Start of the breeding season

[marleen4]

Last weekend my birds were treated with Ivermectin (I finally found a horrendously expensive supplier who knows how to dilute the sheep stuff, whose shop is right across town i.e. some 100km from home )
I split up my male and female diamond doves, as I no longer have a shop that will buy them so I cannot keep breeding them. (I hope I got it right)
I saw that the Chinese quails are already sitting on eggs. I can expect some bumble bees on feet soon!

The budgies (7 pairs) are all in excellent condition. One hen is infertile, a real shame especially as she is a beautiful purple spangle.
This weekend the nest boxes go in, ready for another season.
I cannot wait to see how they get on this year, especially the new beautiful dilute birds!
Never a dull moment with them!

[skysmum]

Exciting times Marleen good luck with them all. Such a shame about your diamond doves , i used to have a pair, i love them especially their soft coooo. Do you keep them in with your buds.

[Hezz]

Exciting times to come in the Marleen aviary. Good luck with them, and here's looking forward to some more lovely chick photos ....... hint, hint.

[BudgiesBuddy]

That's great news. Looking forward to plenty of baby bird pictures

[tinksmum]

Oooh look forward to seeing more little ones, I so love seeing everyones photos of their birds especially the cute lil baby ones!
Good Luck!

[marleen4]

Jul 30, 2013 17:22:53 GMT skysmum said:

Exciting times Marleen good luck with them all. Such a shame about your diamond doves , i used to have a pair, i love them especially their soft coooo. Do you keep them in with your buds.

The nest boxes are hanging and the budgies are having an exciting time trying to sort out where they will spend the season! They are so cute to watch!

All my birds are in 2 large aviaries. I go against all recommendations and colony breed the budgies, and have them in the aviaries with diamond doves and Chinese quails, as well as a lame finch who used to be wild. I have not encountered issues yet with the colony breeding, I think because of the size of the aviaries and I'm not that particular about pairing up my birds. I'm sure they are bird enough to sort this out themselves! Works for us, and keeps them happy

Expect some pictures!

[Boonze]

RE Ivermectin - I just bought a bottle (50mL I think) off eBay for $25 AUD. It posts free to anywhere in Australia, but since you're in NZ I don't know that it would be that expensive - might be worth a shot anyway? Had it shipped to me in two days. Jealous of your budgies breeding, mine work the box but never do anything further (had a couple of clear eggs a few months ago..). Congrats

[marleen4]

Aug 6, 2013 11:23:50 GMT Boonze said:

RE Ivermectin - I just bought a bottle (50mL I think) off eBay for $25 AUD. It posts free to anywhere in Australia, but since you're in NZ I don't know that it would be that expensive - might be worth a shot anyway? Had it shipped to me in two days. Jealous of your budgies breeding, mine work the box but never do anything further (had a couple of clear eggs a few months ago..). Congrats

I've tried all sorts to get Ivermectin, even considered buying it during a trip to the Netherlands. Unfortunately NZ has strict boundary controls for chemicals, and importing it is a no-no for people who are not licensed. I'm just glad I've found a shop in NZ.

[BudgiesBuddy]

Any pictures of New Zealand or Austrelia version of Ivermectin???

[Hezz]

Mine came in a brown glass bottle, BB. No label as it was taken from a 12 litre drum. I made the owner give me the exact strength as the drum was labelled. The pet store do this themselves, as the only way, otherwise of getting some was to either buy the 12 litre drum or some of the clubs do the bulk buy and distribute out to members, only.

The last time I was in my local vet surgery, though, (for the dog) I did see they now have it on their shelves, so can buy it from them without the pain of a consultation. That is good news!

[BudgiesBuddy]

I see

[Hezz]

I couldn't remember the brand the vet was stocking, but like all good ideas, it came to me in the middle of the night - Vetafarm. So I did a search to see what I could find out and was surprised to find this as quoted:

Probably the safest chemicals are Praziquantel, Ivermectin and Oxfendazole. Overdose is possible with any medication but with these the safety factor is usually over 10 times the therapeutic dose (that means you must give 10 times more than recommended before adverse effects occur ).
Ivermectin has some advantages but is not particularly good on roundworms (by far the most common worm in birds) and does not like water -it breaks down rapidly when added to water.
This from the Vetafarm website:
www.vetafarm.com.au/pages/Products-for-birds.html

[marleen4]

It would be interesting to get the opinion of more learned people on your quote!

I buy my Ivermectin in a small brown bottle without a brand. I was told that the shop keeper dilutes this to be suitable for birds. A small quantity (about a table spoon)that does not even treat all my birds is $13NZ!

I'm not using it for worms, as I worm the birds regularly with a birdwormer that is much cheaper. I'm trying to stay on top of the mites with the Ivermactin and thought to treat them before the breeding season. Last season was the first time they ever had a strange type of mite.

As I'm inexperienced in using this treatment, suggestions (frequency, use??)welcome!!

[Hezz]

As I am aware, Marleen, a preventative treatment for mites is one dosage (I presume this to mean one drop) every six months.

I had previously used another product for worming as well, and had not had to bother with mites, only having the three/four birds, but found that Misty and Fluoro had a small amount of scaly mites on their legs when I got them. I had asked the question before - if ivermectin treats internal and external parasites why do we still have to worm our birds ....... it seems that this may be the reason.

I did ask @corie about this a while ago, I think he just uses ivermectin ........

[marleen4]

Thanks Hezz, I'll keep going and hope for the best.