Some Hints on Parrot-Keeping.



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writers imagine, even when it has reached a very advanced

stage. The bird should be kept extremely warm and fed on

every kind of rich and stimulating food which it can be per¬

suaded to take,—unlimited quantities of hemp and sunflower

seed should be offered, cake and even meat, anything, in fact,

which will not irritate the bowels. Avian tuberculosis (which

is not known to be communicable to human beings) is seldom

pulmonary, and fresh air—in the sense of a constant supply of

outdoor air—is of no use whatever in effecting a cure. Far

more birds develop tuberculosis in outdoor aviaries than in

cages. The disease is highly contagious, but the germs do not

appear to be carried by the air.


SEPTIC Fever. —The term popularly employed to designate a

highly contagious malady possibly allied to tuberculosis,

though wholly distinct from it. The disease is most commonly

found among the newly-imported birds which have been over¬

crowded in dirty travelling boxes ; but, once introduced, it will

flourish indefinitely in the cleanest and best-kept aviaries in

defiance of the most thorough attempts at disinfection. The

necessity for a lengthy period of quarantine in the case of all

freshly imported birds likely to be suffering from the disease is

therefore obvious. The micro-organism of septic fever is

possessed of immense vitality, both as regards its power of

surviving for long periods without a living host, and of resist¬

ing the action of disinfectants. It is also singularly, at times

bewilderingly, capricious in its attacks. The disease appears

in two forms, the acute and the chronic, the former being by

far the most common. Both are incurable, and the symptoms

are very similar to those of enteritis, the bird’s eye always

appearing sick, dull and watery.


Grey Parrot “ Fever.” —A highly contagious disease often found

among newly-imported Grey Parrots, Posocephalus Parrots

(Senegals, etc.), and Blue-bonnets. It is caused by the presence

of a diplo-coccus in the blood, and is entirely distinct from

ordinary septic fever, though it resembles that disease in its

symptoms. Cases of recovery are extremely rare, but are not

quite unknown. Great heat is the only remedy to try.



