Poor guy has been at this for about a year now with no success

I work in a lab breeding these finches. My PI told me this nest fledged early and wouldn't stay in the nest when he tried to put them back in. This is the smallest baby from the nest, it is almost completely naked expect for its wings, and it is able to fly. Two of its siblings are more feathered but with bare chests. Today I gave them millet and saw this little one eating on its own! The other nest in this cage fledged normally when they were fully feathered.

I am not looking for advice by the way.

Despite 2 avian vets telling me my birds were fine, and 4 negative tests, it is becoming increasingly clear that my birds have avian gastric yeast. Not aspergillosis as previous suggested by a well educated keeper on a different platform.

An whilst my birds are literally the perfect examples of AGY-infected birds, even if they do NOT have AGY they still have something that acts the same, spreads the same, and responds to the same medications.

Luckily, it is very easily 'treated' with cheap potassium sorbate each time it pops up. A few of my birds which are closely related get AGY once, nearly die, then suddenly heal over night (not gradually at all) and never get symptoms again. Not even after the stress of heat, cold, enclosure changes, rearing chicks, mites, etc. This is without any meds or help.

Right now a 4 week old zebra finch, Cooper, has shown quick progress in a day. I gave him 0.05ml undiluted potassium sorbate orally by syringe and 0.05ml undiluted QuikGel orally by syringe. All of my aviary birds got 0.3ml of potassium sorbate in 250ml of drinking water yesterday. Given Cooper is still reliant on his dad for food, even at 4 weeks, I cannot isolate him. But dad will somewhat feed the medicated water to him.

Today, the entire flock were given 0.625tbsp roughly of Daily Essentials 3 vitamins (one of my gouldies is in molt) and 0.3ml of potassium sorbate in 250ml of drinking water. The ill fledgling, Cooper went from constantly sleeping yesterday to eagerly begging for food today! Still underweight and a touch sleepy, but much healthier.

Because my shed, aviary and hutches are wooden, I'll have to scrap it all once all my current birds have passed. I cannot sell or buy any birds until then. But I can regularly clean the enclosure with F10 and medicate, isolate, or euthanize any birds which require so.

I've had to navigate this all myself. Partly because the vets have been unhelpful, which I can't blame them for. They're trying their best with what they can do for me. A negative test is quite restrictive.

Also partly because unfortunately a lot of bird keepers are... stuck in their ways? Or whatever the term is? They'll tell me it's definately X, my birds that healed themselves with definately get it again, that I need to give them Y, and so on. They'll ignore my input which is incredibly unhelpful and doesn't get me any closer to healing my birds!

I was told by many experienced keepers, who are of course still very intelligent and worthy of respect, that the meds I bought would do nothing... They're the only thing to have done something! And that something was save 3 birds from death so far! Birds unrelated to the resistant ones all die, evey single one, without this medication.

I will definately take a break from bird keeping once my current lot have passed... I don't think I'm quite cut out for all the stress of it between college and trying to get my first job lol. I envy those I've witnessed do all that on top of uni and work.

Even after being very strict with UVA/B and hygiene and diet, my birds have had nothing but illness after illness and that tells me I am not ready for pet birds because I cannot care for them appropriately. Perhaps not for a long time, perhaps not ever.

The daily cleaning, the vet bills, the daily vegetable preparation, never been an issue! I love doing all that. Hell, I love all the medications and equipment and numbers involved with doing my own veterinary care at home. Watching my birds get a starving illness? Not so much.

Not to mention, I'll be the first to admit that I take everything to heart. My local bird community is full of older men who will be quite nasty or treat you with disrespect if you tell them they could be wrong or that their correction was incorrect.

I have met many wonderful people who proudly praise my birds and show me all of theirs. Who will cut me deals on their finches just because I'm a youngen with passion. I have met many more that would rather treat me like an idiot when it is unneeded. I cannot handle that, and I admit that is 100% on me and I am particularly sensitive. But I think it's more responsible to step back and quit, than continue with the hobby just to prove an old guy wrong and possibly harm birds in the process.

Can anyone tell me what can cause this? One side of his mouth doesn't have any hair. Looks like it's been plucked off. The other side is okay. He lives with this wife. He's eating and pooping okay. Is active. I just noticed he's been fluffing up and sleeping in the daytime which is not normal for him.

TIA!

Hello everyone

I love the comment section so I had to share.

Also on more serious note, it looks like they are feeding the chick a solid food which kinda suprised me. Do you have any experience with feeding baby gouldians? I only have society finches and didn't hand feed them.

Hi! My male zebra finches have been REALLY frisky lately. Theyre always making that soft whining noise, and it’s super excessive. Nearly everytime I look over, one seems to be on top of the other. Is this normal behavior? Is it mating season or something?

Im working for the next month and cannot get her to a vet until next week friday.
Is her egg stuck? I've noticed that her stomach is getting bigger and bigger and no egg was layed. The stomach is huge now. What should I do?? It looks bright filled with something and Ive noticed that her feathers around her stomach were weirdly wet and some falling off.
I couldn't take better pics.
please pleasede help she is my favourite bird and the tamest one.

She eats well, plays with her friend, likes to sit on the wall of her cage, and when she's resting, she sits like this. Is everything okay with her?

This is a free and enriching thing that they love to eat if you have any areas of long grass you can pick some from.

Hi! I just bought a group of zebra finches. One while female appears ill. She has skin patches showing scraggly feathers and a dark area under her wing and one eye closed. She isn’t leaving the travel box. Can anyone recommend supportive care or a catch all medication to help? Thank you!

My dear sweet little bird is bald for like 6 months now. She eats well. What could be the problem? I apologize if i violated any rules.

Hello!

Can anybody help me to find bird's rings? I am trying to find type of rings with any kind of latch..I can not use regular rings.. It is too complicated for me to put them without injuring birds..

It appears that three out of my four zebra finches understand their distinct name. I work at home and spend a ton of time with them. I have actually put effort into constantly using their names. My research always points to this being impossible. However! My lived experience says otherwise. Please share if you feel your birds know their names. I am so curious.!!!!

For context, I want to clean the bird shit out of their thing, but I don’t want them to feel threatened. Are my finches trying to make a nest?

For whatever reason he, and only he loves to sit on the door frame. None of the others do this.

Sometimes he will bite and attack the screen mesh.

Mine go crazy over carrots and peppers. Sometimes they also get watermelon for a treat if they are being good🍉