Thank god it’s friday… Part 1

We lost a canary this week. Our oldest one, a german roller.

We’ve kept birds pretty much forever, generally some combination of our cockatoo (the princess Tatiana), cockatiels (currently two, Saruman, who we found out the hard way is female and is an all-white almost-albino, and our baby, Radagast, a beautiful grey with cinnamon markings that we think is male, but we aren’t positive yet), and canaries. We had two, now we have one. the one we still have is a gorgeous soft-feathered yellow male.

Unfortunately, we’ve found that our canaries have a tendency to pass away far younger than we expect, despite whatever care we give them. Our roller has actually been with us a good while, but he was at worst in middle age for a canary. In talking to other owners in similar situations, we’ve found what we think is a pattern: canaries just don’t seem to live as long if they’re kept in houses with dust birds.

Dust birds, for non bird keepers, are species that waterproof their feathers with dust. Most birds waterproof using oil from an oil gland near the base of the tail. dust birds have special feathers that they create that break down into tiny particles that they spread across their feathers during preening. As you might imagine, that’s not all that dust is spread across… The primary dust birds available as pets here in the states are the cockatoos and cockatiels — and, of course, we keep both.

If you remember the phrase “canary in a coal mine”, it’s because canaries have very sensitive respiratory systems. most of the canaries I’ve lost over the years here have been due to strokes. It’s not unreasonable to think that what’s happening is that at some point their system wears down from dealing with the dust from the other birds and they throw a clot into the brain. Bang. At least it’s quick.

so we’ve made the decision that we’re going to stop keeping canaries. A couple of others I know in similar situations have made the same decision, because they’ve seen the same kind of early losses, and it’s just not fair to the birds, as much as we enjoy their company. it just looks like if you keep birds that generate a lot of dust, you shouldn’t keep canaries.

And I’m going to see if I can find a good home for the one I have, to get him out of this environment. I was going to talk to the techs at my vets office today, but we got a little busy. but that’s another piece….

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