Depending on your home environment, sleeping habits, and other factors such as the shift you cover at work, there is a strong possibility that your canary is exposed to TOO MUCH light and activity…something like a canary insomnia!

If you’ve ever had a prolonged struggle to fall asleep at night, you know the huge impact a seemingly small problem can have on your health and your entire life…

It starts with a lot of yawning and stretching, but can eventually progress to serious errors in judgment while driving, intense emotional stress…it’s even been directly linked to suicide attempts!

Obviously, getting enough sleep and rest is INTEGRAL to your overall health and wellness, as it is with your canaries!

Each “season” in your canary’s life is determined NOT by temperature (as many novice owners believe), but by the total number of hours of sunlight the birds are exposed to…

Too much sunlight can cause chronic mold and can throw the canary’s natural breeding cycle into total chaos.

The best way to avoid these problems (especially if you stay up quite late watching TV or reading books) is to simply “mimic” the sunrise and sunset in your own home with a tarp on the cage, when the sun physically sets Outside, Cover your canary’s cage with a cloth or towel that will “blow out” any light that might otherwise enter the cage. Then in the morning, when the sun rises, remove the fabric.

This will serve as an artificial preventative measure that will keep your canary’s natural cycle “on schedule”, leaving you with a happier, healthier bird. Easy 🙂 Another important factor in the lifespan of your pet canary is fresh air, or the lack of it. Canaries have incredibly sensitive lungs that are unable to filter out a number of everyday chemicals that we as humans take for granted. If you are a smoker and you smoke indoors, you will need to make your canary an outdoor pet, which can not only be dangerous, but in some living arrangements, impossible!

THIS CAN KILL YOUR CANARIES INSTANTLY!

Even if you’re willing to start smoking outdoors, you’ll need to quit inside first, open up the house to let in the breeze, and do a thorough cleaning to remove tar and nicotine from the walls.

Open the windows so sunlight hits the walls and furniture, “activating” the smell of smoke. Wait about a week (at least) before introducing your canary into the home.

Other potential indoor health risks include:

deodorants, bug spray, oven cleaners, harsh chemical cleaners, Teflon, and the other main components of nonstick cookware (as you cook, these break down and release chemicals that will quickly weaken your canary to the point of death). Poorly maintained habitat and the wrong food can be DEADLY to canaries!