Why is my canary so aggressive?

Question

I have a Colourbred canary and it's usually calm and it'll let the family pet it if we get a hold of him gently. Lately though, he's been really aggressive. We'll try to get near him and he start biting at all our fingers and will make this quick chirping sound, also his feathers are all ruffled and puffed up. Anyone know what might've caused this? I don't think anyone in my family might've done anything to him.

Answer 1

well something happened and he is not happy!

ruffled and puffed feathers are a sign of possible illness. they can have a change in temperments when they are ill too.

hard to say wich one it is.

often birds are subjected to inbreeding to get desired colors or songs. good breeders won't do that. they know their bloodlines and dna stuff well. inbreeding can cause some pets to have "problems". it's only a guess. i don't know the bird at all.

call a vet and get free advice over the phone. they will be able to tell if the bird needs to be seen or not.

Answer 2

It could be going through a molt, where birds do tend to get aggressive and irritated during this time. Not sure how old it is, or when canaries reach sexual maturity, but that could be another possibility is that it is hitting it's sexual maturity and wants to mate. Birds do get agressive when they go through this. If neither of these, maybe there is something that we don't realize that has him bothered, maybe a certain person that he has decided he does not like (i've known them to do this). Even certain colors can get a bird to act strangely, my parrot gets nervous around red. Have you moved furniture around the house or added anything he may not be used to? There are so many factors that could be involved, it's impossible to say based on the explanation. I do hope you are able to pinpoint what the problem may be. You may want to contact an avian specialist to get their expertise as well. Not to scare you, but it could possibly be health related, or maybe he is in pain. A woman I knew who had a parrot never realized that anything was wrong with the parrot for the longest time, except that he did not like to be handled. She finally took him to the doctor where they discovered he had a broken tailbone from falling that had been that way for some time.