Give buttermilk or tea in place of drinking water for 3 or 4 days.
If the disorder persists, or if the droppings are off-color and evil smelling, write us for further guidance, describing the conditions and what you have done.
CUTTING BEAK AND CLAWS
Overgrown nails and claws should be trimmed, using a sharp nail clipper or small nail scissors. In the case of the beak, just trim off the overhang—to a point, if possible. It is usually only the larger rear and the middle front nails that become overgrown. Holding the claw up to the light, cut between the end of the nail and the red vein. There will be no bleeding unless you accidentally cut into the vein, in which case touch the end of the claw with a styptic pencil or a spot of iodine.
FITS—PAROXYSMS
Fright, sudden chills or overexposure to hot sunlight may upset a bird severely. When no more than fainting is involved, a few drops of water sprinkled on the bird’s head will bring it around, after which see that it is allowed quiet, and treat it with extreme gentleness.
Under other conditions, a bird may suddenly drop off his perch, unconscious, in the midst of a song or other normal activity. In these cases the cause is usually quite different, and no treatment other than correct diet can be offered. The pet may survive one or two such attacks and live for years afterward.
LOSS OF SONG
Fright, poor health, or loss of sexual vigor are generally the cause of loss of song.
Sudden fright is one of the chief causes and may occur through the cage being accidentally upset, or an attack by a cat. Some aviary birds are so lacking in contact with people that they seem severely frightened if a stranger approaches closely. Be gentle with canaries and endeavor to protect them from such frights. The loss of song may last from a day or so to several weeks, but it can usually be overcome through playing the radio or phonograph. Sometimes the noise of a vacuum cleaner provides the stimulation needed.
Poor health is indicated when a cold has persisted for several weeks, when feathers are shed out of season, when the digestive system is upset, when the bird is overfat, or when the bird is troubled with mites or sore feet. Treat for such ailments first, and then provide the song stimuli as mentioned above.
Song is a strong secondary sexual characteristic of the normal male canary. Old or weakly sexed males usually do not sing as often or as vigorously as normal males, even though in perfect health.
When a canary has never sung, there is always the possibility that it is a normal hen and will never do so. Hen canaries have been known to inherit rather strong male characteristics and to sing frequently but usually without the vigor and fullness characteristic of normal males.
When a canary is apparently in good health and all other stimuli have failed to secure the return of song, try placing a good singing canary in an adjoining room where it can be heard but not seen by the silent bird.
MITES
There are many different kinds of mites and lice which live on birds as their natural hosts. The biting grey lice live on the scales of the bird’s skin, feet and legs, or upon its feathers. Red mites suck the blood of the host and generally leave the bird in daylight and return to it at night. The biting lice seldom leave the bird, and are most difficult to find. They are sometimes removed when the bird combs out his feathers with his beak. Red mites are more easily located. Place a white cloth over the cage at night, and if the mites are present, they will be found as little red specks on the cloth in the morning. Run a hot iron over the cloth to destroy them.
Lice cause discomfort and weaken the bird. The one rule to follow in correcting the condition is routine and complete cleanliness. Dismantle the cage and stand, and scrub every part thoroughly with a hot, strong suds. Dust the bird with a good lice powder and see that it is allowed to bathe regularly. This program may not rid the bird of lice completely or all at once, but it will keep the number of lice below the danger point.
In aviaries where many birds are housed in a special room, a poultry type spraying technique can be used effectively along with regular cleaning practice. We will be glad to make suggestions if you write us about your specific problem.
MOULTING—LOSS OF FEATHERS
It is normal for a bird to replace its feathers with new growth each year. Moulting usually starts in July, but the actual date may vary in different climates. A complete moult may take about three months. It is not a disease, but the drain on the vitality of the bird requires that he be given particular care and special supplementary feeding. The first symptoms to be noticed are a general lassitude and drowsiness followed in a few days by a loose feather or two on the floor of the cage. In order that this normal yearly occurrence will proceed as uneventfully as possible, we suggest the following procedure:
Keep a French’s Bird Biscuit and Cuttle Bone in the cage at all times, and add eight to ten drops of French’s Iron Compound to the drinking water occasionally. By way of supplemental feeding, add about ¼ teaspoonful of either flaxseeds or niger seeds to the French’s Bird Seed daily. Two or three times a week give a portion of hard cooked egg that has been mixed with toasted bread crumbs, etc., see under “Egg Food,” in “General Care” section. About half a teaspoonful should be sufficient with each feeding. In addition, feed French’s Moulting Food in place of French’s Song Food two or three times a week and continue the cultivated and wild green foods. It is normal for most males to lose their song during the moult. They usually start singing again within a few weeks after the new feathers appear.
When song is first resumed the adult bird may sing much like a baby bird. However, the volume should increase to its full capacity within a short time.
Spring hatched canaries going through their first moult usually shed only the soft body feathers. Only after a canary is a year old does it shed the tail and wing feathers as well as the body feathers.
