1 c. dry bread crumbs

1 c. high protein baby cereal

1 c. corn grits

1 c. quick oats

1 c. shredded wheat cereal

1/4 c. raw wheat germ

3 tbsp poppy seed

1/2 tsp avian vitamin powder

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together; add 1 to 3 rounded tablespoons to one mashed large

hard boiled egg (with the shells?) along with one shredded carrot.

Adapted from American singer canary.

Ingredients of Passwell EGG & BISCUIT: Whey and soy protein isolates, hydrolysed casein, bread crumbs, vegetable oils, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, methionine, lysine, vitamins A, B₁, B₂, B₁₂, C, D₃, E, K, nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, biotin, pyridoxine, folic acid, choline, inositol, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, sodium, magnesium, manganese, iron, copper, cobalt, iodine and selenium.

Soft food should be fed to non-breeding canaries once a week.

About 1 month before canaries are paired for breeding increase the amount of prepared Passwell EGG & BISCUIT fed to 2 heaped teaspoon per bird per week Fussy birds can be enticed to eat Passwell EGG & BISCUIT by mixing small amounts of soaked seed or other treat in the prepared food.

Once the birds are paired, offer a heaped teaspoon of prepared Passwell EGG & BISCUIT every day to each pair of birds. After the hen lays, offer as much prepared Passwell EGG & BISCUIT as the birds will eat. Continue to feed as much as the birds will eat until the chicks have fledged. Feed one heaped teaspoon of prepared Passwell EGG & BISCUIT per pair per day after fledging and up till the first moult. After the moult revert to feeding 1 heaped teaspoon per canary per week.

Ingredients of Hand-rearing food: Ground oats, maize and wheat. Soy and whey proteins, maltodextrins, methionine, lysine, mannon oligosaccharide, colour enhancers, vegetable oils, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, vitamins A, B₁, B₂, B₁₂, C, D₃, E, K, nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, biotin, pyridoxine, folic acid, choline, inositol, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, sodium, magnesium, manganese, iron, copper, cobalt, iodine and selenium.

FEED PREPARATION CHART

Age in Days	Food Parts	Hot Water Parts	Approx Solids	Brooder Temp OC
Day 1	1	6	7%	35-37
Day 2 to Day 5	1	5	12%	33-36
Day 6 to Day 10	1	4	17%	31-33
Day 10 to Day 15	1	3	22%	29-31
Day 15 to Day 20	1	2	27%	27-30
After Day 20	1	1	32%	25-27

SuperCanto

Moist nestling food + hard boiled egg cut in half with the shell.

July 2008

16 June: 2 eggs Norwich hen x crested gloster

20 June: Eggs laid back; 4+3+4+2 -1

27 June: 4 Norwich eggs replaced in nest

1 July: 4 Gloster eggs replaced in nest

1 Yorkshire egg replaced, date unknown.

3 July: 3 eggs hatched, 1 Norwich, 2 Gloster x Norwich

4 July: 3 eggs hatched

5 July: 1 chick found dead.