Young bird flights are a place of high stress and the mixing of all sorts of bugs from across the aviary. Your young birds will be under considerable nutritional and immune system pressure. We tend to think that because they are not breeders, these young don’t need much attention – wrong!

The major things you need to consider are:

*Psittacosis – you should be very familiar with this disease, how it works and what you need to do to control it. By far and away, Psittacosis is the most important disease in Australian aviculture. If you need information on the disease, its forms and how to control it then you should be contacting Vetafarm who have worked with this problem for nearly 20 years.

*Worm Control – worms really love to multiply in young birds. A good safe worming schedule is a must. The best method is by crop needle, but sometimes in-water medication is the only option. Wormout Gel is useful as it can be given directly via a crop needle or dispersed in water.

*Water Quality – when you have a group of young birds together, water contamination is a common point of disease spread. You must do everything you can to keep the water from creating problems. Aviclens has been the industry standard for 18 years; it is still the backbone of a clean water system. The introduction of Sweet Water has added another dimension to keeping water healthy, especially for birds in suspended cages, and bird rooms.

*Feather condition – without decent feathering most birds loose half their value. Good feathering is a combination of good general nutrition and being free of disease. Feeding young birds is as critical as feeding breeding pairs. Don’t skimp on their nutrition. Make sure they are given their calcium, good balanced protein, fatty acids and adequate vitamins  – and that means more than seed and an odd cuttlefish! The range of excellent quality supplements available from Vetafarm allows your young birds to have all the nutrients they need for perfect feather growth.

Obviously all situations are different but these are some of the more common things that need your attention if your young birds are to make the grade.