Canaries sick? or are we doing something wrong?

[pek]

We recently had a few casualties concerning our canaries. We were given a pair of canaries from a friend of ours who breeds all kinds of birds and he had come to visit them several times and thought they were doing marvelously. My grandmother has been taking care of them mostly because she lives with us and when I am away at school she is very careful to make sure they have food and water and that the cage is covered with a towel at night. A few weeks ago our male canary died and we thought it might have been because of the temperature. At our house at this time of year it is very warm in the day, but but dipping to 50 F at night and the canaries live near a large window that is always closed except for maybe four inches at the top but this is very far from them so they are not in a draft. And as her mate had died I was worried that the female would be lonely so we were looking into getting her a friend. In the mean time I have been trying to spend time with her so she would not be lonely, but she was so wild I could not even get her out of the cage and recently she died as well. Not only is this very sad, but very confusing because I do not know what we did wrong. We have had birds for as long as I can remember and all those birds have done very well. We had a lovely budgie for years and he loved people which was actually his downfall because he was sitting on my dad's shoulder while he worked on the pipes under the sink and went outside forgetting the bird was there and he flew away. And our parrolet got out of the cage through a small opening and flew into the window when I had been gone for a few weeks. So mostly our birds are healthy and long living except for fluke accidents. One thought that occurred to me was that the birds were older than we thought. Does anyone have any ideas about what happened? Thank you!!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

50 is very cold even with a covered cage. Can you find a warmer spot to put the cages at night? I'd consider a space heater in their room.

 

[MySweetChickens]

i don't think it is good spot if there is a possible draft

and chickencanoe is right 50 degrees is pretty cold for birds

 

[pek]

Okay, thank you!
It is fifty degrees outside, but more like seventy in the house. Although being near a window, the cage would be closer to outside temperatures.

 

[cooliechick]

Canaries are much more hardy than you think. They are a wild bird that is used to cooler weather than our houses. Heat is much more a problem to their health than cold. I know of breeders who had to defrost their waters during the winter. Of course, the birds were used to it and had been in those surroundings for months. British breeders keep them in sheds in their back yards, not in heated facilities. They do way better this way.

Do not hang them above eye sight... it gets too warm. Keep them out of the kitchen, it is too full of hot moist air and just plain heat from the cooking. When I raised canaries they did far better in my garage than inside the house. Many of the seed mixes for canaries are not well balanced food. They need greens and fruits too. No avocado... it is toxic for them as well as other cage birds. By the way, the only time I covered a cage was when I took birds outdoors in the fall and winter to go to a bird show. I did that more to keep them from being startled than from the temperature change.

All birds have sensitive air sacs (lungs). As well as the moist air, spray cans with furniture polish, air fresheners, perfume, insect sprays, are absorbed into their air sacs and they can not get rid of it like we can. It gives them emphysema and they die. Smoke from burning anything, including candles and tobacco cause the same problems. I ruined one of my best singers died of emphysema several months after I was soldering lead (stained glass) near his cage.

I raised canaries for several years and still have a place in my heart for them. I may buy another small flock again one day.

Bonnie