upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Good question.... I do not know the answer, but in the future, I would also like to add some Gouldin Finches, parakeets, and those small diamond doves. I only have Versace the umbrella right now. All of this will be after our remodeling. They will NOT be in the same room with Versace.
Will this be O.K.


Versace's mom

I have finches, canaries, diamond doves, parakeets, conures, cockatoos (goffins), lovebirds, cockatiels, and quakers all in the same room (in seperate cages, of course:). I have never had any problems at all with them being in the same room. Finches are great! And I don't think you would have any problems at all if you added them to your 'flock'.
Sarah

The commercially raised budgerigars have an AMAZINGLY high incidence of polyoma. Unlike other birds, many do not shake the infection and continue to shed virus life long. To make matters worse people have tried to get odd colours of these birds and have created extreme genetic instability, so that pet budgerigars have the HIGHEST incidence of neoplasms of any known species! It should be noted that the green one are much less likely to have this problem, but the bad genes have, sadly, been spread through the population. It is NOT a good idea to add these birds to existing flocks. If you get an odd coloured one the chance is also very high it will develope malignant tumours very soon. The neoplasm problem centres on the way that these birds have been selected for mutants in the past. The polyoma problem stems from the way that these birds are bred for the mass market.

Cockatiels have a very high incidence of chlymidia. Several percent of the ones for sale have latent infections.

Some birds also harbour Pacheco's disease. One of my friends had a large flock of amazons, and about half of them died when this dreadful disease swept through their flocks.

There is also beak and feather disease, the plague of young cockatoos.

There is also proventricular dilatation disease that is still so mysterious, but seems to be at least weakly contageous, and much more so in some cases.

Quaranteen often does not help.

I hate to sound so discouraging, but people I have known have had problems with all these diseases. About four years I had a severe problem with chlymdia, and also a bird I had died nearly three years ago from Proventricular dilation disease. Since then I take care to avoid having my birds near other birds!

In particular, I really like budgerigars, but I am afraid to get any of them!

The only currently available vaccination for birds is for polyomavirus. Any bird can be cultured for chlamydia, but again, birds shed viruses intermittently and sometimes it's hard to catch them when they're shedding it. Chlamydia is highly contagious, both to birds and to humans.

Zebra finches don't generally have the same types of illnesses as hookbills, though a few overlap. So exercise caution when introducing them.

Also, many birds, especially those raised in aviary or pet-store conditions, are either carriers of or are infected with giardia. This is contagious, again, to both people and other birds. Giardia is a protozoan that is widely known to cause "traveller's diarrhea." It is often gotten through drinking water that has not been treated, like spring water or river water. It's spread through feces, and the cysts (eggs) can live through very harsh conditions for a long time, so it's difficult to get rid of. It's easy to treat the infection with Metronidazole Flagyl but birds frequently re-infect themselves through contact with areas they have previously contaminated with their fecal matter.

The good news is that giardia can be tested for by doing a direct smear of the new bird's feces. It, too, can be shed intermittently, however, so several tests should be done before assuming a negative result is true.

The one thing I'd watch for is the interaction between the two. I have a house sparrow with my hookbills, and he is very aggressive. He could do serious damage to them if I did not vigilantly supervise out-time. Likewise, should my grey get too close, she could - and would - kill him easily. So just be careful of that. I don't think finches are nearly as aggressive as sparrows, but the danger goes both ways.

Finches really do have different disease issues than parrots. I would be much less concerned about introducing finches than any parrot.

As I mentioned before, quarantine does not necessarily help for some of the worst diseases out there because birds can be typhoid Mary's.

The budgerigar problem is due both to the way that they are mass produced and to a particular weakness in their physiology.

The cockatiel problem is due to a large extent to the way that they are mass produced.

Typhoid Mary's - so true.

And I have a 7 year old cockatiel who is a giardia carrier. She has been through many rounds of Flagyl with no success. She has long since picked herself bald under her wings and on the insides of her thighs, which are the two primary places they pluck from giardia infection. Fortunately, there are no more to pluck, and she doesn't pluck anywhere else.

Interestingly enough - and not to take away from the strict quarantine measures you should always exercise - this cockatiel shares a cage with the other one. And all of the other birds consistently test negative for giardia. She sheds the cysts but the others don't get it, so I have to assume their immune systems are stronger than hers.

She's a lutino cockatiel by the way, with the unfortunate bald spot on the head. She was not quality stock, I'm afraid. She's also got an eating problem - she's the only one I have who is overweight, and they all get the same food. She goes broody and nesty at the drop of a hat, and seems to have a low-grade upper respiratory infection constantly. And all of my other birds are perfectly healthy and are normal in their behaviors.

Anyway, it is true that some birds can spread illness without being symptomatic themselves. And that they shed viruses only intermittently. So while the diseases aren't all contagious, some are, so you have to still exercise caution and use quarantine procedures.