subject: What you need to know about health and hygiene with regard to your pet and aviary birds [print this page] What you need to know about health and hygiene with regard to your pet and aviary birds
Decent hygiene is the biggest contributor to ensuring a fit and healthy bird or flock, whereas poor hygiene is the most common cause of poor health within your avian community. Of course you may unknowingly acquire a bird that is not in peak form and whose health still deteriorates regardless of what you do; I'm sorry! But in this situation there's nothing you can do, best to accept your loss and try again, but hopefully and with a little luck you will never encounter this type of situation in your bird keeping pursuits.
The first thing to do if you have a number of birds and want to introduce more to your menagerie is to keep your new bird in quarantine for a few weeks, that is to keep it separated from your other birds so as you can monitor it and deal with any health or other issues before introducing your new cage or aviary mate to the rest of the group. This will prevent any infectious illnesses being passed on to your other birds. This is very important and should never be overlooked even if your new feathered friend appears fine when first acquired!
Get to know your pet bird or birds, keep a close eye on them, interact with them and watch them regularly. This way if any of your birds have a change of character or appear down then you will instinctively know that you may have a problem.
I am not a vet, just an enthusiastic bird keeper and as such I am unable to give you detailed lists of avian illnesses or how to deal with them, always best to consult an avian vet if you are worried. OK, I know that vet bills are often quite extortionate so I would advise to take out some type of pet insurance to help cover the costs, there are plenty of good pet bird insurance deals available, try the local pet shop, the vet, or do an online search for a good deal.
If you are observant enough you will soon spot any bad signs but to help the signs of ill health in most pet birds are the same:
your bird plucks its feathers
it loses its appetite and eats less than normally
bare spots appear in the plumage
discharge flows from the nostrils
the plumage of your bird starts to look dull or ruffled
the eyes appear slit rather than round
changes in the birds' droppings occurs
sneezing occurs more than just occasionally
the bird screeches more than normally or in a new way
your bird sleeps more than normally
If any of the above changes are noticed in your bird then a potential health problem is likely to occur, if not occurred already.
As mentioned earlier, a good hygiene routine will help enormously to prevent health problems. We're not talking clinically clean' here, just basic hygiene:
Daily
check food and if required replace with fresh
change water and replace with fresh, thoroughly clean water dish at every change
remove any uneaten fresh food and dispose of in the correct manner
Weekly
clean out the cage or aviary fully
scrub all perches and furniture in cage or aviary
thoroughly clean all food and water dishes and fill with fresh
wipe clean bars of cages, inner sides and inner top of aviary
thoroughly clean cage base, sweep debris off aviary floor and mop with weak disinfectant solution, rinse and allow to dry before permitting your birds in
Always
make sure all foods given are clean and safe, use same regime as if preparing food for yourself
wash your hands before handling bird food and before handling your bird
again wash hands thoroughly after handling your bird
Try not to use any detergents or disinfectants when cleaning your birds things unless they are safe for animal use, check the packaging or buy specialist animal safe products from the pet shop (but these can prove to be rather expensive). You can alternatively use a very weak solution of disinfectant or detergent when cleaning your bird things but you must then rinse them with fresh clean water and allow them to dry completely before returning them to your bird accommodation.
If it looks dirty then clean it; if it looks clean then clean it anyway just to be sure!
