Worried about mites on my new cockatiel, can someone have a look who knows about these things?

Trum

Regular Member
I have had my tiel for about 12-14 weeks now and when i got him he had a shiny cere, it had some crusty bits but i put that down to just rubbing beaks on the perches. Over time its gotten very crusty and "old" looking, im worried it might be mites or something, any help would be great.

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Just to add i was told he was a young tiel, apart from that i dont know the age, they said he was months old so i can only assume younger than a year if that helps. His feet seem nice and pink, not flaky like older birds get.
 
@Trum , if you can PM me your address , I will send you a free 150ml of beaphar insecticidal bird spray free of charge to treat your bird in the next post.
 
@Trum , if you can PM me your address , I will send you a free 150ml of beaphar insecticidal bird spray free of charge to treat your bird in the next post.
Does that mean your confident its mites? Do you know what kind? I live in Scotland so it would be too expensive and probably long to send. Thank you for the offer but i could buy it quicker and i think speed is probably something i need to have. I read scaly mites can be treated with ivermectin orally or on their neck, i HOPE i can do something like that since my budgie is very old and sick as it is and HATES being sprayed, if i have to spray him he will get very stressed and my cockatiel HATES being sprayed too so i will totally lose all affection/trust if i have to spray him daily.......this is such a disaster, i feel like crying!
 
no but it will ease your mind and rule out the possibility that your bird will not have mites after treatment as this is spayed over body but not into face. you will find that many birds do not like being sprayed but once soaked it will bring on the urge to do the rain dance especially with tiels.
 
No spray near those nostrils @Michael Reynolds better off the spray for the cage or if it was on the legs (perches) its active ingredient is Permethrin which is for external parasites like mites, lice, ticks, fleas and mosquitos and can only be used in well ventilated room clearly states on the instructions "avoid the head, non-feathered parts, eyes, nose, ears, beak and anus"

@Trum that is scaly mite (Cnemidocoptes pillae) they are a burrowing mite not a surface mite. You need a product with Ivermectin in it. You can get Baephar spot on to treat it. Used to treat it by killing the little perishers using vasaline smeared on the cere but that's now classed as an out of date thing too. Beaphar Anti-Parasite Spot On For Small Birds 4 week Treatment For Canary, Budgie : Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies
Can buy it cheaper than that in many pet shops. but wanted to show you what it looked like
 
I have used vasaline with budgies in the past and was just looking up the spot on when you replied, the problem with vasaline is it stops the mites from breathing no harm to the bird but you can block the nostril with the vasaline so I do not use it now
 
Vasaline bothers me more at the parasites being blocked under the skin and dying there
its supposed to be just smeared on to cause a glossy barrier rather than blobbed on.
anyway neither here nor their there's alternatives these days and spot on would kill the kittle perishers wherever they may be!

Likely that the little one was infected when you purchased little one. Might me worth mentioning to the place you purchased from so that they can ensure the other birds are treated.
 
No spray near those nostrils @Michael Reynolds better off the spray for the cage or if it was on the legs (perches) its active ingredient is Permethrin which is for external parasites like mites, lice, ticks, fleas and mosquitos and can only be used in well ventilated room clearly states on the instructions "avoid the head, non-feathered parts, eyes, nose, ears, beak and anus"

@Trum that is scaly mite (Cnemidocoptes pillae) they are a burrowing mite not a surface mite. You need a product with Ivermectin in it. You can get Baephar spot on to treat it. Used to treat it by killing the little perishers using vasaline smeared on the cere but that's now classed as an out of date thing too. Beaphar Anti-Parasite Spot On For Small Birds 4 week Treatment For Canary, Budgie : Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies
Can buy it cheaper than that in many pet shops. but wanted to show you what it looked like
Thank you for the link, now the question is, should i get the small birds variant like you posted or the medium bird one that is for cockatiels, Daffy is a small cockatiel and not too heavy, the small bird is 20-50g and medium 50-300g. Any thoughts?
 
Thank you for the link, now the question is, should i get the small birds variant like you posted or the medium bird one that is for cockatiels, Daffy is a small cockatiel and not too heavy, the small bird is 20-50g and medium 50-300g. Any thoughts?
Can you weigh Daffy?
 
