BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds Unexpected new bird owner.

Last week, on friday morning, I was moving my car to the street before I went to work. When I got out, I found this guy on my trunk.



Wow, he contrasted with the emerald paint on my Infinity. He seemed to be attracted to the shine of the car and didnt fly away when I went up to him. When I tried to catch him, he would fly away to another part of my car. He didnt seem very used to flying, so I got a towel from my apartment and caught him. I stuck him under a basket and went to work. At work, I made a coupld of flyers stating that a Pretty Bird was found with color pictures of Similar looking finches (I thought he was a finch) stolen from the internet and posted them at the local grocery store and around the complex.

Its a week later and nobdy called, so Im the new master fo this beautiful bird. I named him Kinkin (keen-keen), because he is golden in color and I found him on a Friday. If you know Japanese, you understand...

I now know that he is a canary and he is probably not a male because he doesnt sing. but Ive been calling him a him since day one, because he is brightly colored and I concluded he was a male.

A long time ago, when I was in jr high-high school, I used to raise budgies, but that was a long time ago... I could use any help I can get to take care of Kinkin. Right now, he is still in the basket and doesnt like to come out at all... If I need him out, he is eager to get back in even tough its a small basket. He has food (just canary seed), water and cuttlebone. He gobbled up a leaf of lettuce I put in there with him, but I decided that I better wait to hear what advice there is before I feed him anything other than seed again.

Im planning on going down to the hardware store to build him a bigger cage.

She is such a pretty canary and I'm so glad you took her in, as she probably wouldn't have survived out on her own for too long.

Canaries eat mainly a seed diet, but should get extras every day. You can give her little bits of fruits & vegetables (pretty much anything except avacado), a bit of toast, some hard boiled egg, potato, rice, etc. You may be able to find a pellet that is also made for canaries and if she will eat it, you could always have both seeds & pellets available.

Basically, you can feed a canary just about everything that you eat as long as it is a healthy food - no junk foods, no coffee, no chocolate. If she is not used to a varied diet, she may not eat much besides the seeds, but its always good to continue to offer other foods as there is very little nutrition in dry seeds.

Hopefully you can have a cage for her soon, so she will be able to hop and/or fly around a bit more.

Good luck & I hope you will drop by frequently to let us know how things are going.

No kidding. He surely would have fallen a victem to a hawk, dog, cat or kids.

He really is well mannered. When his out of the cage, he will let me sit right next to him on the bed. But he flees from my hands. If I push him in the direction of his cage, he goes right back in.

Well, Im off to the hardware store to see what kind of cage I can make him.

Good luck - hope you can send a picture of him in the new cage.

The moment I saw the picture I knew you had a beautiful canary. My husband got me a canary Christmas 2003 with the same type of coloring. He is definitely a male and sings often and loudly. I feed Nigerian thistle as his staple seed, which he loves. i also feed specialty seed mixes, sunflower chips, and flax seed. These are treats sprinkled on his thistle. He also loves sweet potato (I cut off just a small chunk, peel, and cook until just done), broccoli, hard boiled egg, apples, and grapes cut in half with the seed removed. His color is bright, his feathers in wonderful condition, and he loves his baths, usually just after I have cleaned his cage and put down fresh paper. While I don't take him out of the cage, when my husband or I put a hand in the cage to remove or put in a dish, he will sit on our hand and chirp. Some days he fusses and wants that attention several times during the day. The cage is 30 inches long with perches at either end so he flies back and forth. It is 16 inches wide and about 18 to 20 inches high. It is plenty roomy for him and is on a double bookcase between the dining room and living room so he has plenty of interaction with us. I am so glad you found him and were able to capture him; he will now have a long life with a loving person. Bless you and all those who love these little wonders.

What a coincidence. Kin-kin's cage is very close to the dimensions for your canary. Kinkin is doing very well and really likes trying to sing louder than whatever is going on, be it music, other birds, or whatever... He is also very curious about his food. Whenever I take out his food dish, he watches intently wondering where his food is and whether he is getting a treat or not. I dont give him treats very often - just a couple of times a week or so.

You might try veggie and fruit treats every day, varying from day to day. I firmly believe that this is what has made Sunny's color so vivid and keeps his feathers in top condition. Kin-Kin will be curious about everything. Sunny watches everything I do around his cage and he knows when his treats are being fixed, he is in the corner of the cage just waiting for the dish to come. Keep us posted on your little love.