Keeping your bird pet hygiene is very important. By keeping your bird pet hygiene and clean, you can prevent it from getting some health issues. One of the health issues a bird pet can have is liver disease, check the symptoms of liver disease in birds.
One of the most concerning health issues birds can have is feather mite infestation. These mites, despite their small size, if are left untreated may cause some serious health conditions. Worse than that, these feather mites can also negatively impact humans and other animals.
As a bird parent, you surely won’t your bird pet to have feather mite infestation, will you? There are several types of mites that can infest your bird. They are air-sac mites, red mites and scaly face mites.
Each mite has different characteristics and symptoms or effects each of them causes. Let’s talk about red mites which can afflict any species of bird. Red mites bite the bird and suck the blood. Humans and other household pets can also fall victim to these tiny creatures.
As a result, the infected bird will seem restless and itchy at night as these mites feed. Feather mites can also e one of the reasons why your bird pets lose their feathers.
There are some symptoms you can observe if you suspect your bird pet has feather mites, such as seems to be restless during the day, constant preening or even feather destruction as it tries to rid the mites, and presence of mite eggs in the feathers.
Prevention of Feather Mites
There are some health problems feather mites can cause, such as severe respiratory distress that may lead to death. That’s why it is very important for all bird parents to be aware of the ways to prevent their birds from getting feather mites. Let’s discuss more about the ways to prevent your bird pets from getting feather mites.
- Avoid Close Contact with other Birds
To prevent feather mite, then you should make sure that your bird pet is not in contact with other birds or birds nest. It is kind of hard to notice whether the other birds are infected by feather mites, so it would be better if your bird pet can avoid getting contact with others.
- Wear all Protective Clothing
Whenever you handle birds, make sure that you wear protective clothing. Remember that feather mites can bite humans too. By doing so, your skin won’t get exposed to mites.
- Call a Pest Control
This could be the most effective way to prevent feather mites. You can simply call a pest control company and they will vacuum everything, starting from your carpet. You may also ask your veterinarian and consult about the products they use or recommend to prevent mites.
- Practice Good Hygiene
Feather mites in birds really love to live in warm and humid conditions. They can even thrive in humidity levels between 70 to 90 percent. Make sure you don’t give access for them to live in your house. Avoid creating humid places, make sure the air circulation is good.
- Keep Your Indoors Birds away from Wild Birds
Just like stated before, your birds may get feather mites infestation from the other birds. The birds may come from outdoor, so you have to make sure the outdoor birds do not get access to your pet birds. It is because those outdoor birds may carry the mites and they might be transmitted to your birds.
Feather mites are not the same as other pet’s mites. They are so small and they are often hard and difficult to spot. An adult feather mite typically measures less than 1 millimeter.
If you spot any feather mite, you will notice its white or grayish oval body, hairy back and eight legs. After it sucks blood, it will change color and develop a reddish hue.
You can also tell that all mites cause problems in other animals. However, there are some ways to get rid of it. Read more about ways to get rid of mites in rabbit with home remedies,
Despite the small or tiny size of mites, you as a bird parent must be really aware of this condition. As mites are blood suckers, they will keep sucking your bird’s blood. As a result, it may cause anemia.
Pay extra attention to younger birds too as the fatalities of feather mites are greater in younger birds. The birds and the environment’s hygiene will play an important role in preventing the presence of feather mites.
If you plan to have another bird pet or just start thinking of having one at home, make sure to get some references from popular bird breeds to pet and recommended pet birds for you who live in apartment.