I know how wonderful it would be to visit the baby you're buying as it
grows up. It does make me sad that you don't get to. But, as some of my
clients ask me the reasons for my decision to be a closed aviary, I thought
I'd round it out here. That way you can fully understand the 'why' of it:
There are many diseases that can be transmitted from people to birds. If
I allowed people to play with my babies in my nursery, I could potentially
devastate the entire nursery, my pet birds and possibly my breeders as well!
I'll narrow an example down to one disease to simplify what I mean:
In my example, I'll use Clamydia psittaci. Chlamydophila is Psittacosis
aka Ornathosis, aka Parrot Fever. It's a zoonotic (transmittable to humans)
disease that's related to our own Chlamydia in a roundabout way. It is
highly contagious!
This is also known as the "Pet Shop Disease" as it's a very tricky
little organism! The organism is an intracellular bacteria, and because
it resides in the cell, birds can be Psittacosis carriers and test
negative to mundane tests, but when under stressors can activate the
disease and shed the organism here and there. It's spread from feather
dander and dried feces mainly. There are more extensive tests to see if
a bird has ever been exposed to the disease which would indicate the
potentiality of that bird being a possible carrier.
Number 1 reason I'm a closed aviary! The tests are prohibitively
expensive! I shell out the money to get all my breeders and pet birds
tested for diseases initially and then annually thereafter for 2 years
for the possible exposure to Psittacosis, and then they get tested in
the normative routine aviary tests for the active test. If I let people
into my aviary then I'd have to test my birds so much more often due to
the chance someone would bring in a disease on their clothing or hair.
The reason it's called the 'Pet Shop Disease' is just that! The organism
doesn't always surface right away. That and the symptoms of the disease
aren't readily apparent; IF at all apparent! Most pet owners aren't
doing a full CBC to see if Polly has a high WBC just because! So, there
you see the cycle of pet shops... Person A has parrots, walks into Pet
Shop, wanders around all the birds, perhaps handles a few, goes home and
plays with their own birds. What Person A doesn't realize is that a bird
in the Pet Shop is actively shedding Psittacosis and now they're covered
in particulate feces and bird dander and now their birds are exposed to
it. It's that easy and sadly THAT common.
Here are a few links describing what that particular disease is:
http://www.parrottalk.com/chamydia-psittaci.htm
Keep in mind that I only used that single disease as an example. There
are so many potential diseases out there that can harm my 'less than
full adult immune system' chicks, I cannot and will not take the risk. I
worry that other aviaries DO take the risk since it endangers the baby.
To me, it's like playing roulette with their lives. Not something I want
on MY conscience!
