common ailments in parrots.

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as some of you may know, over the last few yrs i've had pet rats. lovely animals, but i have to say they must be the sickest animals on the planet. they are hardly ever healthy.
actually i had to get alfie put to sleep a few days back.

anyway, there are particular illnesses that rats tend to get: mammary tumours for the girls, and lung disease[mycoplasmosis] for both sexes.

are there common illnesses that parrots tend to get over their lives? is it different from one kind of parrot to another?

also what are the things a parrot owner must be aware of as far as health precautions go. i understand they need to be wormed regularly? anything else.

cheers.

 

[Aussie Ben]

So sorry to hear about alfie

Yes there are lots of things to look out for, but I will leave that up to the members that are more knowledgeable on medical stuff to explain.

All I can recommend is clean, clean, clean. The cleaner things are the less risk there is. Try to avoid large poop cakes and rotting food (It can be hard when they poop so much lol)

Also, watch their diet, you don't want too much fat in the diet. Many birds (especially many of the Australian species) are prone to fatty tumors and such.

 

[Mel]

Too's are prone to beak & feather diesease, psittacosis is an infectious disease that can be passed on to humans, parrots can also suffer all sorts of nutritional deficiencies if the correct diet isn't given - each breed has different dietry needs. As Ben said fatty tumours are common if too muich fat eg sunflower seeds are fed. On the other hand some breeds such as eckys can suffer from toe tapping/wing flipping from too high vitamins/minerals. The most common problem is neurological issues due to boardom or stress.

 

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toe tapping???

i imagine whatever type of bird i get there will be good information regarding their particular diet on the 'net?

 

[Birdamor]

I would say that the most common ailments of captive birds regardless of the species are respiratory infections (due to lack of betacarotene in their diets and flying), hepatic lipidosis (aka fatty liver disease - caused by diets too high in protein and fat and/or too much supplementation) and diarrhea (bacterial infections from lack of beneficial bacteria) and dehydration (unnatural dry diets).

 

[parrotqueen]

Birdamor is correct, respiratory illnesses and fatty livers are often seen in pet birds.

I also want to mention that too many peanuts over a period of years is a slow and silent killer for birds, and leads to a disease called Aspergillosis. Aspergillus spores are derived from mold that often grows in peanuts. That is what causes the disease. It is advisable to not allow parrots to consume peanuts, whether 'human-quality' or not.

 

[Mel]

i imagine whatever type of bird i get there will be good information regarding their particular diet on the 'net?

I found this to be the most confusing, even those of us on this forum disagree on this subject. It's good you're doing so much research now.

 

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thanks for your answers.