Can Canaries Eat Sunflower Seeds

Can Canaries Eat Sunflower Seeds ? 3 Amazing Simple Steps

Can Canaries Eat Sunflower Seeds

The canaries don’t eat sunflower seeds as a normal diet. However, if sunflower seeds are crushed into small pieces they would eat some amount. But, as a routine diet, sunflower seeds are not preferred for canaries.

Sunflower seeds are a delicious diet for most birds like parrots, parakeets, and love birds, etc. Sunflower seeds are rich in nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that play an important part in the immune system of birds.

Like other small birds, canaries have also a special diet other than sunflower seeds. Those seeds and food supplements fulfill all the required needs of their body. As like improving their immune system, healthy and bright plumage, and active system for the breeding season.

Learn more about breeding of the canaries here

The canaries have a variety of food supplements like mixed seeds and green food supplements. Most canary bird owners use a normal diet and avoid any addition to that. However, some of them do practice adding crushed sunflower seeds into that diet to get a variety of mixed seeds.

As my personal experience of years, I have never used sunflower seeds for my canaries. It might be the reason that I do not want to practice anything new which could get some adverse effect either on the health of canaries or may affect the breeding season.

It isn’t as if I am discouraging of using sunflower seeds for canaries. I am just sharing my personal experience. My colleagues have also supplied sunflower seeds to their canaries for years in crushed form and had a good experience.

How Can Canaries Eat Sunflower Seeds? 3 Steps

You can follow these steps to check sunflower seeds supply for your birds:

Step 1.  Don’t put sunflower seeds without crushing them into pieces.

Step 2. In the beginning, put the crushed pieces of sunflower seeds into a separate food container.

Step 3. When canaries start eating sunflower seeds, observe any reactions/results and then mix the crushed sunflower seeds with mixed seeds.

By following these 3 simple steps, it would be easy for you to judge your canary’s interest in sunflower seeds. It would be difficult for canaries to eat sunflowers without being crushed so it’s important to have crushed them.

In addition, it is also important to peel the cover of the seeds and then crush them. Most of the bird’s owners crush the sunflower seed with their covers to provide some extra energy to their birds. But, I would not recommend it for the canary birds.

I personally supply boiled eggs, salad, cucumber, and mixed seeds to my canaries including fruits for maintaining their diet. I prefer more natural food supplements and a diet that keeps my birds healthy and active. However, there’s a difference in the diet in the breeding season and other than a breeding season.

Breeding season diet differs as to have healthy and active clutches of canary chicks without weakening the male and female canaries. Maintaining their strength and fitness, a proper breeding diet will not only keep them active but also allow them to breed several times in a breeding season.

In the end, I would suggest you avoid any new practice either in diet or in pairing the birds which may result in the serious end. However, if you still wish to supply sunflower seeds to your canary birds, I would suggest starting with a sing canary bird by separating that from other birds to fully observe the results.

Though it may not harm your bird that much, still precautionary steps are still a must. As I don’t bear to lose any of my birds or even get affected by something new. I love my canaries and want to ensure healthy and enriched food supplements to be supplied.

Hope you have now a clear idea regarding can canaries eat sunflower seeds and may follow 3 basic and simple steps to eschew any harm to your bird. If you have any questions regarding sunflower seeds for canaries, please let me know.  

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