Bacteria are single-celled organisms so tiny that thousands of bacteria can fit into a space the size of a pin head. Bacteria are basically of two types: beneficial and harmful (potentially disease causing). Most people do no realize that bacteria are everywhere! They inhabit our mouths, skin, intestinal tracts, food, refrigerators, kitchen tables, silverware and dishwashers. Just about everything exposed to air has bacteria present. "Normal flora" is a term used in microbiology to describe those bacteria that are a normal, healthy, necessary part of the microbe population within a given animal's particular organ system. Without these normal flora, the animal would not be healthy. The normal flora in a human's mouth contain many bacteria that are harmful and potentially disease causing to our pet birds. Food that is perishable such as fruits and vegetables are very likely to grow large numbers of disease causing bacteria if left in the cage at room temperature for long periods of time.
Baby food formula mixed in the morning and refrigerated throughout the day and reheated and fed at night is a wonderful place for bacterial overgrowth to occur. Many of our baby birds are made sick with this practice. Refrigeration slows bacterial growth. It does not stop it! Fresh foods from the grocery are bacteria laden since they have been handled by humans and possibly contaminated by other mammal wastes during storage and shipping. Mice and other vermin can carry bacteria to your food sources.
Water sources are an enigma of their own. Pseudomonas bacteria is a potential threat to all of our birds on a constant basis. This bacteria loves to grow in your water faucet, particularly if your water lines are PVC pipe instead of copper. Chlorination does not eliminate all bacteria; it is designed to keep bacterial counts in a low enough range to be fit for consumption by humans, not birds! I have cultured several aviaries with a Pseudomonas problem strictly due to filthy food and water sources. Water bowls should be above perch level to prevent contamination by fecal material which increases recontamination to your bird and the feces provide organic material in the water bowl for bacteria to grow.
Running your tap water for 3-5 minutes before filling water bowls helps flush these bacteria from the faucet instead of filling your bird's water bowl with them. Water bottles for birds are and excellent way to prevent contamination with food and fecal material. Changing, washing and disinfecting water bowls often, even twice a day for those birds that choose to make "tea" in their water bowls, on a daily basis helps keep down the load of bacteria. Vitamins in the water are a sore spot with me. They provide necessary nutrients in the water bowl for bacterial growth to occur. If you have to use vitamins in the water, change and disinfect the water bowl every day.
So you see, you feed your pet bird bacteria every day. It is impossible to do otherwise! Those sweet kisses
Cecil (my Amazon) gives me at night are laced with my normal flora which can be disease producing to my
precious pet. So Cecil gets a gram stain probably every 3-4 months. Gram stains differentiate between gram
positive and gram negative bacteria. Gram positives are the good guys and gram negatives the bad guys when
our birds are concerned. If the gram negative ratio is above 20% then a culture and sensitivity are done.
Birds can carry bacterial infections for years and still appear healthy. Many people look at me with disbelief when I make this statement. Look at it historically. Dogs and cats have been domesticated since before
Egyptian times. They do not consider the human to be a predator or threat. Many of our pet birds are just two generations out of the Amazon jungle. Hand fed or not, there is still a lot of genetic programming in their computer that says, "Look and act healthy, because if you act sick, something or someone is going to get you!"
