It is really important that you provide your canaries every day fresh water especially in the summer months. It is vital not to wait for the water to go really low cause when your birds drink water, they “leave” in the water rests from their food and when this food remains in the water, makes the quality of the water worse.
Please clean also the bird waterer. Do not just empty it and add new fresh water. Clean it also. If you do it every time, then it will be always easy to clean. DO NOT USE CHEMICALS. In case you did, wash them a lot in order to be sure that no chemicals are there for your birds to drink them. Remember always that they are very small. So also a very small quantity can harm them
Below you can see the bird waterer how it became after 1 month without cleaning it. We were on holiday and even if the birds received every other day fresh water, you can see what can happen in 1 month. Of course this has to do also with the quality of the water in your area a lot. But the fact that in the water remain rests of food is regardless the area!
Do not wait to see these marks there. Clean them everytime you change water for your birds. With your finger should be enough to remove residuals if you clean them often.
In case you are wondering how come and our bird waterer is so “black” after a month, it is because they get every day fresh salad (kale, spinach or broccoli leaves) and when they drink water with not so clean beak… this is what happens!
Yannis and Stella @Apollon, Naxos 