Has anyone here qurentined their bird?

Mrspy · Aug 1, 2010

I've been hearing that it's not safe to have one bird and then buy another bird and put them into the same surroundings unless you've quarentined the bird for diseases. Unfortunetaly i'm not willing to pay 300-500$ to do this.

I'm wondering if any of you with 2 birds, and who havn't quarentined your birds, have had any health issues with your parrots.

Frankly i've never heard of this, i've had a conure, a dove, 4 parakeets, 1 parrotlet, and 1 cockatiel all at the same time and nothing ever happened. Sure the parakeets died but that I think was due to old age. And our dove ended up dying from sickness but he was already on medications when we got him. My parrotlet, cockatiel, or conure didn't suffer any illness

And what about birds that live in pairs? Such as lovebirds or parakeets.

Please let me know, and thanks for any info. thanks!

apatrimo94 · Aug 1, 2010

Once you get a new bird, it HAS to be qurantined for 30 days. You don't have to pay any money for it. Just keep the cages in separate rooms. Even if you think nothing's going to happen, you don't want to take any risks. Plus, what bird do you plan on putting in the same cage with your parrotlet, if I recall you were getting a conure. I wouldn't reccomend keeping a conure and parrotlet in the same cage. Your conure would end up destroying your parrotlet. You can have them both interact outside of the cage under supervision, but never in the same. Hope I helped a bit.

Mrspy · Aug 1, 2010

apatrimo94 said:
Once you get a new bird, it HAS to be qurantined for 30 days. You don't have to pay any money for it. Just keep the cages in separate rooms. Even if you think nothing's going to happen, you don't want to take any risks. Plus, what bird do you plan on putting in the same cage with your parrotlet, if I recall you were getting a conure. I wouldn't reccomend keeping a conure and parrotlet in the same cage. Your conure would end up destroying your parrotlet. You can have them both interact outside of the cage under supervision, but never in the same. Hope I helped a bit.

Hey this is great! You mean I could just instead put them in a different room for 2 months and that would count as "quarentined"? See even if I did have the money I don't know where i'd go to do the test. I'll ask the local Vet if they do that kind of stuff but I doubt they do.

apatrimo94 · Aug 1, 2010

Well yeah, in your last post, you can just keep them separate, but a vet trip is recommended. Look around and see what you can find. All vets are different. A trip to my vet to get testing and check up is about $80.

Aussie Ben · Aug 1, 2010

Good advice from Ap. However I think maybe you misunderstand exactly what is meant by 'quarantining' in this context. Birds can carry any number of diseases unnoticed. What quarantining does is gives time for any diseases to come to the surface before your birds are introduced. If you don't quarantine and your bird is carrying something horrible like PDD then it can easily be transfered to your parrolet and they will both suffer.

As Ap said, you should always take your new bird to the vet for a checkup in this time as well, to rule out any obvious disorders.

Here is a link I found: Avian Veterinarians and Quarantine for Parrots: Proper Pet Care for New Parrots and Established Birds

Chances are, your new bird will be healthy, but its an important precaution to take.

Mrspy · Aug 1, 2010

Peeps has never gotten checked by a vet either. Do you guys think I should also check him?

Mrspy · Aug 1, 2010

Thanks for the link, I checked it out and now i'm convinced that I should get a health check for my new parrot(and Peeps). One thing I don't get, they say to quarantine up to 50 days. What does that mean? What exactly happens when you quarantine your bird?

apatrimo94 · Aug 1, 2010

It just keeps the new bird away from the old one in case it might be sick and plus you can also watch it to keep an eye if it looks sick. Plus, you can bond with him without Peeps in sight. The minimum number of days is 30 and then you can do it as long as you want to.

