I think my canary is molting. Out of season?

Question

My canary is starting to have feather fluff on her wings and I've noticed a few glimpses of skin. She's about 7 mos old. From what I have read canaries molt in the summer when there are longer daylight hours, but I live in Northern California and we've had a dry sunny winter, so I don't know if that is what is causing it. I'm giving her clean food and water daily, changing her poop tray daily and giving her millet seed strands daily. The only stress I can think of is I am not home barely ever, except to change her food and water. Is this normal? How can I help her?

Answer 1

Birds usually molt twice a year. Once in Jan/Feb when the days are noticibally starting to get longer, and, again in the fall when the days start to become noticably shorter.



Although stress can cause it - usually it is stress like your cat stalking it, another bird bothering it, loud noises in the home etc etc. Stress molting and feather plucking usually go hand in hand....... this does not sound like your case.



No matter what kind of bird - it need several things every day. Good quality seed. A small bowl of finely cut up veggies and fruits that differ in type of fruit, type of veggie - and how you cut them so the bird doesnt get bored. Millet is a nice thing on weekends as a treat - not smart at all to leave in the cage all week long....... that would be like leaving candy in a childs room and expecting them to still eat a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner...... they dont have the brain power for that and neither does your birdie. Millet has no nutritional value at all - your bird is eating it and feeling full - but gets nothing at all from it. Your bird can actually starve to death on Millet..... having this in the cage all the time can be a problem.



Also - if you think your bird is having an issue - best to take some in focus and properly lighted photos and post them on a free sharing site like www.photobucket.com and leave a link to them along with your question. This lets us see what is going on.



Good Luck

Answer 2

Feather lost can also be from stress, i heard Canaries get stressed out and sick or die easily. Stress drains their vitamins and nutrients from their body and to avoid losing more vitamins, to keep their feathers pretty, they get rid of some feathers.



I thought birds molt when fall season is coming when there are less daylight hours to prepare for their winter coats? They age one year more after molting, which is very stressful and painful. Don't want to touch them during molting. It's just like teething.

Answer 3

Don't know if this will help since my bird is a Conure.

He started molting a few weeks ago for the second time. First time was around 6mnths. He will be one On valentines.