The Practical Canary Handbook: A Guide to Breeding & Keeping Canaries Paperback – Illustrated, November 22, 2005

Kudos to Mary Miley-Russell for her EXCELLENT work!!! I inhaled this book! It was so easy to read because her style of writing is smooth and she explains things well. The book is comprehensive and be will a good addition to the library of a novice (like me in my first year of canary breeding) yet it still has information that a more experienced breeder would value. The author focuses on the American SInger and included is a lot about the song of this bird and others. I am raising Fifes, but I still found the material in this book to be broad as to cover all topics and it was just full of tips and tricks that would enhance the keeping of canaries for anyone. The book is 135 pages and it measures 8.25 inches x 11 inches. I only wish this book was available in a hard back as my paper copy will not hold up over time as I am referring the it so much. This is a great book, I am very pleased to have it and will use it for continued reference.

I have owned and bred canaries for personal stock for many years. Long before this book came out. One of the most important things a canary owner needs is a good book to guide them. This is the book. I am now on my second copy and thinking about getting another so I will never be without when it goes out of print. This is how reliant I am on this book! It has answered every question I have ever had. Before I would have to reference several books to get the answers I needed. Not the case with this book so now it's the only book I go to. I won't go chapter by chapter with you because you can look them up here on Amazon. I will tell you some of the most important ones to me. Setting up a medicine chest for your bird. You don't want to wait until your bird is ill before getting the items you need. Birds go down fast and time is not a luxury you have. Page 127 gets you started on the items you will need. This book goes over everything from cages, feed, how to buy a bird, the do's and don't, breeding and even though you may never plan on breeding please read this section. It is full of info that will be helpful to you in just owning and caring for you bird. This book also covers the health of your bird and illnesses. The Practical Canary Handbook covers everything as far as I'm concerned. Please take a moment and check it out. You won't be disappointed.

This is an excellent book for novice canary owners or those who aspire to become breeders. It is clearly a compilation of many years of experience and research by the author who has done a good writing job. My only concern is that some of the information, especially on foods, is seriously outdated. The pet bird world (breeders and veterinarians) has uniformly transformed itself to the use of pelleted food rather than seeds but this book still discusses seeds at length, not pellets. Avian Veterinarians all recommend pelleted foods, and especially favor the ones developed over a decade ago by Avian Veterinarian Dr. Greg Harrison, an authority and author in avian medicine since the 1980s.. I am hoping a revised edition of Ms. Miley-Russell's book is in the works.

Well written resource if you have or plan to get a canary. Unfortunately, even though canaries are supposed to get along with finches, mine did not. He did however, have a beautiful "song'.

The Canary Handbook is a good product. Good paper,easy reading and beautifull color pictures. I am fully satisfied with the product. The only thing thats bothering me is that Amazon.Com uses a hugh carton box filled with air-plus-book to mail the product, making overseas shipping/postage extremely expensive.

Excellent hand book on canaries

The author clearly has a lifetime of experience raising and showing canaries. I feel the detailed information is excellent and appears well researched. I would have preferred better in text references. While I have no intention of ever showing canaries the American Singer specific chapters provided an interesting insight into the show and breeding world. I agree with the reviewer that felt the illustrations were weak. Better, and more, illustrations and photographs would greatly enhance this book. In the age of the internet we can look up virtually anything, but It would be nice to have that visual reference provided. With that said I intend to keep this book as a reference on my bookshelf. It has the kind of information you can keep coming back to.Yes, I would recommend this book to anyone that is serious about canary care, breeding, and potential showing.

Muy útil y buenos consejos de cría de canarios