Gouldian disease Societies carry

[carcoozie]

Hello all!

I have 4 gouldians (in one cage) and 2 male societies (in another cage). I originally got my society boys because mom and dad gouldian threw 2 clutches. I got the boys and then mom and dad figured it out with clutch 3 (yay!).
Anyway, I am getting a new large flight cage from Affordable Custom Cages and am going to move my two juveniles to it when it gets here so I can set mom and dad back up for breeding. I know that societies can carry a disease that can kill baby gouldians before they wean - does that mean I should never house these societies with my gouldians or they could potentially kill any future offspring those gouldians may have?
Should I test them on a clutch of gouldians - although that scares me - how common is it? Are they less or more likely to have it? Is there any other way to know? I would like to put everybody in the same flight on the "off-season" is why I am asking.

Thanks!

[debbie276]

Unless you pay a vet to test your society's there really is no way of knowing if they carry those diseases unless you expose your gouldians to them and see if they get sick or die.
Here's an article that may explain it better for you, https://ladygouldian.com/Fostering-with-Society-Finches

[cindy]

This sounds bad but I know of breeders that "test" their societies to see if they are "clean" by giving them zebra eggs to hatch and feed out...if the zebras survive then the societies are clean.

I also know folks that when they use societies that they are unsure of... they use ronex 12% the entire time the birds are feeding the foster babies. They do this until they remove the foster babies from the societies after being weaned.

Breeders have also taken society eggs and fostered them under zebras, letting the zebras raise the society babies... those babies would then be "clean".

I have societies that were raised by zebras and others that have not.. I let the societies raise gouldians, Chestnut breasted mannikins and zebras...I have not lost any foster babies.