Canary Health: Plucked Mama Canary and her Son has NO FEET

by Joan Quinn
(Port St. Lucie, FL)

Canary Health: Feather plucking and NO FEET.

Went to the Bird Store to get bird food
and the owners asked me if I wanted the 2 canaries in the back room.

Someone dropped them off. Mama was plucked pretty badly but a lot of her feathers grew back. She is a red factor canary and her 8 month old son is bright yellow with NO FEET. In fact on leg is only half of a leg. He had nowhere to perch, he just sat at the bottom of the cage on the grating, shivering.

I took them home and the son without feet looked like he was dying.

I put him on a furry bed that I made for him and he couldn't even keep his eyes open. I prayed that night for God to take him if he wasn't going to get better.

When I woke up and uncovered Mama Bird and Baby Boy, to my surprise, he fluttered into the water dish and took a bath. I gave them both Iverlux for 5 days as a treatment for mites and Tetratex (antibiotic)
for 5 days in their water. Now Baby Boy AND Mama Bird both sing. Of course, Mama doesn't sing nearly as well as her son. She is still plucked and looks awful but she is thriving!

Mama Bird goes through the motions of feeding her 8 month old son and he readily opens his mouth for her. However, there is nothing in her mouth. I guess it is just her maternal instinct and he readily accepts.

They are truly bonded and Mama could be one reason why her Baby has survived this long. I made the cage a handicapped cage so that Baby Boy could land when he flies. You see, he cannot perch. I line the bottom of their cage every day with clean paper towels so that Baby Boy's legs don't slip through the grating and this is where I keep their food and water in the shallowest of dishes.

They both have very good appetites, however, they are still in quarantine due to their canary health until Thanksgiving, when I will bring them out and place them with my other birds in the sunroom.

I am so blessed to have these birds in my care. I just love them both so much. I really thought Baby Boy was going to die that first night, and I was hoping he would go peacefully in his sleep. But where there is LOVE, miracles do happen.