Recognizing Diseases in Caged Birds

As a general rule of thumb, any caged bird that appears ill to its owner is seriously ill. One day of illness for a bird is roughly equivalent to 7 days of illness for a person. The tendency for pet bird owners in this situation is to first seek advice from pet stores and there purchase antibiotics and other medication for their sick pet bird. With very few exceptions, these non-prescribed products are worthless. They allow the sick bird to become even sicker, and greatly compromise the results of diagnostic tests that the veterinarian may require to properly diagnose and treat the patient. Contact your veterinarian at the slightest sign of illness in your bird.

Supplemental heat (space heater, heated room, heating pad under the cage bottom or wrapped around the cage, heat lamp) is vital for a sick bird. It is especially necessary if the bird's feathers are fluffed up. Provide just enough heat so that the feather posture appears normal. Overheating the patient must be avoided at all costs. Heat-stressed birds pant, hold their wings away from the body, depress their feathers close to the body, and appear anxious and agitated. Heat stroke and death can result if the bird continues to be overheated. The environmental temperature should be kept at 80-95 F for sick birds. The patient's cage should be covered (top, back and sides) during its convalescence.

If a bird refuses to crack seeds or eat other foods that require a great deal of work, offer hulled or sprouted seeds or other "easy" foods, such as warm cereal, cooked rice, cooked pasta, vegetables, applesauce and other fruit sauces, and peanut butter. Remember, birds that refuse to eat must be hospital-ized. Few people can successfully force-feed a sick bird at home.

Droppings Can Reflect Illness

A bird's droppings reflect its state of health. Therefore, it is a good idea to pay close attention to them. A bird's digestive, urinary and reproductive tracts empty into a common receptacle called the cloaca and the products from them are expelled through the vent, which is the opening at the bird's 'south end.'

A normal dropping may contain excretory products from the intestinal tract, urinary tract or both. The fecal (stool) portion of the dropping should be green or brown. The color is influenced by the bird's diet. Normal droppings are formed into a coil, reflecting the size and diameter of the intestine. Along with the fecal portion is a variable amount of uric acid or urate ('whitewash') and urine ('water'). The urates are usually in a blob or mixed in with the feces and should be white or beige.

The urine portion soaks the papers on the cage bottom for a variable distance beyond the perimeter of the dropping. It is important to regularly observe the amount of urine being excreted in the droppings. For this reason, such material as crushed corn cobs or walnut shells should not be used on the cage bottom. It is impossible to evaluate each dropping when these materials cover the cage bottom. These materials also tend to promote rapid growth of disease-causing fungi on the cage bottom, especially when wet with urine or water. Newspapers or paper towels are preferable.