Red mites (poultry red mite) in canaries and finches
Other names: Red mites، Red mite، Night mite
Symptoms
- Anemia (pallor) and weakness, and sudden death of chicks in the nest
- The female leaves the nest or stops sitting
- Birds restless at night and scratching
- Red or gray dots in cage cracks, the nest and perch joints
How it spreads
The mites live in cage cracks and nests and come out at night to suck blood. They enter with new cages, nests, birds, or wild sparrows.
Diagnosis
Put a white cloth over the cage at night or check the cracks with a flashlight; you will find the mites moving.
Treatment
Per Merck: spray with permethrin, or carbaryl 5% powder, or ivermectin 0.2 mg/kg repeated after two weeks. You must treat the nest and replace wooden nests. What matters most is treating the environment, not just the bird. (All under veterinary supervision.)
Prevention
Clean the cage regularly and treat the cracks, use plastic nests that are easy to wash, and inspect anything new entering the aviary.
Season
Highest in summer and hot humid weather (Egypt: May-October)
Treatment and doses are decided by an avian vet after an exam; Zajel does not publish doses.
Other diseases
- Air sac mites (tracheal mites)
- Face and leg mites (scaly face/leg mange)
- Feather lice and feather mites
- Coccidiosis (bloody/intestinal diarrhea)
- Atoxoplasmosis (black spot disease / enlarged liver)
- Trichomoniasis (ulcer/canker)
- Cochlosomosis
- Giardiasis