Are baths necessary for canary birds?

Bathing has a number of useful functions for canary birds including keeping their feathers shiny and healthy, washing away bacteria and germs, and cooling them off on hot days  It is also good psychologically, as some canary birds just enjoy it.

Access to clean bathing water on a daily basis for your canary bird is necessary.  Some canary birds bathe every day while others bathe every other day or only a few days a week. This is due to a combination of factors, including, season, weather, and the personality of your individual canary.  Some canary birds enjoy bathing more than others.  Regardless of how often your canary birds bathe, best practices for canary bird ownership is to have clean water for bathing available on a daily basis.

This should not be the same as your canary’s drinking water.  Drinking water should be available in a  separate drinking container that attaches to the side of the cage.Allowing your canary to drink water from the same water that they bathe in is not a good idea.  Water could be contaminated with bacteria and make your bird ill.  Would you drink the water you just took a bath in?  There are a few options when it comes to purchasing a bird bath. 

Some people use outside of the cage bird baths with a transparent dome that attaches to the cage door opening, while others use small standard pet bowls.  Regardless of your choice of bird bath for your canary, the bottom of the bowl should be deep enough to come up to the tops of their shoulders when bathing, but not so deep as to cover them completely while erect.  The outside the cage option is a good option as it keeps most of the excess water from splashing inside.  

Bath containers should be taken out of your canary’s cage after a few hours as some canaries are prone to drink the water which could be contaminated with droppings and bacteria .  A water purifying agent should as Aviclense Liquid can be added if your canary’s bath water if your work or life schedule doesn’t allow you to remove the bath container after a few hours.  Finally, if you have a nesting hen with newly hatched canary checks in the cage, then you should make sure that the water bowl is on the opposite side of the cage as canary chicks can drown if they fall in the water by accident.