Canary Clicking Noises

Hey there, I've got a male canary. I know that they don't sing during the summer when they malt, but he's been making clicking and heavy breathing noises at night, not sleeping much either. He work me up at 3am today, clicking and chirping quite heavily, I didn't know what to do. I change his water daily and clean him out twice a week.

Is this normal? I'm quite worried...

Heavy breathing in any bird is not a good sign. If you let him out to fly around he might land and breath heavy for a few seconds from being out of breath after a long flight. Other than that he shouldn't have trouble breathing.

Birds tend to be very good at hiding the fact that there is anything wrong with them. So once you notice heavy breathing or lethargy you need to get him to an Avian veterinarian.

Just changing his water and cleaning his cage his not enough. You need to dust and clean the entire room that the cage is in but not with modern chemical cleaners. If you do you need to move him out of the room until the chemical smell goes away.

I use a mixture of water, white vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice as an all purpose cleaner in my room. I actually took out the carpet and installed tile floor mostly because of my birds. Carpet holds a lot of dust and crap which was making my birds sneeze a lot. I don't have a canary in my collection but your bird's environment is not limited to what's inside the cage. It's not really species specific just common sense if you plan on letting your bird have free flight time outside his cage.

If he is having trouble breathing you need to take him to an Avian Vet, first available appointment you can get.

Good points. Also, birds are very sensitive to most air fresheners. Anything like this cause respiratory problems. I used to have canaries though and they do make a normal clicking sound from time to time.

Depending on the species clicking sounds are a good sign. I only know of this behavior in Cockatiels though. When a Cockatiels sits on your shoulder or near you an make that clicking sound it's a friendly sound.

Hmm well he's better now, I stopped using deodorant so maybe thats why? But he was always in an airy room.

Maybe he was just trying to sing? He seems a bit frustrated that he can't at the minute.

if your bird breathes heavy at night most, an is always wiping there beak on the perch an making clicking noises,
and panting. theres a good chance it could be dust mites.
and when they get into the lungs of the bird depending how liong it goes on for untreated, they can suffocate them.
i learned a really good trick from a vet. now what i do is i get a large ish sized bag. not too big. they say paper bags are best. but i have a small size bag you would go on holiday with. in the bottom i put a clean sheet. and i rest my bird in there, then i close the bag up almost. get the dust mite spray an spray some inside the bag. with the bird inside of course.idea is to let the bird breathe a bit in and out of his her lungs, an thus killing the mites.
be carefull how long you put the bird in the bag for.
use your head an i think 40 seconds is plenty of time.
i dont know about a minute. i open the bag sometimes let a bit more air in an close it again.
sometimes the bird can be dazed a little not alot. so take care with your bird when you take it out of the bag.
sit it down to recover. dont leave the bird in the bag too long. you could kill your bird. or hurt it.
please be carefull. dont do this more than 2 times a day.
but you can do this for short periods. until you notice the bird gets better. take care. ok.