Birds have been known to skip the entire moult and apparently be none the worse for it. Also, some canaries continue to sing right through the whole process, with no interruption.
Loss of feathers at other than the regular moult indicates a weakened condition and is not normal or desirable. Sometimes referred to as soft moult, this condition may be due to interruptions of the bird’s sleep when a light in the room is turned on and off at night. Wrong feeding is an important cause, and keeping the bird in a hot, steamy atmosphere will also lead to this trouble.
Feed freshly made egg food, as above, daily for two weeks or so, and place French’s Iron Compound in its drinking water (10 drops daily) for the same period. See that the cage location is changed if it is in a room that is too warm, even for brief periods, as is usual in a kitchen. The cage should also be moved if it is where the bird might be disturbed several times during the night. Examine for lice and make sure that mice are not keeping your bird awake by climbing into his cage for seed and water.
NERVOUS TICS
Cage birds sometimes develop annoying habits as a result of excess energy and playfulness. They may get in the habit of tugging at the paper on the cage floor; or if they have a band on their leg, they will sometimes pick at it until their leg becomes very sore. Ridding a bird of such annoying or harmful habits will be a good test of your ingenuity. In the case of a leg band, the easiest thing to do is to remove the band. A change in the location of the cage might help. Sometimes a new cage of different shape or color will turn the trick. Some owners allow their birds the freedom of a whole room and this usually is beneficial—providing windows and doors are kept shut.
OBESITY
When a canary eats more than it requires for energy, some of the excess eventually accumulates as fat. Birds differ individually in the amount of food necessary. Some do much better in a large cage where they have more chance for exercise and all birds benefit by free flying.
A bird usually eats from daylight to dark and in some homes “lights out” comes rather late. Try to let the bird keep a natural day, dawn to dusk, and if he is to be kept awake during the evening, cover his cage part of the day.
SORE EYES
Sore and inflamed eyes or lids should be treated with 2% yellow oxide of mercury ointment, obtainable from your druggist in a long necked metal tube. Squeeze a tiny amount beneath each lid and wipe the excess on the outside of the lids. Cover the perches with a wrap of soft cloth tied in place in order to prevent irritation when the bird rubs its eyes on the perch.
SORE FEET AND LEGS
As with many conditions that differ from normal, sore feet and legs are generally only the end result of conditions which may have no apparent connection. However, if the cage and perches are not kept clean, if the bird does not bathe regularly, or if the perches are the wrong size or are coated with gravel, it becomes necessary to correct these obvious errors in management. When a bird is ailing it will often refuse its bath, and its feet are likely to become quite dirty. The corrective measure here is to put the bird on a normal seed and green food diet with rich additions such as egg food only during the moulting and breeding seasons.
In older birds, scales on the legs and toes will very often build up rather than slough off, causing an unsightly and sometimes a painful condition. These can be softened with a little olive oil and gently removed without injury to the bird. Heavy callouses on the bottom of a bird’s feet may be due to improper perching or to a fungus growth. In hot, humid climates the latter is a possibility, and it is suggested that you ask your druggist for a small amount of one of the new fungicides for trial. Perches should be made of soft wood and should never be gravel coated.
If the sore feet are accompanied by overgrown claws it may be that a joint was strained due to the claw catching somewhere in the cage. The remedy, of course, is to keep the claws properly trimmed.
WHEEZING
Wheezing in a canary is not an uncommon disorder and is usually due to the effects of a cold. It may also be due to an overfat condition. If either of these conditions are present, treat as indicated. Otherwise, write us giving full details.
If you have a particular canary problem not fully covered in these pages, write to us explaining in detail what the problem is, what you are doing for your canary, and what you have been feeding him. We will send you our best advice without cost or obligation. Please enclose stamp for reply. Address: Bird, The R. T. French Company, Rochester 9, N. Y.
Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- B
- Baldness 66
- Bathing 10
- Bird gravel 9
- Blindness 66
- Breeding cages and nests 55
- Breeding problems 58
- Broken bones 67
- Broken feathers 67
- Buying a canary 5
- C
- Cage 6
- Cage care 7
- Cats 11
- Chills and colds 67
- Color bred canaries 64
- Color feeding 10
- Constipation 67
- Cutting beak and claws 68
- G
- Green food 9
- I
- Insect food 10
- L
- Loss of song 68
- O
- Obesity 70
- P
- Perches 6
- S
- Second nest 58
- Selecting birds for breeding 55
- Sexing canaries 64
- Shipping a canary 12
- Slip claw 64
- Soft moult 70
- Sore eyes 70
- Sore feet and legs 70
- Sweating hen 59
- T
- Taming a canary 12
- V
- Vitamin B₁₂ Supplement 7
Form No. A-1-51
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Transcriber’s Notes
- Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.
- Provided additional bibliographic information based on copyright research.
- Silently corrected a few palpable typos.
- In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.