My Quaker has these teeny TINY bugs crawling around under all his feathers! Is this...normal? ...as in dogs have fleas but you can get a special shampoo and a flea collar and they are gone. Is there a ¨flea collar¨ or medicine type thing for birds? Did any of your little guys have bugs? If so, what did you do? Thanks in advance!

sounds like it is probably mites

this i beleive needs to be treated by a vet i dont think the petstore meds are any good

Poor Dumplin! That must be awful. Take him to the vet. It has to be mites and if they're like the ear mites that cats and dogs get, they carry nasty germs and itch like mad.

They aren't fleas, they are mites and he needs to be treated as does any perches and toys he uses.

The best thing to kill mites is Sevin powder and I would talk to your vet about it asap. Mites feed on blood and actually bite and suck blood from your pet. There is another product called Ivermectin that some people use, but I'm not as familiar with that as I am with Sevin powder. If you live in an area that has a farm animal feed store you can get a product for poultry its poultry dusting powder and you'll need to carefully sprinkle a small amount of the powder under the wings around the vent area and along the border of where the feathers meet the lower leg as this is the most common area for mites. Then in 7 days do it again.

As I said, you will need to totally clean and disinfect your birds entire cage and play area if he has a play gym away from the cage.

Mites hide in the wood on the perches and in materials like happy huts and the like, and can reinfect the bird.

Actually you can also get Sevin powder at a garden center and as long as it is 5% it is fine to use on birds. Be careful not to allow the bird to breath the dust however.

Check with your vet for other product that might work.

How does a a pet bird get mites? Is there something that can be done to prevent it?

A lot of time birds will get mites from nest boxes etc, especially if the birds have any access to the outside, wild birds usually have some type of mite and they can spread to our pet birds if they happen to roost on something that or pets do.

It quite possible that the mites were there from the parent bird and passed on to the chick in the nest. That's one of the reasons why it is so important to change out nesting materials and scrub the nest boxes out and then use some time of de-licer just to be on the safe side.

Sometimes the lice can be spread from bird to bird at a pet shop or a breeder who doesn't routinely treat for parasites.

Its really important to stop the cycle, very similar to that of fleas, Treat the animal, treat its surroundings and then 7 days later do it again...and sometimes even a 3rd time to be absolutely sure that the cycle has been broken.