I am trying to make my ex aviary/ex tall house shaped cage budgies life as happy as possible. After reading about cages on here and discovering his cage was one of the bad ones I upgraded him to a flight cage measuring 76cm wide 45cm deep 45cm high.

I want to get a young handraised budgie for a companion for 8yr boy but don't have a second cage to quarantine as I am never putting a budgie in a house cage again. Why do you need to Quarantine? Do you need to if you know the breeder's birds are disease free or is it for introduction purposes?

My neighbours over the road breed handraised budgies and cockatiels and I quote from the local bird club members "the best in the district" I can get a handraised cockatiel for $30 from them and I believe the budgies are like $15 or $20 handraised (budgies are cheap here).

thankyou

Read the quarantine articles on this page http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showforum=1

I am trying to make my ex aviary/ex tall house shaped cage budgies life as happy as possible. After reading about cages on here and discovering his cage was one of the bad ones I upgraded him to a flight cage measuring 76cm wide 45cm deep 45cm high.

I want to get a young handraised budgie for a companion for 8yr boy but don't have a second cage to quarantine as I am never putting a budgie in a house cage again. Why do you need to Quarantine? Do you need to if you know the breeder's birds are disease free or is it for introduction purposes?

My neighbours over the road breed handraised budgies and cockatiels and I quote from the local bird club members "the best in the district" I can get a handraised cockatiel for $30 from them and I believe the budgies are like $15 or $20 handraised (budgies are cheap here).

thankyou

 

 

First of all, welcome to the forum! Second of all, I would like to encourage you to use the "house" cage for quarantine purposes, as it only needs to be for a month or so, and that short of a time period really won't be detrimental for your bird to be in the small housing. And quarantine is definitely worth it, which leads me to Third of all:

 

This is copied from your other thread:

All went well until I took in a rescue bird and it turned out to be diseased

 

 

I would think that after this experience, you would be convinced of the importance of quarantine. It's not always possible to tell just by looking that a new incoming bird is free of disease.

 

 

If you read the articles on the page of Kaz' link, you will learn, among a lot of things, that even healthy birds can be carriers of different germs and bacteria, but which they are immune to. There are two things that can happen when that healthy bird moves to a new home: 1. The stress of the move can lower its immune system, and cause a breakout of a disease that the bird was previously immune to. or 2. Your own bird might not have ever been exposed to the potential disease that the new bird is carrying. Your bird might not be immune to it, and so a seemingly healthy bird could stilll spread disease to your own bird.

 

(Now, granted, this last point can still happen after the quarantine period when you finally do introduce the two birds, but by quarantining first, you are lowering the stress, and taking that out of the equation.)

 

It also goes both ways. You say your boy is a survivor of a previous outbreak that killed off your other birds. Well, chances are, that he was exposed and developed immunity to that disease, and could now be a carrier. But the new bird might not be immune. So you don't really want to test whether he is or not until he is settled in and you know he made the transition to his new home and feeding style with flying colors.

 

I hope this is helpful for you and gives you some food for thought.

 

Oh, and I just caught your reference to "the best in the district". That in no way means that their budgies are guaranteed free of all germs and bacteria. I know of no living organism that is. If they are the best, I'm sure they will still recommend that you quarantine, and they will probably be honest with you about the potential for birds transmitting diseases, even if they believe theirs to be extremely healthy.

 

 

Good luck.

Thankyou for that info.

I just really wanted it confirmed that it was important for disease not just introduction.

The rescue bird had lived in a tiny thilthy cage its whole life, the person I got him from is the cleanest person I know so to see her putting a living creature in such thilth shocked me, I dont think it had ever been cleaned or had the paper changed. It was one of those tiny ones you get for $9 at the cheap shops.

Now to work out where to put the cage to quarantine the new bird when we pick it up. Hmmm From what I have read on here they need to be 5 feet apart at least and my animal room is 2.2 metres wide by 4.5metres but the front 2.4 metres is the entrance to the house and into the lounge from this room. If I place the new bird across from him it will be only 4 foot apart.

I have turned our sunroom on the front into my animal room, Dog Crate is in there (my girl is crate trained), then I have a 4 foot long cupboard with my bird and my sons fish on it (he has guppies and tetras).

LOL just did some measuring. If I move the dog crate next to the cupboard and swap the fish tank and my budgies cage around there will be 5.5feet between them. New bird will be infront of the window though and it can get hot there.

thanks for your help, I am living on little sleep at the moment and am finding typing as I think helps me think and getting feedback really helps.

 

Now to work out where to put the cage to quarantine the new bird when we pick it up. Hmmm From what I have read on here they need to be 5 feet apart at least

 

 

Not 5 feet......5 metres in another room in another airspace.

 

For instance psittacosis can be carried by a bird and that is an airborne tranferance so 5 ft wont help at all. I once bought a bird that was a carrier of psittacosis.............way back then I was told put her straight in a breeder cage. By the time I knew she was carrying psittacosis she had given it to her cage mate and he died, and all the budgies in cages within that room also died.

Edited February 18, 201213 yr by **KAZ**

Oh Thankyou for that. Just as well they were out of budgies. Had a hour and a half chat with her, she is a big advocate on quarantining. I have set up a quarantine cage, guess I will put it in the dining room or office. She will only sell handraised birds to people with young children as pets and sends them home while still on 4hourly feeds with all your feeding supplies so they can bond with you. She makes herself available to you for advice and support. Spent time asking me if I had the time to feed and we discussed the fact I am up before dawn and due to my dog having a anxiety disorder (abused before we got her at the ripe old age of 8weeks, some people are scum), I am never out of the house for more than 3hrs, so yeah I will be available for hand feeds. Wonderful lady and really underpricing herself. No budgies ready for 3weeks so a bit more of a wait for my boys companion.

Sounds like you found a real gem with your neighbour. Wish all birdy people were that great. Good luck with new chick when you get it.