Male canary passed away, should i get another companion for the female?

[RTjio]

Hi there, i am a new member, thank you admin for accepting me on this group.
My rescue bird, male canary (age within 3-4y) just passed away yesterday due to respiratory problem and mites.
I previously rescued two canaries whom adore each other and used to live together in the same cage. Just early of this week the male was sick and i began to separate them and its quite stressful for them, they keep chirping and calling each other, only stop whenever i put the cage side by side. And unfortunately he didn't make it and passed away even though i already used over the counter medicine and also brought him to the doctor.
The female is now frantically fly here and there and keep chirping a lot , i believe she is looking for the male. FYI she just laying 6 eggs in total but all infertile and already thrown away.
My question is, should i buy another companion for her? If yes do you think it's better to be female too? I just think that breeding will be too much for me and i worry if it's getting out of hand.
Or should i leave her alone? Will she be okay alone after used to live together with another bird? Did anyone experienced this before? Its so heartbreaking to saw the male passed away yesterday at my hand and i don't have a heart to see the female sad like this.
If anyone can share their experiences, i will really appreciate it. Thank you.

 

[Shezbug]

You’ll need to medicate/treat all your birds and also thoroughly clean and sanitise all belongings used by the mite infested bird before even considering to bring home another bird. When you do bring home another bird (after ensuring all mites are gone and any disease washed off everything) you’ll also need to properly quarantine the new bird so no viruses or illnesses are passed between new and existing flock members.

 

[RTjio]

You’ll need to medicate/treat all your birds and also thoroughly clean and sanitise all belongings used by the mite infested bird before even considering to bring home another bird. When you do bring home another bird (after ensuring all mites are gone and any disease washed off everything) you’ll also need to properly quarantine the new bird so no viruses or illnesses are passed between new and existing flock members.

Thank you for your advice. Yes I do aware about this. I am planning to wait until total 4weeks as the doctor suggested to treat the mites. And yes I already treated the female at the same time with whenever I treated the male. Also sanitised everything and even throw away the toys that couldn't be washed.

 

[Lady Jane]

Sorry for your loss. I know this species can be very fragile. Do you get them from a reputable breeder? Do you quarantine a new bird?

 

[RTjio]

Sorry for your loss. I know this species can be very fragile. Do you get them from a reputable breeder? Do you quarantine a new bird?

So to be exact this is kind of rescue birds. They are both had a breeder ring code on their feet but not sure where the previous owner bought them.
She just basically begged my husband to taking care of both of them due to she is moving to central coast area and couldn't take them with her. She just handed the cages with both birds inside with 1 pack of food (dry).
This is our 1st time having pet and they have been with us for almost 1month now.
We noticed that the male's feet wasn't normal from the 1st day but didn't think much because he seems very active, eat , drink and playing normally.
The female also had few eggs while with us, but it's infertile.
I also bought some cuttlefish bone, iodine, mineral, and give them lettuce, also toys to play.
And how should we quarantine them? Because its handed to us already together in 1 cage?

 

[Shezbug]

Any new bird you bring home should be kept in a different room (preferably a whole separate air supply) to the current bird you have- they need to have as little chance of possible of spreading any mites, illnesses or diseases between each other so this means you change if needed, remove shoes, wash hands well between visits of the birds, you do not share perches, toys or other items like bowls between the birds. You want to make sure both are healthy and stay healthy- birds often get unwell when moving to a new environment as the stress involved can lower immune systems enough to allow any lingering illnesses to bloom in the bird while their immunity is lowered. In this quarantine time you should try to have the new bird checked by the vet (hopefully the one you already have is already cleared and free of any illnesses- if not then a vet check for both birds may be in order)

 

[RTjio]

Any new bird you bring home should be kept in a different room (preferably a whole separate air supply) to the current bird you have- they need to have as little chance of possible of spreading any mites, illnesses or diseases between each other so this means you change if needed, remove shoes, wash hands well between visits of the birds, you do not share perches, toys or other items like bowls between the birds. You want to make sure both are healthy and stay healthy- birds often get unwell when moving to a new environment as the stress involved can lower immune systems enough to allow any lingering illnesses to bloom in the bird while their immunity is lowered. In this quarantine time you should try to have the new bird checked by the vet (hopefully the one you already have is already cleared and free of any illnesses- if not then a vet check for both birds may be in order)

Hi as I stated above, yes I will separate the NEW bird later on, but Lady Jane was talking about the two birds that I previously had which one of them (the male) just passed away. Obviously I didn't separate them because I got them as a pair in 1 cage. Hope that explained.

 

[Shezbug]

I see you are asking if you should get another bird but you are worried about breeding so you are thinking maybe a female... Just letting you know that you are not limited by the sex of the bird even if you do not wish to breed, just because a bird lays eggs that may be fertile does not mean they have to hatch, you can remove and replace the eggs with dummy eggs before incubation starts if you have a male and female.
If your female is interested in interacting with humans and you have the time to spend with her then you do not have to get another bird, if she is not tame or interested in humans then it may be nice for her to have another friend when her treatment is over and you are ready to bring a new bird home.

