Scaly Mites

[Lady Jane]

SCALY FACE MITES ! (Article by Lisa Morrison)
Scaly face mites are a common parasite that occurs mostly in budgies & canaries although it can occur on other parrots too.
Scaly face mites is very serious and without treatment can cause very bad deformities of your birds beak and often leads to death by starvation.
What is scaly face mites:
Scaly face mites are a very tiny microscopic bug, the mites tunnel into your birds leaving a thick, scaly, crusty residue. The most common places they tunnel into are under your budgies cere, around the beak, the budgies feet and sometimes around the vent.
Symptoms:
If you birds cere or feet become to look crusty or scaly its likely it has got scaly face mites. The crust may be on the cere, on the beak or around the outside of the birds mouth. if can also cause feather loss around the beak and eyes.
Treatment:
Most treatments found in pet stores are NOT effective and some are unsafe. A mite spray will not fix this problem, seek treatment from your avian vet as soon as possible!
Do you need to disinfect/mite treat the birds cage?
No, Scaly face mites only live on their host and don’t spread onto items in the cage. However it is extremely contagious so if you have more than one bird you need to treat them all even If they are all not showing
symptoms.
Left untreated scaly face mites will eventually burrow deeper and deeper into your birds face, affecting not only the beak, cere and eyelid they can also attack the feet and vent of your bird. Eventually the beak will become so deformed that your bird won’t be able to eat and will likely die of starvation.
Please get your bird treated if you notice these symptoms. The quicker you start treatment the easier it will be to get rid of the mites.

 

[Lady Jane]

Most treatments found in pet stores are NOT effective and some are unsafe. A mite spray will not fix this problem, seek treatment from your avian vet as soon as possible!

I think this is most important to know. Do not buy a OTC product for mites on your bird. Find a vet for treatment, even if you have to drive to another town.

 

[Aves]

Yes because usually mite treatments and other otc solutions are manufactured under low standards and not approved by the FDA. Maybe in the future the FDA could make better otc medicine, as of right now the solutions cause more harm than good.

 

[ParrotNuts]

Thanks for posting this, it was a good read

 

[winniezon]

thanks for this good to know.

 

[Kassiani]

Thank you for sharing this! I recently looked through some on-line pictures of birds infested with these mites...horrifying to see!

 

[Pat H]

Thank you for the pictures... Helps to know what to look for [if and when I ever will] looking for another bird.
Q-- is this like the horse story-- that if you've never fallen off a horse-- you haven't riden much! [if your birds have never had scaley mites.... etc].
Hope not... so if the disease is not because of a dirty cage, then it would be caught just from another infected bird? Correct?

 

[Ripshod]

The only time I will ever advise anyone to buy an OTC mite treatment is when there's no chance of getting a bird to a vet, and even then only one specific brand and treatment that has proven consistently safe and effective over the years. It has my vet's approval, but should only be used by a competent adult.
We often see new members coming here who are hundreds of miles from the nearest avian vet, or don't have the transport to get the bird to the vet. So we bend a little - for the bird.

 

[Sparkles99]

What must one do to avoid this. Looks awful!

 

[Lady Jane]

Educate yourself on all aspects of SM so you are more aware.

 

[finchly]

But there ARE products you can buy to treat them. Without going to the vet.
S76 and SCATT are two. (SCATT is moxidectin)

And if these are used correctly upon getting the bird, you won’t end up with scaly mites. Assuming no more are brought in. By the time you see that evidence, your bird has had them a long time.

 

[Destiny]

When I got my Lady Gouldian finches, I treated them with a course of S76 during quarantine on the recommendation of one of the breeders I contacted. Airsac mites are a very common problem in these finches and new birds are the primary source for introducing them to your aviary.

Early signs are easy to miss and the mites can lead to an early death for infected birds so definitely worth the extra effort to prevent the spread.

 

[finchly]

When I got my Lady Gouldian finches, I treated them with a course of S76 during quarantine on the recommendation of one of the breeders I contacted. Airsac mites are a very common problem in these finches and new birds are the primary source for introducing them to your aviary.

Early signs are easy to miss and the mites can lead to an early death for infected birds so definitely worth the extra effort to prevent the spread.