About

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Lexi and other victims of PBFD, Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease an avian disease fatal to baby parrots, that were sold by Susie Christian dba Eclectusville Aviary and Rosie Ranch Aviary, and “Assistant” and breeder Lisa Woodworth who sold me Lexi, a Solomon Island Eclectus baby parrot infected with PBFD. This blog and contents are published to bring awareness to the the fact that there are irresponsible breeders hoping to get away with, and getting away with, selling disease infected baby parrots and blaming the disease on the buyer rather than taking responsibility and cleaning up their aviary or getting out of the business of breeding and selling birds. An infected baby can die early in its life, within a matter of weeks of hatching and after it is nearly fully feathered, or it can develop clinical signs of disease and live a deteriorated life for some months or even a couple of years as in the case of Lexi. In some cases, unsuspecting, innocent, good-hearted people buy infected baby birds and the birds mysteriously die before showing clinical signs. If the buyer of these young birds that die soon for no apparent reason do not get a histopathology study done on the birds tissues after death, then the disease is not discovered and the death remains a mystery. If you purchase a baby bird that mysteriously dies, please have your veterinarian perform a necropsy and have him/her send the tissue samples to a reputable doctor for histopathology study and report. In other cases, as in Lexi’s, an infected baby bird will be loosing feathers at several weeks of age and the feather loss will turn into balding on the head of the bird at the age of 8 months. The biggest cause of the spread of this disease is brokering baby parrots from more than one source. Avoid purchasing baby parrots from hand feeders and breeders who in addition to their own breeding stock broker babies. To preserve the health of the birds in an aviary a breeder should never buy weeks old babies from other breeders to hand feed and sell (brokering). These brokered babies can potentially contaminate the babies in the breeders nursery. The other source of contamination is a breeder bringing into their breeding program a new adult bird infected with PBFD. An infected adult bird may not show clinical signs of infection. The virus may be shed from an adult bird in 45 days. If a baby bird contracts the virus before the age of 3 years, the bird invariably dies within a relatively short period of time – from weeks to more than 2 years.

Innocent, unsuspecting, buyers of Eclectus babies or any other parrot baby beware of unscrupulous breeders who would sell you a potentially infected bird from their contaminated aviary then blame the infection on you!

Lexi was one of at least five other babies who were sold over a three year period by Susie Christian at Eclectusville Aviary.

He was one of at least five other babies whose owners joined Ekkiechat. How many more are out there that we don’t know about? ONE is too many ……but some may think five victims aren’t that many. If Ekkiechat didn’t exist, finding the other owners would have been very difficult, and there are more heartbroken people out there. One of the objectives of this blog is to help other victims come forward and tell their story. If you are a victim of Eclectusville, Rosie Ranch, Susie Christian or were solicted by Lisa Woodworth and sold a bird that died mysteriously or lived long enough to show clinical signs of disease you are invited to join http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Consumergrievances/ Here you will be safe from harassment while telling your story. I’ve already suffered the harassment so that you may be spared. This disease has multiple layers: heartbreak, witnessing the suffering of the bird and trying to save it, harassment, contamination of your home, fear that the disease infected innocent birds your bird came into contact, the death of your beloved feathered companion, decontamination of your environment, throwing away hundreds even upwards of a Thousand Dollars in parrot toys and accessories, not to mention veterinary expenses. No one should have to go through this. No breeder should be making their living on the backs of birds like this.

Please feel free to use this link as your signature tag when posting to your parrot groups.

Kathleen