Allergy

[RiverM]

Hello, I am new and was not sure how this works. I have a troubling question. I have no allergic reactions to my Green Cheek at all. We, my husband and I, bought a Jenday and I get him close to me and I can't breathe. I was hoping it was anything but the Jenday. We so love him. But today, I got really bad and not getting used to him. Getting worse. I don't understand how I can be allergic to the Jenday and not the Green Cheek. They are both Conures. I do know the Jenday is a bigger bird of course. Tell me I am not crazy. We are prepared to take him back tomorrow. We are both very sad for us AND especially stressing out our dear love again to have to go back to the pet store.

[Wolf]

Allow me to start by welcoming you to the forum. I can't say that I understand this either, if one of them were a cockatiel or some other dust bird, I could at least understand what is happening but that is not the situation here. So I guess that I have to resort to guessing and/ or asking questions and see what we can come up with.

Do you have any other allergies? If so, are you currently taking any meds for them? If you don't have any other allergies or if you do but are not taking anything for it have you tried a simple over the counter antihistamine?

Are both of these birds on the same diet? Whatever we eat affects our bodily chemistry so I have to wonder if this might be the case. When ever we are scared our bodies give of a different scent due to the chemical changes that occur from the different chemicals produced and given off by our bodies and if you have just gotten this bird then it is highly stressed due to fear.

That is about all that I can think of at this point. Oops, just thought of this, have you tried getting the new bird to take a bath or misted it down like it got soaked by rain? Since you got it from a pet store there is no way to know what was in the cage prior to this bird or if the cage was thoroughly cleaned before this bird was placed in it, so you may be reacting to something that was picked up by the bird from the pet store's cage and not actually to the bird itself.

That also brings up the point that whenever you bring home a new bird you should always keep it quarantined from any other birds that you may have, for at least 30 days as well as to have the vet check the new bird out to help insure that it is healthy and that should include its first blood panel. You never know what diseases a new bird may be carrying and quarantine is the first line of defense that we have to keep our birds healthy. Even if you have not done this, you should consider doing it now as you may be lucky and the new bird could be healthy, but it is a risk that you should not willingly take with your other bird.

[liz]

Welcome to the forum.

Misting to keep the bird dust down and not traveling around the room helps a lot. My son is allergic to the Cockatiels but if I mist them and their room it holds the dust down enough that he can go into their room.

[Navre]

Allergies are strange things. You should go to an allergist and discuss this with him. He can also test you for many things. I know "Parakeet" is in the standard test, but I don't know how specific they get.

Now that the standard "This is a health issue so you should consult a doctor" warning is out of the way... I'd say that I agree with Wolf. Once he is on the same diet as your GCC, and has been on it for a while, it is likely that you will tolerate him the same as your GCC, but its not definite.

One DYH we have emits a strong, sweet, "Amazon Smell." All the birds are on the same diet, in the same room, and exposed to the same light, etc. but Maya just emits a far stronger odor than the rest. Maybe it's because she is 7 and the rest of them are in their 20s, at least, but I don't know.

In a kind-of-related issue: I am dreadfully allergic to some cats, but other cats I can hold, pet, and even live with. And cats are all the same species. Your conures are different species, and even different genus.

EDIT: Sorry to use the abbreviations when speaking to someone new to the forums. GCC= Greencheek Conure. DYH= Double Yellow Head Amazon

[liz]

They smell just like chicken !