Bobby34231 · Aug 1, 2010

Quarantining is always a good practice when bringing new birds into your home, that being said it does not guarantee that just because a bird goes through quarantine without appearing sick that it is not a "carrier" of desease, that is the reason for the testing by an avian vet, some people feel that spending a few hundred dollars on a bird or birds that they have little or no real money invested in isn't worth the expenditure, there are labs, such as avianbiotech, where you can send in your own sample for testing at about $25 per test of individual deseases or do multiples for reduced rates, like Polyoma, Chlamydia, PBFD, [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Avian Herpes[/FONT] for about $70 for all four, it doesn't have to be hundreds of dollars, though when you add in a visit to an avian vet and their mark up on testing it will be more expensive if you decide to go that route....doing the right thing in making sure their healthy is just part of being a responsible custodian for fids

Mrspy · Aug 1, 2010

So let me get this straight: Peeps can't play with the conure until after 1 month???? That's a heck of a long time. Also am I able to hold both of them on my shoulder within the 30 days? Do I have to keep them completely separate for 30 days? Without them being next to eachother at all? I sure hope not, i'm limited as far as room in our house goes and i was planning on putting the cages in the same room. If I take the parrot to the vet and he is carrying a disease what happens? Does he go on Medication? I'm just saying that we've had birds together before who never even got a checkup(and we got them at the same time)and they both never got sick. Was I just lucky?

apatrimo94 · Aug 1, 2010

Yes, sorry to say, they have to be separate for a month.
Most diseases are treatable

Bobby34231 · Aug 1, 2010

Yes completely seperated, you can play with all the birds, but to be safe you should thoroughly wash (Shower) before handling any other birds after handling the new bird, as well as changing your clothes, keeping them as far apart as possible is also important because many diseases can be contracted via the air, in the end its up to you what your decision will be, but like the guy that plays russian roulette, yeah you've been lucky up till now..........

Aussie Ben · Aug 1, 2010

Yea it does come down to luck I think. Although if you buy from a respectable breeder or get a bird from a rescue center with good medical history, it is unlikely that you will have any problems. However, I would not take the risk if it can be avoided. When I got my Ekkie, my quarantine wasn't ideal, they were only one room apart but it was better than nothing, so I consider myself lucky really. I have learnt much since then.

Mel · Aug 1, 2010

Great advise from those above. You're best to spend a little time and money now and ensure all's well than putting them straight together and end up spending a lot more time and $$ dealing with a preventable outbreak of something. It's not hard to do just a little inconvenient.

Ratzy · Aug 1, 2010

I strongly agree with quarantine. Before I heard of it, I lost 6 birds to the same illness.

Mel · Aug 1, 2010

Ratzy said:
I strongly agree with quarantine. Before I heard of it, I lost 6 birds to the same illness.

Ratzy I knew you'd be onto this thread

Mrspy · Aug 2, 2010

Well that sucks..................

When you guys say quarantine do you mean give the bird medicine and take him to the vet or just keep them seperate. What exactly happens, could ya'll tell me what to do besides keeping them apart and taking a shower every time I hold them.

Not to diss your guys advice or anything but isn't taking a shower and changing cloths after every time I hold Peeps to hold the conure a little paranoid?

My Mom Dad and Brothers will think i'm taking it way to far................

GreenCheek · Aug 2, 2010

No, it's the only way to make sure any contaminates are off of your body. Would you rather be a little paranoid, or end up losing your birds? If you didn't want to shower every time, you would still need to have a different set of clothes you would wear for each bird, and make sure you wash up well at the sink before any other interactions.

And there's not really much more to say on the matter. They need to be kept in separate rooms (no shared air space!), and you need to sanitize yourself between birds. And yes, this is for 1-2 months (I feel more comfortable with a 2 month quarantine, but that's just me). A vet visit is also a good idea, though testing could get expensive.

In the end, they are your birds, and what you decide to do is up to you. I just hope you listen and take our advice, as there is a lot of good advice here!

Ratzy · Aug 2, 2010

Mel said:
Ratzy said:

I strongly agree with quarantine. Before I heard of it, I lost 6 birds to the same illness.

Click to expand...

Ratzy I knew you'd be onto this thread

I know...sigh. I had a nice friendly breeder sell me two sick budgies and tell me just to put them in together in the morning and they'd be fine. RIP Alfie, Harvie, Boofer and Theo.
Anyway, that is mainly why I say quarantine, even if they are off good breeders they can still carry diseases that may flare up when introduced to a new environment. You just need to have them in separate cages and rooms for at least 30 days ( some avian vets recommend 60 or 90 days ) to watch for signs of illnesses. No medication required unless they are showing illnesses, then you can easily treat them, no harm done.

Mrspy · Aug 2, 2010

Oh ok, then why do I need to go to the vet if I can just already do everything myself?

Has anyone here qurentined their bird?

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