Kim S wrote:Same thing here. I just dont have the place to quarantine them for that extended period of time.
I can put them away on my attic for weeks, but I will contaminate anyway. What do you expect me to do. Change my clothes everytime I go up there to take care of them and change back when I come downstairs? Who does that.
On top of that. Michael pointed out the importance of the month it takes a bird to recover from the travellingstress and the stress of a new home. But if I stick it up in the attic it doesnt familiarize with my livingroom but with my attic. So it will be stressed out again when I put it downstairs after a month.
You got it backwards. For exactly this reason you don't stick the new parrot in a different place. You do that to the old parrot. And this way you can do it gradually because you have your original parrot(s) for a longer time and have more freedom to move them around to new places slowly. Plus they benefit from change ups so they don't get too dependent.
Since I'm expecting to get my new Cape, I've been progressively transferring Kili to a different area until I'm done with quarantine. So nearly two months ago, I started moving Kili's cage to my living area during the day but putting her cage back at night. This way she had time to get used to the space. Then when I went away on vacation, I left her in living room area full time. When I got back, I planned to leave her in new area full time. The only problem was that she could see me when I'm home and she would get noisy and demand attention. So I bought a divider and put it up behind my couch/tv so she couldn't see me and so that when she sleeps, the light from TV doesn't hit the covered cage directly. You can
see a bit of this new temporary set up in my recent video. I moved her lights, timers, and air purifiers along with the cage.
The new Cape cage on the other hand, at first I kept in a distant corner so Kili could see it but not go on it. Then as I had Kili living in the new area more and more, I started moving the Cape cage progressively into her original spot. The reason I had to use so much precaution with moving the Cape cage into the vacated area was because Kili had a habit of flying back to her cage and she wasn't used to the fact that her cage was no longer there. I didn't want Kili to land on the Cape cage and claim it as her own territory. In fact I want her to stay off of it so there wouldn't be any issue between Cape and her. It has been working quite well and she has landed on that cage all of about 5 times in 2 months and usually flew right off. I used
a technique similar to training her not to land on Cape tree to keep her off the cage as well.
Thus I will let the new Cape settle right into it's long term cage and area while I keep my more senior/experienced parrot in an alternate set up until quarantine is complete. Then I can easily move Kili back to the old area. As for maintaining quarantine. I would say the strictness of quarantine can be gradually reduced in the process of the month it lasts. The first week it is quite strict where only one parrot is out at a time. They don't share any perches or anything else and stay completely apart. Hands should be washed between parrots and maximum cleanliness kept. Beyond half way though, hand washing can be reduced and eliminated between parrots, then start introducing them to each others stuff/areas at first and then eventually introduce to each other. It's a gradual process to help ease in both the microbial and behavioral natures of both parrots.
The reputation or past health of either parrot does not in any way relieve the importance of quarantine. One parrot may be the host for a relatively harmless bacteria that it is immune to while the other could take ill from it. It is just as possible for the original parrot to get sick from the new as it is possible from the new one to get sick from old.
And to the people who say they have too many parrots to make quarantine manageable, they are the most irresponsible of all because they have a large flock to protect. If bringing in one diseased bird contaminates and kills their entire flock because of neglecting quarantine, they are inhumane and terrible owners. I heard of a bird store around here that had it's entire stock of babies die because of an unquarantined diseased parrot. I have heard other stories where owners knew about quarantine but were complacent and didn't do it and got their other parrots sick as well. I cannot stress the importance of quarantine enough. Just because 90% of the time you get a completely healthy parrot and get away with it, doesn't mean the risk is worth taking for the one time a diseased incomer contaminates the entire flock. Everyone knows that parrots are incredibly good at hiding illness so basing an assumption that it is safe to avoid quarantine because it looks healthy or even vet checked is insufficient. Who gets their entire flock checked as well just to avoid quarantine? Furthermore, babies seem most susceptible to illness.
Making excuses to avoid quarantine is counterproductive. Quarantine is a precautionary measure and costs far less than having a vet bail out the entire flock if everyone ends up getting sick. It is relatively simple to do but the risks of not doing it are tremendous. Everyone, please quarantine newly acquired parrots for at least one month and slowly/progressively introduce them to the flock.