I recently took in a sick pigeon and had it wormed (or de-wormed) by our local bird rescue centre. The resultant pile of dead roundworm on the cage floor within 12 hours was disgusting – no wonder this poor bird had been showing signs of illness. These parasites had been absorbing all the available nutrients from the pigeon’s food intake for goodness knows how long!
This reminded me of many years ago when I took pity on three cockatiels in a pet shop who for weeks I saw squashed together in a cage the size of a shoe box! I bought them and eventually found them a wonderful new home together in a large aviary.
Back to worms though… I had these three cockatiels for a couple of weeks before rehousing them and noticed that one out of the three was less active, slightly grumpy and fluffed up and ate lots more than the other two cockatiels, and also strained a little when passing droppings.
Wormed him, and within 24 hours this poor bird had passed 35 roundworm!!!! Needless to say he perked up very quickly.