FINCHforum

I've just gotten my first Gouldians, a boy and a girl, 4 months old, I think. I got them with 4 - 1 year old society finches I was adopting. This was an unexpected opportunity to get them for a small re-homing fee ( $25 each). I just found out on Wednesday (or so) and have been reading up ever since.

I'm concerned about quarantining them because I've read in so many places that they are so sensitive to environment change. I already have 3 societies and also 7 zebras (will be 6 on Wednesday) and 4 budgies (will be 6 on Wednesday).
I know the cardinal rule is to quarantine but they are from a private home and will have to be quarantined in the bathroom. This worries me because Goulds are said to be very sensitive to damp.

I would really appreciate some sage advice from experienced Gould parents.
Thanks,
Hoji

All my new birds are typically quarantined in my bathroom too, unless it's occupied... by other birds.

I've never heard that Goulds are sensitive to 'damp'. They do originate from Australia as I'm sure you know and are bred and housed worldwide. I would say they are not any more sensitive to dampness than any other finch.

I would definitely recommend quarantining all your new acquisitions and CONGRATULATIONS!

Hoji
I also use my bathroom to quarantine my birds.
In a pinch, like right now, I use both bathrooms. That way I don't risk contaminating the bird that is already part way through quarantine.
Use a large enough cage for all 6, or better yet put the gouldians in one cage and the societies in another cage.

And congratulations on a getting the gouldians at a GREAT price.

As it sounds like you will be getting more birds, keep them quarantined separate from the gouldians and societies you just got. You don't want to cross contaminate them if any of them has "something."

Work on your existing birds first,
then quarantine #1; gouldians + societies
then quarantine #2; 2 new budgies

In general I follow this procedure w a few differences:
http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/featur ... antine.mgi

Thanks, you both make me feel so much better.

They are all in a rather small travel cage for tonight. They all
lived together in their old home, so they are very used to each other. I do have a much larger cage I can move them into tomorrow morning.
How long do you recommend the quarantine, since they are from private home and not a pet store.

I was a little confused about the dampness issue as well, because so many others say that they like a higher humidity. The site that said this also recommended, very strongly, not to feed dampened or wet food, so no sprouted seed, etc. That sounded odd to me. Many others say yes to wet food, which is good because I give sprouts and things to all my fids.

I just finished building two side by side indoor small aviaries or large flights - I can walk all the way inside. 6 ft wide x 6.5 ft tall x 3 ft deep. So now I am stocking up, if you are wondering why so many new birds at once.

I'm going to go check out the link.

Quarantines can be from several weeks to a month or more, depending on how good you feel about the source of the birds.

I have a fan in my bath to suck out the humidity when I take a shower, so the humidity level is not HIGH for very long.

I do 1 month quarantine.
The time constraint is the S76 treatment for Air Sac Mites (ASM). It is given 2 days in a row for 3 weeks. Add a few days before starting the S76 treatment, and a few days after the last treatment brings it to a month.

This also gives me more time to observe the bird, and more chance to see any problems BEFORE introducing the bird to the flock.

Even if the birds came from someones house, you do not know if there may be issues with the bird that are not immediately visible, example, ASM, mites, worms, etc

One caution with the societies.
Do you know if they have successfully fostered gouldian chicks before?
The reason for the question is that they "could be" carriers of certain disease that are fatal to gouldian chicks. If they fostered chicks and the chicks survived a few months past weaning, then they are "clean."

I don't think they have fostered, but I don't know.

Do you all do the full thing outlined in the link above?
I have never done anything like that, and, happily, maybe luckily, have never had any issues - or - is this just Gouldians?

Thanks again for your help!

I treat each bird as I put it in the quarantine cage with a drop of Scatt, and worm away it it's water a couple of days later. Then I keep my ears and eyes open for nything abnormal.

I may just be underdoing things though

I treat each bird as I put it in the quarantine cage with a drop of Scatt, and worm away it it's water a couple of days later. Then I keep my ears and eyes open for nything abnormal.

I do the same thing, Scatt and worm away a couple days later then watch for any other signs of a problem. I quarantine between a month to 2 months depending if there are any issues that have to be dealt with.

Good luck with your new aviaries - would love to see pictures. I used to have 6 aviaries that size in my basement years ago.

I've just gotten back another email from the woman who had the new birds. She has been very kind, sending email after email with answers to my questions, she not a breeder, just another bird lover like me. I finally just fessed up and admitted that I was hoping to avoid quarantining (it seems rude to imply that anyone would need to quarantine her birds) so that is why I have so many questions.
Happily she understands. She says she has had no illness for over a year (the societies' parents died right after the babies hatched, over 11 months ago, and she had to hand raise and feed them) and no new birds for over 6 months in her bird room. She also only quarantines for about a week.
I'll also admit that I don't generally quarantine, I follow new birds for weeks before I bring them home - or - I have confidence in the folks I get them from. I've never had a problem.

I don't know why I'm stressing so much this time.

I'm so worried about the Gouldians not doing well with all the moving around. If i just go on and put them in the aviary then all those changes can be avoided.
I've either got to put them in the bigger cage - or - the aviary soon. The little cage they are in is just too small for 6 birds.

I appreciate you listening to me try to rationalize myself out of a quarantine.

Maybe if I set them up in the larger cage and left them there longer - say 2 or 3 months - would that be long enough so the Goulds won't feel like there is too much change going on?
Thanks again.

It's not so much whether her birds were sick or not but more of what her birds were exposed to. Maybe her birds were exposed to something and have built up a tolerance to it. Now you bring them in contact with your birds and in doing so have now exposed your birds to it. Maybe her birds have built up a tolerance to something and now the stress of the move brings it out making them ill.
Quarantine is NEVER a bad thing, better safe then sorry.
But bottom line it's your choice, I personally would not risk my whole flock bringing in new birds without some sort of quarantine.

Best of luck

Hoji
The quarantine is more important as your flock gets bigger / more expensive. "Bugs" brought in via the new birds could make the flock sick or die. The idea is to reduce the chance of "bugs" coming in via the new birds.

Yeah, I'm bleaching my bigger cage which housed budgies for awhile. I have noticed some things about their beaks that concern me. The male looks to have a scaly overgrowth on the top of his upper beak and the female has what almost looks little chips out of the lower edge of her upper beak, oh, she is molting, almost back in feather, I think. I'm trying to get some pix.

Hoji, make sure that your budgies don't have scaly mites! Are their feet looking different and "rough" as well? If they have these mites then you need to get them treated, or treat them yourself as soon as possible! (Search the internet for pitcures of "scaly mites in budgies" to see what that looks like.)

My budgies had that once when I bought some from a petstore. (I noticed in mine that one of them had "scaly feet" and also some sort of rough spot on the beak. Luckily I detected it early and they were all fine. I had them ALL treated though, even those that didn't yet show any sign of illness.)

The only "good" thing is in that case that the finches would most likely not be affected by that disease (mine were all fine without treatment, in the same aviary with the budgies).

Ah, sorry, I meant that the Gouldians have beaks issues. I just re-read my post and it does seem to say that Budgies have the problem. I only brought the Budgies up because it is their old cage that I'm going to use for quarantine.
Happily my Budgies look great! Thanks