HELP! My new GCC tested positive for Polyomavirus!

Hi all,

I’m new here. I recently purchased a 3 month old green cheek conure and I’ve had him for about 3 weeks going on 4 now. I got him tested to see if he had any diseases, just to play it safe since I do have other birds, and he tested positive for Polyoma. He looks totally fine and all but I’m concerned if he’s going to die. I’ve read many articles only and he doesn’t seem to have any symptoms. I’m so attached to him that I do not want him to die. My mistake was that we didn’t keep the other birds away from him during the 2 weeks we waited for results because we assumed he was fine. Now we are concerned and stressed for our other birds. Can they get rid of the virus on their own? What do I do?

I did in fact take him back to where I purchased him and the owner does not believe that his birds might be sick. All of my other birds have gotten tested prior to me getting this little one and all tested negative from this virus. I showed the owner the results and refused to refund me my money AND said he can only give me store credit. The first red flag that I should of noticed was where he had the babies placed in. In a empty fish tank with like 10-15 babies in it under a heat lamp. I do plan on reporting him since I’ve looked up his store reviews and other people have complained about their birds dying the day after they purchased them.

Oh man! This is a hard one! Bumping you back up!

welcome to the forum.

On parrot viruses a lot is still being learned. Many parrots can convert ( overcome the virus) on many viruses. Often recommend to re test at a certain interval. Some become carriers and can shed and spread viruses to others, and some can become actively sick, or decades before the virus effects thrm. Thst all general virus info.

Some of our detection of theses bird viruses is that we are now testing for them, and development of better tests.

For example PBFD is believed half ( I think) of parrots have had the viruse but most beat it, and only a few get sick and symptoms.

I'm not well read on this virus, and I don't have experience . Other members have gone through this. And you vet and your own research.

The hard thing is your other parrots. I really feel for you.

Thank you for your input! Really helps.
We will be taking all the other birds today to get retested and we will be sanitizing all the cages just to be safe. But I hope that the all test negative.

I'm very sorry you are dealing with this.


Assume your other birds are positive, but do keep them away from your bird with the verified infection....Seriously, do not assume just because they don't show symptoms that they cannot spread it. They intermittently shed it and more so during times of stress and transition (such as a new home).

We are currently getting them tested and keeping them all isolated until the results come in. As for the bird that tested positive, we returned him to where we purchased him so he is no longer here with us.

I just hope the owner where we purchased him takes care of him

You should probably re-test like a month from now, given the fact that incubation can take time, but hopefully this gives you peace of mind for the time being. The thing is, if you have any carriers, they may or may not be shedding at the time of testing (hence my suggestion that you test again). I also hope the owner deals with this honestly, as he/she MAY have dropped the ball (hard to say). Polyomavirus testing is one of the most standard procedures for birds going out for adoption.I would test more than once before getting multiple birds, as this is SUPER serious.


It is quite possible that one of your current birds is a carrier, so you must rule that out. I mean no harm in saying so-- it's a tough situations https://www.animalgenetics.us/Avian/Disease_Testing/Polyomavirus.asp <--please see link (it discusses what I am talking about)

I’ll definitely keep this in mind. As of now we felt like we needed the test done because we are so worried and love our birds. The birds I have now have all been tested prior to this new one coming in. So since he was the only that was positive we figured he was the only one that has it. But we will test them again in a month or so just to play it safe.

As for the owner, he gave me such a hard time the other day and we will be reporting him once I get my money back tomorrow. Apparently it’s not the first this has happened to me, he’s had a couple of other people that have had this issue with pets they bought from him. So I will be reporting him because he should not be running a business and selling sick animals.