I do not have canaries but I had a pair of budgies, the female passed away and the male was looking and calling for her for a very short time before he got on with living normally without her- he bounced back to being as active and noisy as he was when she was alive so I did not bring home a new companion for him, if he was sitting quiet and miserable then for sure I would get him another budgie to chatter to.
I think you are the best person to judge if you need to bring another bird home for the mental wellbeing of your little lone girl- if you think you have a miserable lonely bird then certainly consider bringing home someone for her to chat to.

 

[RTjio]

Any new bird you bring home should be kept in a different room (preferably a whole separate air supply) to the current bird you have- they need to have as little chance of possible of spreading any mites, illnesses or diseases between each other so this means you change if needed, remove shoes, wash hands well between visits of the birds, you do not share perches, toys or other items like bowls between the birds. You want to make sure both are healthy and stay healthy- birds often get unwell when moving to a new environment as the stress involved can lower immune systems enough to allow any lingering illnesses to bloom in the bird while their immunity is lowered. In this quarantine time you should try to have the new bird checked by the vet (hopefully the one you already have is already cleared and free of any illnesses- if not then a vet check for both birds may be in order)

I see you are asking if you should get another bird but you are worried about breeding so you are thinking maybe a female... Just letting you know that you are not limited by the sex of the bird even if you do not wish to breed, just because a bird lays eggs that may be fertile does not mean they have to hatch, you can remove and replace the eggs with dummy eggs before incubation starts if you have a male and female.
If your female is interested in interacting with humans and you have the time to spend with her then you do not have to get another bird, if she is not tame or interested in humans then it may be nice for her to have another friend when her treatment is over and you are ready to bring a new bird home.

I do not have canaries but I had a pair of budgies, the female passed away and the male was looking and calling for her for a very short time before he got on with living normally without her- he bounced back to being as active and noisy as he was when she was alive so I did not bring home a new companion for him, if he was sitting quiet and miserable then for sure I would get him another budgie to chatter to.
I think you are the best person to judge if you need to bring another bird home for the mental wellbeing of your little lone girl- if you think you have a miserable lonely bird then certainly consider bringing home someone for her to chat to.

I am sorry for your lost too.
And you are right, I better see how she goes. Thank you for the information about changing the eggs with dummy.
At the moment, she is still eating , drinking and playing normally, but specially whenever I play the video of canary bird singing on the youtube on my google device and put it beside her, she looks very happy.
The male was more tamed and love to chat with me, its so heartbreaking when he took his last breath in my hand.
This lil girl is sassy and doesn't really like humans to touch her.
On the 1st two days she was squeaking sadly and keep looking into the spot where we usually put the male (in the different cage when they were separated due to the illness) and it makes me heartbroken, but today she looks okay.
I will look for a few more weeks then and see what is best for her. And thank you for telling me your story. All the best for you and your budgie =)

 

[Lady Jane]

@finchly is good with the tiny birds. Perhaps she can offer you some hints on calcium supplementation. Since you got the birds as a pair it was not necessary to quarantine them.

 

[finchly]

Hi @RTjio im just now seeing this. Did you end up getting another bird?

Your hen that’s been laying does need some calcium. You can buy a commercial supplement and/or give her crushed eggshells.

Also when you say the eggs are infertile, is that after she sat right on them for awhile? They should sit about 5 days before you look for fertility.

 

[RTjio]

Hi @RTjio im just now seeing this. Did you end up getting another bird?

Your hen that’s been laying does need some calcium. You can buy a commercial supplement and/or give her crushed eggshells.

Also when you say the eggs are infertile, is that after she sat right on them for awhile? They should sit about 5 days before you look for fertility.

Hi @finchly thank you for replying to this. So yes i ended up getting a new male bird after doing a consultation with the licensed pet shop breeder. Because my female bird seems sad and for a certain time every single day, she will sit down on that same spot that she usually saw the passed-male, and squeaking sadly. I kind of able to differ whenever she is chirping happily or squeaking sadly. I don't have a heart, so i ended up buying a new male, but he is currently still under quarantine on a separate cage while i also keep treating my female bird (the vet suggested for me to treat her in total 4weeks for the mites that she might got from the passed male, but she is very healthy and eating a lot, poo also totally normal, but i just want to be safe).
My female bird didn't show any interest on the 1st 2days while the male is showing a big interest, then after a few days, the female is now begin to chirping back to the male every now and then and seems happy. I am planning to put the cage side by side once my female finish her treatment. Hopefully this works (finger crossed).

And yes, i gave her calcium from cuttlebone, the bell calcium, also crushed eggshells for a while now. Not sure if the previous owner did though, i assumed this is not the 1st time she is laying eggs because the previous owner already provide a nest, but she told us that we just need to gave them seeds (that all food that she gave us) which i found out later on after all of this happened that its not true, they need more than just seeds, so probably thats why the eggs are infertile i assume?
I did my research and already gave her everything for a while now, from seeds, calcium, apple-cutting, sometimes lettuce, also some snacks such as millet spray, and also gave them vitamin and probiotic.

In regards of the eggs that infertile, yes she's been sat on it for just a few days and then she seems didn't interested with it anymore, then tried to discard it, that's when i tried to check on it and based on what i seen on the youtube / google, its infertile, i also asked the pet shop staff whom in bird section and she also advised me that most likely its infertile if the hen didn't want it, then i just discard it.