Cat...No, the Dog who ate the Canary

[Sitting Duck]

I don't have any canaries but I do have an aviary full of various finch species.

Can you tell me which species my dog ate?

[KarenB]

Why don't you count what you have left and see......

[lovezebs]

Sitting Duck

Yikes!!!

The feather looks like something from a dove or a pigeon, not a finch.

Good God, what happened?

~Elana~

[josh1810]

Possible he just picked up a feather off the ground. My dogs will grab any seed, feather, string, or paper from my birds and take off with it....

I also would think unless it was a sick bird he might have a problem catching a healthy flighty finch...

[kyro]

A few years ago one of my zebras escaped from its cage. And right before my eyes one of my German Shepherds ate it!

[Rox]

I know I probably should not find this funny at all but your dog's expression is classic!!!

[Sitting Duck]

I know I probably should not find this funny at all but your dog's expression is classic!!!

There you go...
That was the reaction I was looking for. She looks so guilty doesn't she?

Yes, I think she just picked up a Diamond dove feather that fell through the mesh of my aviary.

It so looked like a cartoon. "Bird, what bird? I didn't eat your bird."

[Rox]

A very guilty look hahaha

[Colt]

Is she a Golden Doodle? She does look terribly guilty. Mine do the same thing. They'll come out from under the bird cages absolutely covered in seed, feathers, and coconut fiber...lol

So you decided to keep the aviary and the birds? I remember back when you were talking about selling it.

[Sitting Duck]

Ya, I could not part with them.
I figured out a way to feed them more efficiently.
I used to have all these little dishes and each morning put a variety of seeds in each one, then a few with sprouted seed, then one with a little egg shells, then one with a little charcoal, then one with a little green algae, then one with a little dried meal worms, etc.

My wife, (the smart one in the family), suggested I use ice cube trays.
Now, once every 10 days I gather up the used/clean mini ice cube trays, put a little of this and that in each compartment of the tray, cover with cling plastic wrap, and put them in the freezer.

At 0500, when getting ready for work, all I do is pull a tray out of the freezer and put it in the aviary.

Saves me a TON of time in the mporning. I still mix up fresh water and vitamins eveyday but that is ok. I do so enjoy the little guys.

I had someone who wanted to buy all the 30+ birds at one time but not the aviary.

I backed out.

[Sitting Duck]

Here are some of my birds and my tray system.

[Rox]

Fantastic idea!

[MiaCarter]

Oh what a naughty boy!
His expression is classic. That is such a look of guilt if I've ever seen one!
"What bird?.....I didn't see a bird. What makes you think there was a bird??"

I agree with whoever said that it looked more like a dove or pigeon feather due to its size.
It looks like a flight feather, because the feather strands on either side of the quill are unequal lengths.

The other option would be a tail feather, but most tail feathers have equal length of feather on both sides of the quill. Perhaps it's the photo angle, but it looks like the left half of the feather is longer than the feather strands on the right side of the shaft. Those strands would be equal length if it was a tail feather.

I don't know of any finch with such a large flight feather (which are often a fair bit shorter than the tail feathers.)

And looking at the options in your aviary, none seem to have blue-grey feathers on the wings or tail.....except for the dove. (Though curiously, your dove is perched. But if he also spent a lot of time on the ground too, that would make him especially easy to catch.)
Or, of course, as you mentioned, he may have eaten the feather off the ground. My guys are constantly going for feathers that end up outside the bird room.

Is this guilty looking fellow adept at bird catching? (Some are. My husky was evil about it! He could catch birds while on his runner --- a cable transversing the yard with a 10-foot length of spiral cord on a trolley that moved up and down the cable. So even with a limited ability to move through the yard, he'd still catch them!)

Of course, a sick or already-dead bird is much easier. So that's a possibility too. I can't tell you how many times I've chased down my dogs to pry a dead "treasure" out of their jaws. *Shudder*

Did he even have access to the aviary? If I recall, you had that lovely custom-built wooden aviary on your back patio. I can't imagine him getting into that without breaking out a wall (and in that case, I imagine you'd have obvious damage and birds everywhere....big mess.)

My money is on the dove if it's definitely one of the aviary birds.
It would be fairly obvious if he raided the aviary. You should see a mess of feathers in there if he caught the bird in there. (And even more if he killed it in there.)

But I think it's more likely that he found a wild bird and ate that one.

Oh but is that look ever precious! He's a cutie pie....even if he's naughty.

Super clever system on the ice cube trays!
I'm glad you found a way to keep them, as that aviary was so lovely! And the birds even more so!

[lnlovesorange]

That is a pretty fantastic photo, I hope it didn't upset anyone too much...as you are correct, he does have the Cat who ate the canary look WICKED bad!!!

[lnlovesorange]

Sorry about the wicked, it's my boston accent shining through in my writing!!! It means REALLY!!! lol