Soft Molt

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Soft Molt

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Canary FAQ

Posted by Mark on October 05, 2005 at 11:32:24:

I just noticed today that my canary, Bert, appears to be soft molting.

This year, he seemed to go into his regular molt late, in mid July, instead of mid June, and did not seem to shed as completely as he did last year. He seemed to complete his molt, but now I am seeing a fairly substantial number of feathers lying about his cage.

This bothers me, because soft molting suggests to me that Bert is distressed, and possibly unhealthy.

There are a few possible causes, and I will list them for your opinion.

--Last year I gave him mashed boiled egg daily during his molt, and at least once a week during the rest of the year. This year, I switched to setting out egg biscuits for him instead, because they are more convenient to use. Perhaps the biscuits are not enough for him, and I should switch back to mashed egg.

--Bert lives in a 5 foot by 15 inch by 15 inch flight cage that I built for him. The newspapers in the cage are changed every Monday and Thursday. This used to be reasonable, because the large size of the cage meant that it took a long time for dropping to collect, but the cage seems to get dirty a lot faster than it used to, and I am considering changing the papers every other day now.

--The cage is wood with an alluminum covered bottom. The wood and the screen have what appears to be dried apple on them, which is resistant to being scrubbed off.

--I cover the cage with a towel at dusk, since I stay up quite late on the computer in the same room, then uncover it when I go to bed. The towel does not completely cover the front of the cage since I lengthened it in May, so some light still gets in at the lengthened end. I sometimes hear him hopping around in his cage after dark, when he should be dormant. I wonder if light getting in, even though it is not in the section of the cage he stays in at night, might be fouling up his metabolism.

Those are my leading suspects. Can anybody shed light on his shed of feathers?

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: I just noticed today that my canary, Bert, appears to be soft molting.

: This year, he seemed to go into his regular molt late, in mid July, instead of mid June, and did not seem to shed as completely as he did last year. He seemed to complete his molt, but now I am seeing a fairly substantial number of feathers lying about his cage.

: This bothers me, because soft molting suggests to me that Bert is distressed, and possibly unhealthy.

: There are a few possible causes, and I will list them for your opinion.

: --Last year I gave him mashed boiled egg daily during his molt, and at least once a week during the rest of the year. This year, I switched to setting out egg biscuits for him instead, because they are more convenient to use. Perhaps the biscuits are not enough for him, and I should switch back to mashed egg.

: --Bert lives in a 5 foot by 15 inch by 15 inch flight cage that I built for him. The newspapers in the cage are changed every Monday and Thursday. This used to be reasonable, because the large size of the cage meant that it took a long time for dropping to collect, but the cage seems to get dirty a lot faster than it used to, and I am considering changing the papers every other day now.

: --The cage is wood with an alluminum covered bottom. The wood and the screen have what appears to be dried apple on them, which is resistant to being scrubbed off.

: --I cover the cage with a towel at dusk, since I stay up quite late on the computer in the same room, then uncover it when I go to bed. The towel does not completely cover the front of the cage since I lengthened it in May, so some light still gets in at the lengthened end. I sometimes hear him hopping around in his cage after dark, when he should be dormant. I wonder if light getting in, even though it is not in the section of the cage he stays in at night, might be fouling up his metabolism.

: Those are my leading suspects. Can anybody shed light on his shed of feathers?

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