Trixie the bald canary

[Siobhan]

Hello to all. I'm a new canary parent, though I have two Quakers, two cockatiels, a budgie, a pigeon and a starling.

I stopped at Petsmart on Sunday for food for the wild birds (I feed them, too, LOL) and my eye fell on a little canary with a bald head. She had a sign on her cage that said "reduced for quick sale," which broke my heart. Poor baby, put on clearance like an out of style shirt. I recently lost one of my tiels and put away her cage and figured I still had seven birds and that was enough, but I could not turn away from the bald canary who needed a home with someone who wouldn't care that she's bald, so ... she's living in the same room with my starling and leopard gecko, in the cage vacated by my dearly departed Greta. My starling can't live in the same room with the parrots, though my pigeon and parrots have come to an understanding and live in the same room. I don't know how Ringo (the starling) will feel about Trixie (the canary) once she realizes she's going to stay, but last night and this morning, she was very nice about her new sibling. And Trixie has already started singing and chirping and ate a hearty breakfast. She seems quite healthy and energetic, and the store told me they'd had her looked at and tested and nothing is wrong with her otherwise.

Having a flock of various other species but no canary experience, I've been frantically researching canaries, and I thought finding a forum was a good idea, where I could ask questions of more experienced canary people.

[Sally]

I don't know anything about canaries, so can't help you there, but I did want to welcome you to the forum! The articles at www.finchinfo.com are geared to finches, but you might catch the finch bug from some of our members! If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier to answer locale-specific questions later on.

[Atbird]

Welcome to the forum. If Trixie is singing, she is probably a he. Sometimes canaries will pluck others on the head if fighting, I wonder if that is what happened to her before you found her. Hopefully she'll have a fully feathered head in a few weeks. Pictures please

[SamFinch]

I have a soft spot for misfits too...lol. Would love to see a picture!

[lovezebs]

Siobhan
Hello Siobhan, and welcome to the Forum.
Yes, we do have some Canary breeders on the forum and quite a few Canary owners and lovers as well. I happen to be one of them.

By the way, I love your name.

Now to Canaries.
Canaries are wonderful little birds. They are usually sweet natured, friendly, intelligent, and a joy to have around. They are fairly easy to take care of and usually hardy and undemanding. Their diet consists of Canary seed mix, a variety of vegetables and some fruits, hard boiled egg (grated) shell as well, cuttle bone, mineral block, fresh water and some fortified bird grit.

Most appreciate a daily bath and love swings. Cage requirements for a happy bird, are a cage that is at least 30 inches (or more) wide, to allow for some flight, or some free flight time for exercise. They do not get exercise by climbing around like hook bills. Some do appreciate a mirror.

I noted that you named your Canary Trixie, yet mentioned 'singing'. Are you assuming it's a girl, or is that what you were told at the store? The reason I mention this, is that it is the male Canary that sings, the female chirps. There are very very few females that sing, but it is unusual.

Regarding the bald head. Did the people at the store give any explanation as to the cause? I am assuming that the poor birdie was plucked by a cage mate. How is the feather condition elsewhere? Unless your bird had been plucked repeatedly over a really long period of time, then the feathers should grow back after the next molt and possibly much sooner. Good nutrition will help a lot in that department.

Well, goodluck with your new Canary. I think you will enjoy him/ her a lot. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

~Elana~

[Siobhan]

They DNA tested her while she was being examined to make sure the baldness wasn't due to illness of some sort and she is definitely a she. I watched some You Tube video of singing canaries, and one of them was a female -- the owner said she had laid eggs -- and Trixie's singing isn't as tuneful as that one's, but definitely not just chirping, because she's done some of that, too. She's singing. I expect my starling to start copying her soon, because she already does pretty good imitations of the parrots, whom she can hear in the next room. Trixie was in her cage at the store alone, but they might have had her with another bird before that.

Her feathers are fine otherwise. Her eyes are bright and her energy level is high. She has a swing and poor Greta's toys, and she has already chosen a favorite perch, but uses the others, too. She also has a mirror and is interested in it, but not overly so. She looked at it and pecked at the bell hanging from it, and has pecked at some of the other toys, but the swing seems to be her favorite so far. She has access to a bath, but hasn't used it for a bath. She just drinks out of it. She also has a regular water dish. She also has a calcium chew and finch/canary mix seed, and I gave her some lettuce this morning because that's all we had on hand.

I thought I'd let her get settled and used to us before I offer to let her out. The room she's in with Ringo and my lizard is bird-safe and has a screen door so the dogs can't go in, and the birds can't get out. Her cage isn't big enough for flight, but she hops around from perch to perch and uses her wings to propel herself. Greta only slept in it and was out all day in the parrots' room. I'm hoping to be able to give Trixie that kind of freedom, too, eventually. I also hope that eventually she'll sit on my hand or shoulder, though I know canaries are less willing to do that than parrots or my starling. Ringo sits on my shoulder and head all the time, and maybe seeing her do that will convince Trixie that it's safe to do so. If not, that's okay, too. I just couldn't leave her in that store with a clearance tag on her cage.

[Rox]

Hi and welcome!!

