itchy birds

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It's me again with more bird trouble.

All my birds have been itching for a few weeks now. I have sprayed them twice now with avian insect liquidator. I also sprayed the cages , perches and everything in the cages, but still my birds are itching. I may as well have sprayed with plain water for all the good it did.

I assumed it was mites and that they might have come from the new parakeets that my son got for Christmas. They were in his room, but it is colder upstairs so we brought them down to the living room where all the other birds are.They didn't look like they were itching until a few weeks ago.

Is there anything besides mites that can make birds itch? I was reading something earlier today on giardia (not sure if I spelled that right) and it says it can make a bird very itchy. With the exception of one isolated bird , none of my birds act sick. They were flying around like crazy today. They all eat just fine . They all look good, so it would be hard to believe they have that illness.

I am sooo frustrated!!! I don't want to keep spraying chemicals on them if they don't even have mites but if they do why doesn't the spray work? And what else might it be if it isn't mites?

The company that makes it says, if I sprayed them in the first place because they were itching and picking at themselves, then they probably didn't have a parasite problem to begin with. They said it sounds like you have something else going on because birds don't generally scratch at parasites on them. I don't know what to think about that.

Every single bird is itching. If it is mites why isn't the spray working? Last I sprayed was Tuesday. And if it isn't external parasites what could it possibly be????

Again a vet is way too expensive. I cannot go that route.

I am really having anxiety trying to figure out what to do next.

Does anyone have any thoughts to share with me on this?

Again thank you in advance. I really appreciate and welcome everyone's thoughts advice and ideas.

[MLaRue]

Do you see them itching at night too?

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I cover the cages at night. If they were to be itching during the night I wouldn't know. I forgot to mention that they lift their feathers away from their bodies too, as if they were too warm, or uncomfortable. This started at the same time as the itching. And it is definitely not too warm.

[MLaRue]

The reason I asked about night time is the red blood mite will come out at night to feed on them during the night. They will be very restless at all times trying to get away from these super tiny little mites.

And, during the day they will still scratch and itch. You will see a major decline in their feathers too.

http://www.mfgouldianfinches.com/Issues ... sites.html

[JohnBoy]

If it isn't mites is it possible that they are having molting problems? Dry shin? Try feeding a supplement for feather and skin problems. That is all I can think of.

[Ursula]

What birds do you have besides the parakeets? And they are in different cages, I assume? And are ALL of them itchy? Parakeets spend a good amount of time on preening themselves, that's normal. Are they loosing feathers too and look fluffed up or ruffled?

Could there be something in the environment that makes them itchy? I would definitely stop spraying them, I don't think these mite sprays and things are very effective.

I found something here, but I don't know if that helps: http://www.animalpets.org/page-122-Feather-Picking.html

If you think there could be mites you can test that. I haven't done it before but I read you can put white sheets or paper in the cages on the bottom in the evening. If they have blood mites you should see little red spots in the morning.

If they really have mites I think there are better treatments than sprays. (Search the forum for mite treatment and SCATT.)