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How to Keep Your Birds Healthy (Prevention Over Cure)

The Gouldian Aviary

2,599 views

From time to time, every bird keeper will face illness and sudden challenges in the aviary. Knowing the early warning signs, maintaining strong preventative habits, and having the right treatments ready to go can be the difference between losing a bird and saving its life.
In this video, we break down the daily housekeeping practices that keep disease out of the birdroom, the most common illnesses I’ve encountered over the years—from air sac mites and coccidiosis to egg-binding and thyroid stalls—and why a proper hospital cage setup is the ultimate lifesaver.
In this video, we cover:
Daily housekeeping, drinker sanitation, and soft food management
Catching early warning signs during morning health checks
Treating and preventing air sac mites flock-wide with S76
Preventing coccidiosis with dry trays and targeted treatments
Emergency protocol for egg-bound hens (Liquid Calcium & D3)
Fixing stuck moults and bald heads with liquid iodine
Managing night frights, panic injuries, and rodent prevention
Setting up an emergency hospital cage with heat and electrolytes
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction: The Reality of Sickness in the Aviary
0:30- Good Housekeeping & Prevention (Water, Food & Quarantine)
08:10 - Good Quality Seed
10:00 - Check Your Flock Daily Symptoms Of Illness
11:45 - Quarantine New Birds
13:25 - Air Sac Mites
15:37 - Cocciciosis Going Light
18:07 - Egg Binding
20:30 - Moulting
22:00 - Apple Cider Vinegar Good Quality Grit
25:15 - Hospital Cage
25:32 - Outro
What is the one emergency medicine or piece of kit you can never run your birdroom without? Let me know down in the comments!
If you found this breakdown helpful, please give the video a like and subscribe for more aviary tips, breeding guides, and birdroom updates.
#FinchCare #BirdRoom #AviaryBirds #GouldianFinch #BirdHealth #Aviculture #BirdBreeding #Finches #SickBird #BirdFirstAid

S76 Dr Rob Marshall's S76 - In Water Bird Mites Air Sac Mite Red Mites Lice Treatment - Fab Finches UK https://share.google/MkOfERxRIHYw2X5Zu

14 Comments

@BlEBZ. 1 month ago

This has easily become one of my favorite channels recently.
I love the fact you don't pretend to known everything, and aren't afraid to admit mistakes and learn from them.

Honestly great content👌🏼

@DarrenIsted-f6w 1 month ago

Brilliant video, Dean! 👏 Really useful and informative advice on the must-have medicines and, more importantly, prevention for bird keepers. It’s always better to be prepared and take preventative measures rather than waiting until there’s a problem.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience with the bird-keeping community. Videos like this are a great resource, especially for newer keepers. Keep up the fantastic work

@davidmcguire5712 1 month ago

Hi Dean I grate my cuttle fish, and mix with red pigeon minerals. Twice a week I give them calcivet in the water. To reduce stress in my hens I separate the sexes, so from Nov to end of March my birds are breeding, in cages in the birdroom. Then I separate them into flights internally it’s usually about April/May they go into moult so they can get also out into the outside flights and fingers x the weather is sunny so they can get much needed natural light. This my biggest ever timber framed birdroom so not only am I worried about keeping it warm enough in the winter months, but having circulation of fresh air. So I’ve fitted a hit n miss vent about a metre from the floor and an extractor fan 300mm from my ceiling. It’ll come on in the winter for 30mins every 4 hrs. In the summer I’ll have my door secured open with a safety meshed door fitted.

@ehsan499-b2v 1 month ago

Good ❤

@fishybizzness1592 1 month ago

Great advice as always! Looking forward to every new video! I hope your channel continues to be successful!

@TonyRussell-n5g 1 month ago

Excellent video Dean

@neilpiper6025 1 month ago

Another good video with a lot of useful info which I will make notes for the future nice one dean 👍

@KumkumAviary 1 month ago

Super

@craigandy1 1 month ago

great video again dean very informative on keeping your birds healthy and tip top condition quick question how much apple cider vinegar do you put in the water thanks dean see you wednesday

@DavidCummings-o6g 1 month ago

Hi Dean i cannot argue with what bird's you have , but Redpoll's ony eat insect's when breeding they are seed eater's , if we fed our's on insect's now they would not eat them apart from spider's which i have found through research have some medicinal properties . But as you mentioned the climate bird's in Europe do have different outcome's , but can i say that make them more susceptible to disease because of the damp condition's also now bird flu . If you are happy with what you do that is great , me even at my age i will learn think the last 3 year's i have actually learnt more , even with my gardening . As for sand yes i use it in tray's on the bottom of cages (sparingly) as too deep just hold's in dampness but this is on top of kitchen roll which does absorb's the damp . Looking it appear's that our bird's get near enough the same sort of diseases , Greenfinches are very to going light . My aviaries are built from 3' off the ground as we find it easier cleaning them , with artificial grass as a floor covering , need's just pulling out cleaned then replaced . this is only done after breeding season . What is your next edition going to be about ?

@JennyEnby 1 month ago

Sorry, but back to hens , I know there is a massive difference but still birds . I save my kitchen eggshells as do friends and family ,grind them up and sterilize then use this instad of grit .Money saver 😊. Also an old emergency egg bound treatment is place bird in a small wire cage over steam supervised , usually releases the egg within the hour .
Your great down to earth advice applies to all bird keepers.
Bird flu is a massive worry to all of us .

@RB-yq7qv 1 month ago

News papers are a great choice is sterile and great for floor covering

@MelvinTurner-rc2px 1 month ago

baycox

@astrino66 1 month ago

Hi, I could hear you with the Italian dubbing before, but this video doesn't give me the Italian language. I'll watch it anyway, but I won't be able to understand what you're saying.