Can you weigh Daffy?
Its awkward, i will try tomorrow, i have a kitchen scale and maybe if i pop some millet there he might walk onto it but i cant imagine he will be more than 50g, if he is it will be a tiny amount since i have a huge big english budgie who is pretty much the same size and hes only in the lower 40s, but i will check if i can, if i cant weight him because hes being awkward im not sure what to get, any ideas would be great.
 
I just posted the one for small as it was the first one I could find.
If Daffy has had any contact with your budgies .... your treating everybody though to make sure you get rid of the little feckers :2guns: may as well do the job properly just in case and protect all of them not so that we treat one and another has them and passes them back like a crazy game of pass the parcel!
 
I just posted the one for small as it was the first one I could find.
If Daffy has had any contact with your budgies .... your treating everybody though to make sure you get rid of the little feckers :2guns: may as well do the job properly just in case and protect all of them not so that we treat one and another has them and passes them back like a crazy game of pass the parcel!
So do you think use the medium one to be sure if i cant get a weight? I ordered for small and medium. Dicky my budgie has to go to the vet this weekend, he might need to be put down so im not going to do anything until i find out, i will do Daffy my tiel though once i figure out his weight if i can. Probably best to do medium if i cant get a weight since thats what they recommend, do you agree?
 
I just posted the one for small as it was the first one I could find.
If Daffy has had any contact with your budgies .... your treating everybody though to make sure you get rid of the little feckers :2guns: may as well do the job properly just in case and protect all of them not so that we treat one and another has them and passes them back like a crazy game of pass the parcel!
I also feel i need to call the place i got Daffy and tell them about it, if daffy has it then any other birds there probably do to, they had lots of birds of all breeds, poor things. Do you know if they might be causing Daffy to act a bit weird, he has been out the cage every minute he can get out since i got him but the past 2 days he refuses to leave the cage and is getting angry at me if i put my hand in, very unlike him, could that be the mites i wonder?
 
Its awkward, i will try tomorrow, i have a kitchen scale and maybe if i pop some millet there he might walk onto it but i cant imagine he will be more than 50g, if he is it will be a tiny amount since i have a huge big english budgie who is pretty much the same size and hes only in the lower 40s, but i will check if i can, if i cant weight him because hes being awkward im not sure what to get, any ideas would be great.
Looks can be decieving try an get Daffy on the scales if hes over 50g do go for the medium if under then the small. He may just walk onto it with a few treats
 
Perhaps Daffy is unhappy about something that has changed in the house rather than the mites
Mites make them rub their faces more on things like toys and perches as they itch like mad
If your already going to the vets as if they can fit in a health check on Daffy or ask them to weigh him.
Sorry your little budgie isn't well what's ailing him/her?
 
Perhaps Daffy is unhappy about something that has changed in the house rather than the mites
Mites make them rub their faces more on things like toys and perches as they itch like mad
If your already going to the vets as if they can fit in a health check on Daffy or ask them to weigh him.
Sorry your little budgie isn't well what's ailing him/her?
Its his oil gland, about a year ago, actually 18 months ago now i noticed a large lump on his back, his gland had blocked. Now i went back multiple times and the vet was able to squeeze the wax out the lump but eventually it went too hard to do and with Dicky being 10 years old an operation was out of the question. Fast forward to now and he has a lump that looks like a pinky finger on his back, this big black lump is getting longer and longer, its now made his tail feathers fall out so he has no tail and this big black lump sticks out the back where his tail should be. The vet was hoping it might just fall off with time as its black but its just getting larger. Hes been sleeping a LOT lately so im worried its causing him some pain. As horrific as its sounds hes been perfectly happy up until very recently so its time to go see what the vet thinks, if hes in pain i think its time to say goodbye, im hoping he can just cut a big chunk of this lump off and give him a better quality of life since its a big lump of wax. I dont know what will happen but its been very stressful, hes been such a trooper.
 
Hmmm interesting we used to use a warm compress (bit of material with warm NOT hot water) a few times a day to soften those up keeping it disinfected with a little antiseptic (fqo watered down would do it) and gently rubbing them to try to keep them blockage free and upping the intake of vitamin A as that's usually something to do with the blockages. Have you tried any of this?
But obviously your vet will know best not trying to teach anybody to suck eggs and I am not a vet it just kind of pinged my bran a little there .... almost woke up another brain cell!! Dangerous!!
 
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