Keeping and Breeding :

I have had good luck keeping pairs in double breeder canary enclosed box cages with wire and solid dividers. I usually hang their nest on cage front as they love alot of light and also camouflage it with some fake flowers or greeners so the hens feel more secure to sit tight on their nest. A standard canary nest is what I use with a grass or hemp liner and they do build a beautiful nest out of cotton and fibers. I have my pairs breeding from January - June here in the USA with the help of flourecsent lighting and foods. Hens start getting very tame when coming into condition and quite cheeky biting or nipping at you when trying to inspect their nest. Usually 3-4 blueish white eggs with some scrawls and markings are laid. At this time I divide the males with a wire divider as they tend to bother the incubating hens. Eggs hatch after 14days and I usually let the female raise the youngsters first 10 days of life and then reintroduce the male and watch him....if hes good let it be...if he starts pulling at the nest or chasing courting the hen he gets closed off again. Around 7 days of age I use a NFSS size "G" band and at 18 days of age they leave the nest and keep them together with mother until 30 days or so when they feed them self fine. Then you can put young on other side of divider and reintroduce the male for another round. One thing that has worked for me is using the drug Ronidazole during incubation and all the way up to 18 days of age, before this I was losing youngsters at 5-10 days of age with full crops and smelly nests.