Detailed Guide to Siskin Bird Keeping Methods and Daily Management Techniques

The siskin is a relatively popular cage bird, easy to tame, fond of singing, small and cute. How to keep a siskin in the best way?

How to keep a siskin

1. For a siskin cage, a canary cage or a robin cage can be used. For keeping male siskins there are specially crafted siskin cages. The food cup prepared for the siskin should have a small opening, a large belly and be deep, allowing the bird to stand in it to feed.

2. The feed is mainly millet, glutinous millet, barnyard grass seed, perilla seed, peanut, walnut, sunflower seed, etc. Generally, corn, peanut and perilla seed are mixed and ground into powder at a ratio of 3:1:1 and fed to the bird, or granular feed is prepared with 5 parts millet, 4 parts barnyard grass seed and 1 part white perilla seed. Usually feed a small amount of cornmeal mixed with egg yolk (weight ratio 2:1). Feed 1-2 small leather worms every day, and often feed some Chinese cabbage, rapeseed, purslane and a small amount of sand grains.

3. Siskins like to drink clean water and love cleanliness, so the drinking water must be changed frequently. In spring and summer, set up a water bath trough in the cage for them to bathe in.

4. Clean the cage regularly 1-2 times a week. In spring, autumn and winter, siskins should often be placed outdoors to get more sunlight. But in summer, never expose them to the scorching sun. The bird cage is best placed in a ventilated place outdoors, and mosquito and insect bites should also be prevented.

5. The management of siskins during the two molting periods in spring and autumn is the key to keeping them. At this time they are highly alert to the outside world, so try to provide them with a quiet environment; at the same time, pay attention to reducing temperature differences in the environment and maintain a certain temperature. The indoor temperature generally should not be lower than 18°C.

6. The siskin bought back is generally trained to catch food in flight, usually indoors, with perilla seed as a reward. First put a neck rope on the siskin. After it adapts for a few days, starve it for a few hours first, then tie the bird to a wooden stick and let it fly from the wooden stick to the hand to eat perilla seed. After a few days it can learn this, then slowly increase the distance, and finally the rope can be removed to practice flying back indoors.

When keeping a siskin, note that you must not feed too much oily feed, to avoid causing fat accumulation.