In aviculture, there are sometimes big losses of nestlings caused by bacterial diarrhea in the first week of life. Although the breeding birds look perfect and are feeding their nestlings excellently, diarrhea can appear and cause wet nests as the nestlings’ droppings are no longer encased by a membrane. Under these circumstances, it is no longer possible for the parents to remove the droppings and so all the nest material gets dirty and wet.
The female breeding bird will often get a wet vent because of a dirty wet litter in the nest. One speaks then of the “sweating disease.” The youngsters stop growing and die after a couple of days.
- However, it is possible to avoid all this by providing the nestlings a medication that prevents bacterial diarrhea. In collaboration with Pantex Holland, Dr. Coutteel has developed Starter Mix.
- This treatment is done through the drinking water starting from the day of hatching (thus day 1) and is given to the nestlings via the parents for one week.
INDICATIONS
- Prevention of nest mortality of young birds in their first week of life (canaries and finches).
- Treatment and prevention of bacterial infections causing diarrhea in birds (canaries & finches, small psittacines and pigeons).
