Gouldian Finch Quarantine Protocol
I get so many questions about quarantine practices, I decided to make a post to refer you to. Quarantine is necessary at 2 times: when a bird is ill/injured or suspected to be ill, and when a new one comes into your aviary.
Bringing a new bird into the aviary is what we are going to discuss today. Whether you have 2 or 200 Gouldian finches, it’s simply not worth it to expose them to illness. You could end up losing the entire aviary! So when bringing one in it is necessary to quarantine.
Quarantine to Prevent Illness in the Flock
In a perfect world, we would put the bird on a different air system than our current birds. However, that’s often impossible for various reasons. I keep my Gouldians in a bird room in my home (no more guest room! :D). I do live in Florida, so at some times of the year I could house new finches outdoors in the pool’s screen cage. I have a nifty countertop there that’s about 8 feet long and sheltered on 3 sides and is under roof. So if the temperatures are between 60-80, which truthfully only happens in March and maybe April, they can stay there. Otherwise it is too hot or too cold.
So usually mine are quarantined in a separate room of the house. I have never had problems with this. One must understand that there are risks involved – illness could potentially spread inside the home. But hand washing and using clean, disinfected dishes goes a long way in preventing it. So does keeping food bins separate to avoid cross-contamination.
In other words, don’t feel guilty if you must quarantine within the same air system. Just be smart about it.
That’s the why and the initial how of the matter, but there is one more issue:
WHAT are we trying to accomplish by quarantining the bird?
We’re trying to prevent bringing disease into our flock, and we are also trying to eradicate any disease or parasites the new bird(s) may have. To that end, I’ve developed a quarantine protocol that is 60 days long. 90 days would be even better. My quarantine procedure will remove external and internal parasites and give the owner plenty of time to observe the bird(s) and get them to the vet if needed.
