Air Sac Mite Prevention - Question

[L in Ontario]

I have all my finches on a 3 month preventive maintenance schedule - but now I'm wondering (since I'm getting more and more birds) - do I have to treat ALL my finches or JUST the Gouldians since they are most susceptible?

Do I have to keep treating my Societies, Stars, Strawberries and Fire Finches for ASM? All my birds are paired up in different cages - no mixed cages here... except when my Societies foster other chicks.

[dfcauley]

I am sure you will get different answers to this Liz, but if it were me.... and I had them in different cages, I would probably treat just the gouldians. If any were to get it, it would probably be them which is where it would start and they would be the ones to pass it on.

So I would treat them. That is just what I would do. Others may differ.

[L in Ontario]

Thanks Donna, I was sort of hoping for that answer since it obviously will make my task much easier having to treat less birds.

I realize that if I used a water based treatment I could treat them all at the same time but I started using Scatt as I didn't have that many birds and I now have 2 bottles to use up. Maybe someday I'll get the other stuff (S76 or whatever is used for preventive maintenance).

I'll continue to make sure ALL new birds get treated with Scatt upon arrival in quaranting (2 doses) before being intro'd into the birdroom.

[finch master]

i use s76 to treat all my finches every 4 months at a rate of 5 ml to 2 liters of water as you say its so easy to add to drinking water rather than catching each bird up
paul.