Firstly, singing is not a trust worthy indication of a male. My one canary hen (proven breeder) can whistle an impressive tune! Not quite like the boys but she could easily fool someone

My other hen had a problem a while back where she started loosing all of her head and neck feathers. I isolated her for 2 weeks, put her on a course of antibiotics (with added vitamins) and fed her a lot of veggies and egg food (the protein in the egg food assist with new feather growth). She grew her feathers back beautifully!

It will take a while but she should come right. Congrats on rescuing her and I am sure you will enjoy her. Canary's are full of character

[monotwine]

Others have covered your question quite well. I wanted to welcome you to the forum and say that you are a real Angel for taking in a "quick sale reduced to clear" bird.

I often vow never to do it again, but those heartstrings get pulled when one sees those poor birds.

Canary's can become quite tame and I'm sure once your girl settles in you will be able to give her that freedom you are wishing for her and she will reward you with lots of antics.

[Siobhan]

I found her weak spot this morning. I gave her some millet. She was so excited she almost forgot herself and landed on my hand. LOL She flitted from side to side at the far end of the cage, and then forward and back, closer and closer. She's been eating her seed mix, but I thought maybe a bribe wouldn't hurt and would help show her that Mama is safe. The moment I got my hands out of the way, she went after that millet. My parrots love millet and I give them some about once a week for a treat.

[monotwine]

That didn't take too long at all! Before you know it she will be more than happy to be close to her new caring mama.

[MiaCarter]

Hi Siobhan! Welcome!

You sound just like me! I'm always taking the "clearance" pets -- the ones that are less than perfect for whatever reason.

And oh. my. goodness. You have a starling! Love!
I was a licensed wildlife rehabber in MA and I once cared for a wild starling. So smart and clever. I can only imagine what a joy your fully tame starling must be! Is he a black Euro starling? Or one of the more fancy types, like an Amethyst or Gold Breast?

On your canary....
I agree with the others that it's likely a result of another bird plucking her. A bird can't pluck its own head, so it's usually another bird's doing.

Does the skin look healthy? No redness or crusting or anything, right?

If you saw irritation on the skin, I might suspect something like a fungal infection (which can cause feather loss and breakage).
Another possibility would be something like mites, which could cause the bird to scratch to the point where the feathers break off.

But if the skin looks healthy, I think it's probably just the result of another nippy bird. Assuming the pairing was brief, they should grow back in fairly short order. (If she was with another bird who was plucking her long-term, that can cause permanent damage to the follicle. But that's quite uncommon.)

[Siobhan]

The skin looks perfectly healthy, no marks or sores or redness. Very healthy appetite and drinks about as often as any of my other birds do, though she still hasn't had a bath that I know of. Ringo demonstrates several times a day, so it's not like she doesn't have a model to follow. LOL

Today she decided to be a bouncing ball and has flitted all over her cage and chirped her little heart out. She also finally agreed to sit on a perch close to where I was sitting so I could visit with her, instead of hiding at the back of the cage. I cleaned her cage for the second time today and she was nervous about that, but not as much as the first time. We're making progress. She decided to perch on her millet spray up at the top of the cage where it's clipped on, so I went hunting amongst the extra bird stuff (we have lots of extra bird stuff with all these birds) and found a little swing that barely rocks and put it in there. It gives her a high place to perch. She really likes the parrot swing that belonged to my dearly departed tiel, so I left it in, too.

I'm trying to observe as much as I can to figure out what she likes and uses and what she doesn't, so I can arrange her cage to suit her. I don't want it to be too busy or crowded for her, but I don't want to take out anything she likes. It was set up and furnished for Greta, and I didn't change anything before I gave it to Trixie. I think Trix is still figuring out what she likes, too, so it's a work in progress.

[Atbird]

My canaries love swings. They enjoy jumping into it at a fast speed, setting it to swinging violently. Having two swings will make her happy. They also like toys that have thin "strings" they can pull. Mine have one with rubber strings and beads and another with fleece strings that used to be a dog toy that fell apart, so I just clipped it to the side of the cage and they run their beaks along it.

[Siobhan]

One of my Quakers has a toy with strips of fleece and he never plays with it, so I'm going to give it to Trixie. The toy she's shown the most interest in so far has beads and unraveled cotton rope. She pecked at a couple of bells and she seems to really like the mirror. She sits by it a lot but she doesn't peck at it, she just looks at it and then looks at me like, "Do you see that bald canary?"

[Siobhan]

I let Trixie out for a while today while I moved her stuff into a bigger cage. She sat in the window and stared out for the longest time. Poor baby has probably never seen out a window before. She's not great at flying and it wore her out quickly, and she started making the sound that I *think* means she's confused -- she hasn't made that sound since her first day. So I decided she'd had enough for the first day and because she's not tame, I had to towel her to put her into her new cage. But I think it was a successful experiment. My starling freaked when Trix first started flying around because I don't think she realized until that moment that Trixie could do that. She squawked and zoomed to my shoulder and peeked around my head at Trixie. LOL But she adjusted quickly and mostly ignored her. It'll be a while before i feel comfortable with just leaving them out together without supervision, but it will also be a while before Trixie builds up enough strength and endurance to fly more than quick spurts.