Canary Chicks Day 3 - and we have THREE

How exciting to find that the third chick hatched early this morning!  I woke up at 5 and mother canary popped off her nest and, although the baby didn't show, I saw the empty egg shell. So I swooped in and took the discarded shell (I wanted pictures of it).

Comparison between a canary egg 
and an Eggland's Best large egg. 

I usually add a few drops of food coloring and a slosh of vinegar to my boiled eggs as they finish cooking in the hot water.  It's like Easter all year long!  (The canary egg is in its natural color.)  I took this one picture (below), but Chick #1 popped up, so the other two were hidden from sight.  I left them alone for a couple of hours so the newest chick could gain his strength after all that work hatching.  People have worried about the newest chick fighting for his place in the food line.  I have noticed that the parents feed whoever pops his head up.  Once that chick is satiated, he lays down for a nap and the other ones get their turn.  They don't stop feeding until everyone is asleep.  Without feathers, I can see food in their crop, evidence that all three are being well fed.  

 Three in the nest.  FEED ME!!  Chick #1's eyes are 
black, but it looks like #2 and #3 will have pink eyes.

Folks ask what I feed them while they're feeding their young.  Following online instructions, I boiled some bird seed mixed with quinoa for 20 minutes. Today I minced raw corn, kale, apple and egg with my little garlic chopping wheel, then added that to the mushy wet mix. Jo's favorite goodie is a ring of raw corn on the cob, but she leaves the nest too often to snack, so I am not offering whole corn again until the chicks are bigger.  Jess loves sugar snap peas and both birds adore broccoli and strawberries.

Did you notice in the video that 
Chick #2 had something on his beak?

I called a canary breeder and was instructed on how to remove what we both agreed was a blob of egg stuff from inside his shell that got stuck like glue while he was hatching.  Anything else (parent's poop) would have dried and then fallen off.  The breeder told me that if I needed to clean him or this bird could end up bald and blind, and most likely would have a deformed beak.  It was on his beak and forehead, and covered part of one eye, both nostrils, plus it had head feathers tangled in it too.  A damp q-tip did the trick.

Jo has food around her beak from Jessie's feedngs.

Both canaries are little
but cheerful Jessie is the smallest

Each time I try to get a picture of  Jess feeding Jo,
he leaps up to check out the camera.  Hi! Hi! Hi!

These are very friendly little birds and Jess' reaction is not an aggressive protection thing.  He's just curious yellow...