“French moult is caused by a virus, it effects birds while they are young in the nest & then soon after they leave the nest the flight feathers fall out when they try to use them as they are weakened by the disease. Most in my experience will quickly grow back their feathers & can fly, but some never do & then never can fly properly. You can only wait & see. Once they recover in my experience they are just like normal birds & then are immune. It's not a good thing to buy birds that have it, as now you will have introduced it to your birds. Once you have it I think you have to basically live with it, it's nuisance but most birds get over it. Some people use sprays to try to control it but I'm not sure if it works. It's very common in Budgies.” – Norm

 

I was reading through a forum and a thought came to me while reading this part Norm had said in the forum so I quoted it. The bolded part does that mean that If you introduce a bird that has French molt it will infect other birds who are healthy or will it only get transferred through breeding??

l'm not an expert on this subject, experts you can correct me if l'm wrong

from what l have read about french molt l believe that if a budgie adult has french molt they can affect other adult budgies(not sure how, maybe through the air like a virus) and if the adult budgie breeds, the french molt can be passed on to their off springs.

here is a past thread that French molt is talked about http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showtopic=18828&hl=french

Edited August 7, 200816 yr by birdluv
spelling mistake

l'm not an expert on this subject, experts you can correct me if l'm wrong

from what have read about french molt l believe that if a budgie adult has french molt they can affect other adult budgies(not sure how, maybe through the air like a virus) and if the adult budgie breeds, the french molt can be passed on to their off springs.

here is a past thread that French molt is talked about http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....8&hl=french

 

 

Well Molly isn't an adult yet but I think she may have french molt as she keeps on losing her fligh feathers when she tries to fly.

Edited August 7, 200816 yr by birdluv

In my experinece with this....french moult parents can have perfect chicks thereby no transference to the chicks...so that theory gets blown out of the water.

Also I have had chicks in nest affected and other siblings in the same nest NOT affected. I have had chciks in nests from adopted eggs have french moult and their other siblings from eggs in another nest NOT affected also.

Its far too random to truly follow any theories currently out there. Even the experts cannot agree on the causes.

IN my experience also diet / nutrition plays a part...a chick or two in the nest that do not get their fill of food like some others in the nest will and do drop their feathers just prior to or upon fledging.

These are my experiences over thousands of chicks.

Edited August 7, 200816 yr by KAZ

In my experinece with this....french moult parents can have perfect chicks thereby no transference to the chicks...so that theory gets blown out of the water.

Also I have had chicks in nest affected and other siblings in the same nest NOT affected. I have had chciks in nests from adopted eggs have french moult and their other siblings from eggs in another nest NOT affected also.

Its far too random to truly follow any theories currently out there. Even the experts cannot agree on the causes.

IN my experience also diet / nutrition plays a part...a chick or two in the nest that do not get their fill of food like some others in the nest will and do drop their feathers just prior to or upon fledging.

These are my experiences over thousands of chicks.

 

After reading all of that, it makes me thinks that only birds who are genetically susceptible to catching it will get it. Where some chicks, but not all chicks get the gene from their parents. The chicks who dont get the gene are able to catch FM if they are exposed to it, whereas the chicks with the gene will be immune.. --- Just a thought i had

It is a contraverse dissue some say Only young birds can be infected by their parents who have been infected by their parents and so on.

Some say it is like PBFD and can be tranmitted to others via saliva and dust etc -

 

Others have breed with Fm budgies with no ill affect at all - It is one of those topics that is hard to be correct with as EVERYONE has their own opinion ...

I'm just a bit worried wether Blue will get it or not. He seems normal at the moment but then he isn't a young bird.

Read the topic that neat posted about Polyomavirus. I posted a whole lot of information on it there. Polyomavirus = French moult

It is thought that immunosuppressed birds will succumb to it, but healthy ones are less likely to be affected. If you introduce it to your flock, you whole flock will be affected by it. Not all will show symptoms but they will continue to shed it and infect others.

Here is the link: French moult

Edited August 7, 200816 yr by Sailorwolf

This is a sticky issue each person will have a different opinion. Some say there are more cases of FM in summer when it is really hot others will have it crop up while line breeding and they can trace 5 or 6 generations with no cases of it and then bang is happens to one chick out of 20....

 

I can't work it out. I have been told if you have a french molt bird you should cull (and cull in the old fashion sense of the word eg kill all your birds) clean, disinfect and start again.

 

I have been told it's not that big of an issue unless you have a chick that is really suffering.

 

I have been told it's okay but if the bird can't fly then to put it down.

 

I have a FM cock (Lime) he can't fly that well but then neither can Harley. My avairy is set up so that they can climb all the way from the ground up to the perches via a massive log and they glide down to the food landing with a cute little splat!

 

Have any of my older birds come down with it since introducing Lime... nope. Have any of my chicks got it, well no as i am waiting for my first round to be laid. Would I kill my enitre flock because of lime? NOW FRELLING WAY. Would i put Lime down cause he has it? NO.

 

Personally I am not going to worry about it unless every one of my nests have it or I have a chick that gets it really bad.

 

It comes down to a person thing.

You don't need to kill your birds to get rid of it. Just wait 6 months.

Lime probably doesn't have it any more.

I'm pretty sure that is what Saffy had and none of her babies were ever affected, because she was 5 when she had them. Plenty of time for it to disappear.

 

No need to cull runners, they make great pets. Go Saffy! and they especially love their exercise wheels

Edited August 7, 200816 yr by Sailorwolf

As Kaz says, even the so-called experts can’t agree so it’s going to be hard for us to completely know the situation with FM.

According to what I have read about it, it is supposed to spread by feather dust etc & they say that once it enters an aviary it is very contagious & most birds will contract it, but it only has any effect on young birds very early in life before they leave the nest. So even though adults may get it & shed the virus, after something like 6 to 12 months, most will get over it & be immune, but they think a few remain carriers.

As others have stated, you can have batches where most young are healthy, but have one or more chicks effected, I suspect as others have said it’s to do with resistance, as some are resistant others more affected. But as Kaz said I have had lots of single cases that were the last young in a batch, so whether it was FM or some feed deficiency it’s very hard to say. In my experience most birds soon regrow their feathers & seem completely Normal from then on & I have bred from these birds without any sign of disease. But once you have had one case I have found that it just ticks over & you get a batch here or there with one or more chicks. A few birds especially young that have lost body feathers seem never to recover. I have read that once birds have had it they are weaker in some way, but I don’t see this at all. I have one or two sad cases with almost no feathers & no sign of recover & these & other FM effected birds seem extremely healthy & virile & I have never lost any of these birds, even though you would think they would be at a higher risk, but often loose birds that seem healthy, so I can’t see that they are weakened in fact some seem even stronger in my opinion. As Kaz stated, I also have had birds fostered that had it but the other chicks in that nest never got it. And other birds fostered to batches with FM but it didn’t affect them. So I think as they say, they must either be affected through the egg or very soon after hatching. There seem to be different strengths of the disease also, as you read that birds can die & you can have dead in shell, so it’s my theory that if you have a mild case it’s best to not worry about it just live with it & maybe it will give your birds some immunity & prevent them getting the more server form.

Some one needs to create a vaccine.

They have a vaccine.

Read the post that I linked to earlier people. I explained a LOT there