As some of you know, I got Pogo a new companion and have him in quarantine in a separate cage in another room. I've been spending some time with him and getting him finger tame, etc. Ziggy is coming along so great that it's almost unbelievable.

Some people have said quarantine time period should be 30 days ... but I'm wondering why. After a week Ziggy shows no signs of sickness, disease or parasites (i.e., mites). What could a Budgie have that would take 30 days to show up?

I'd like to have the facts on the whole quarantine process, and thanks in advance for any good info provided.

Reprinted with permission from Dr. Pete Sakas, from Avian Medicine A Guide For Practitioners.

And, let me tell you that not even thirty days are enough. Not that I am telling you to do it for longer just that one never really knows if a bird is truly 100% healthy. Not even avian vets know.

I once got a canary male from a lady in Long Island and all the males are housed separately because they are very aggressive so, in reality, it's as if you quarantine every single one; but about 8 months later, when breeding time came around, I paired him with my best hen, Pajara Pinta. To make a long story short, two years later the male died and the year after that, the female. He had been infected with a virus that gives them cancer and passed it on to my female (I know because I had them both necropsied -I do that to all the birds that die in my birdroom). And, because it's still not known how the virus is contracted, I don't even know if the babies they produced or the females that were in the same flight cage as Pajara Pinta have it.

We quarantine a minimum of 60 days preferably 90. We actually quaratine any new birds at either a family member's house or a friend's house that has no birds that way they are not in the same air space as our others. Even if you use a different room being doors are opened, etc it can have a little risk so we choose to put new birds in a totally seperate house. I know many don't have this option so please quarantine the best you can by feeding and cleaning the new bird last and changing clothes and shoes after being near the new bird. I have seen many bird people over the years that thought everything was safe and exposed their bird to the new one and only days after moving the new bird had it come down with an illness. Birds can have many deadly viruses such as polyoma, beak and feather disease, psittacosis, PDD and unfortunately these viruses can be shed via feather dust and fecal secretions. Even if the bird looks safe please continue with quarantine and I also recommend a new bird exam to be safe. We actually test all new birds for beak and feather disease, psittacosis, polyoma, and get gram stains, fecal tests, cbc's and if any abnormal bacteria shows up a culture and sensitivity. At our avian vet this runs about $300+ per bird and while alot of people don't do this especially for the smaller species I find it gives us peace of mind.

From what I've been reading here, it seems there might be some kinds of viruses or diseases that might not show up for months or years or ever ... but could still be passed on and make other birds sick. If that's the case, then no amount of quarantine would tell you anything for cases like this.

Sounds like there is going to always be some slight level of risk involved putting any birds together, even after the quarantine period. Extending the quarantine period beyond 30 days might give you some more peace of mind, but is it really going to divulge anything more than a 30 day quarantine period without a myriad of tests involved?

Possibly yes, possibly not. For me it's a comfort level thing. I have gotten by without quarantine before, but wouldn't do it again, that was just plain reckless. I'd be quite proud of myself to get through 30 to 45 days of it, and for me, 30 to 45 days gives you a pretty good chance. There's always a possibility that something could take longer to show up, but at some point you have to draw the line, or end up quarantining everybody forever.

In reality the length of the quarantine period depends on the avian exam. If you are going to do a 100% complete exam with physical; full blood panel with diseases (it would depend on the individual bird's case what diseases you should test for); fecal exam; skin/cloacal/choanal swab and full body X-Rays, all you need to do is wait until all the results come in, which is usually about five days. The only birds I would quarantine for thirty days are the ones that you cannot test for contagious diseases, like a canary, for example, and anything over thirty days is really overkill for that kind of bird because whatever they have, it would come out in that period of time and, if it doesn't, there is nothing you can do about it anyway. But psittacines are different because you can test for everything but PDD.