No Drafts Please!
Keep your pet canary out of any drafts. A drafty room can kill a canary! Keep any heat vents, air conditioning, fans, etc. on the opposite side of the room from the canary cage. The best check is to hold a lit candle next to the cage. If the flame flickers it is probably too drafty.

Sunlight
Indirect sun is great for a canary and can stimulate singing and breeding. But be sure to keep your bird out of direct sun. if you can't keep him in a spot in the room with no sun then cover part of the cage so if he gets hot he can take shelter in the shade.

Obsticles
At some point it is possible that your pet bird gets out of the cage and flys around the house. Be sure to keep ceiling fans, halogen lights, oven burners, clear widows with no blinds, etc. in a different room or take precautions to keep the bird from being hurt. Imagine that the bird is flying around and check each corner of the room for possible hazards BEFORE the bird actually gets away from you!

Water
Water is perhaps the most important thing you can give your canary. A canary has a very high metabolism and can die within 24 hours if it runs out of water! Be very careful when you go on vacation that your bird will have plenty of water and won't run out. It's always a good idea to put a couple water dispensers on the cage before you go on vacation, a backup in case one leaks. Also be sure to give your canaries fresh water daily.

Seed
Seed is a staple diet of canaries. They should have seed at all times. There are all kinds of mixes but I have found that one made up of mainly canary seed with a little rape seed, flax, thistle and millet works best. Remember that seed must be supplimented with other foods and must not be your birds entire diet all the time. I usually go to an all seed diet just after breeding season but increase the variety during the molt and really beef it up around breeding season.

Other Foods
Egg food should be a part of your birds diet to give it extra protein. Simply boil an egg for about 20 minutes, cool it and mash it up with a fork. I usually only give a about 1/5 of the entire egg to a pair of birds and can split it up between five pairs during breeding season. I also give my birds a slice of an apple one day and a slice or two of an orange the next. Avoid lettuce as it can give them the runs. Shredded carrots are good too but I don't use them.

The Great Grit Debate
Some people swear that their birds need grit while others never use it. Some say the birds can overeat on grit and it can kill them. Grit is basically sand, gravel or eggshells that the bird eats and uses to digest food. The theory is that the grit stays in the gizzard and crushes the food before it gets to the stomach. Since I've heard that birds can overeat on grit I try to avoid giving it at all times. I usually only offer it to my birds once a month or two and then only in a small dish that pushes in between two wires in the cage. I usually leave it in there until they pick through it and leave it empty until the next month.

Cuttlebone
A cuttlebone is essential for canaries, especially for the hens. A cuttlebone is actually the skeleton of a squid and is mostly calcium. The birds will eat this as a source of calcium. The hens especially need the calcium as the eggs they lay have a lot of calcium in them.

Vitamins
Vitamins can be a blessing or a curse. If you feed a balanced diet you should need very little vitamin suppliments in the birds diet. Just like in a fish tank where there is a delicate balance of vitamins and minerals you don't just want to keep dumping chemicals into the tank or you will have big problems. Many people who take handfulls of vitamins every day end up with serious problems. Usually the doctor tells them to stop taking the vitamins! However, if you only feed a seed diet with no veggies then you probably should use some form of vitamin supplement. I would also recommend using them if your birds are sick. Most vitamins are mixed with drinking water or sprinkled on the food. They are important in some cases but use sparingly!

Cleanliness
The best way to keep a canary healthy is to keep it's cage clean. You should offer fresh food and water in clean dishes daily. You should wash the food and water dishes daily. Once a week you should soak the food and water dishes in 10% bleach for at least 30 minutes and then scrub them down with an old toothbrush to kill all bacteria and mites. Clean the bottom of the cage AT LEAST weekly. Some recommend doing it daily but I found this to be a lot of work with a bunch of cages. Clean the bottom grating of the cage at least once every two weeks. Position the perches so the birds don't sit on one and soil the other. Also position the food and water so the birds don't put droppings in them.

Medication
Mites are a common problem with canaries and the birds should be sprayed down with a mite spray about every three months. This will also kill any external parasites in and around the cage. Twice a year you should apply Scatt or Ivermectin to kill external and interanal parasites. (See my diseases link above.)

Trimming Nails
A birds toe nails need to be trimmed at least once a year. I usually trim the nails of all my birds as I go into the breeding season and put the birds into their cages. I use a regular toe nail clippers. Be sure not to cut into the vein of the nail as a bird can quickly bleed to death from loss of blood through a nail. You should have some medication that stops bleeding in birds on hand just in case you cut to close. (which is easy to do!)