How to Make an Indoor Atrium for Canaries

Check the sex of your birds before laying out your canary atrium. Follow bird behaviorists’ advice to create several compartments within your aviary so males are separated as much as possible. Plan to house female canaries together, understanding that you’ll also need some division of quarters during molting and breeding seasons when none of the canaries may get along very well.

Measure the space so you’re able to calculate the amount of building materials needed to create the canary atrium. Sketch out several versions of your layout to determine the best way to apportion the room. If you can allocate space that’s at least six feet deep and three feet wide, your canaries will have plenty of room to co-habitate nicely. Call upon canary breeders, pet shop owners and bird hobbyists for additional layout advice if space you’ve earmarked for your atrium presents a unique architectural challenge.

Remove carpet and replace it with hard-surface flooring so waste, food and water droppings and other refuse are easy to clean up. Assess the room’s ventilation system. Add weather stripping to windows, check heating vents and returns to make certain the air in the canary atrium re-circulates properly. Canaries are inquisitive and they’ll poke around, so either remove or cover wall outlets to prevent beaks from probing dangerous places.

Build a frame of lumber or PVC piping that extends across the floor, up the walls and across the ceiling, defining the perimeter of your atrium. Nail the lumber into place since this will anchor whatever medium you choose to install to keep the canaries within their allotted space: industrial screening, mesh or agricultural fencing. Once the framework is secured, tack the screening to the frame, leaving open a section for an entry flap or the addition of a door that gets you in and out for maintenance tasks.

Partition off areas within the atrium using additional lumber and screening so you’re able to separate canaries into separate caged environments, or make it easy on yourself and install three large, prefabricated bird cages within the atrium. By using cages rather than constructing compartments, you leave more space within the atrium to maneuver when you clean or move the canaries around for everything from breeding purposes to separating sick or unhappy birds from the others.

Spruce up the canary aviary with a perches, toys, food bowls, beak-sharpening tools and items that entertain them during their time in the communal areas of the atrium, but skip the mirrors. Some canaries don’t take kindly to being scared by their reflections and mirrors can be so disconcerting, birds may stop singing. Install a thermostat in the room to keep tabs on the room temperature. Canaries live around eight to 10 years, but if life in your indoor atrium is idyllic, you could wind up parenting seniors who live up to 18 years.