Prior to instituting this worming regime we had often found excessive worm counts in autopsied birds – both local and imported finches – and post implementing this strategy it became a rarity to even find a worm egg during autopsies. The money outlaid during those early trial days was well spent as it enabled us to at least control one of the biggest killers of finches that we had encountered.
Now of course, like so many other finch keepers, I work full-time and such analysis through the microscope would be difficult to fit into an already packed schedule. However, not a day goes past that I don’t thank the stars that we went that one yard further ‘back in the day’ to ensure that we could stay on top of at least one major problem.
Also had the opportunity to attend a day seminar at the Knox Bird Clinic under the tutorage of Dr Colin Walker which was fantastic for refreshing my knowledge and learning a heap more besides! Always be on the lookout for these types of seminars as they are terrific in updating your knowledge on all things finchey!

Now to those that say "my finches don’t have worms" I say that you must be the luckiest finch keeper on the planet or could it be that you’ve never investigated why your finches actually die!!
Did have just such a conversation many years ago where a guy was basically stating what a waste of time it had been listening to my talk on worming regimes as his birds never had worms and none had ever died from the effects of said worms. When I asked him what the autopsies had revealed to him he looked shocked and stated that he did not have the money to waste having autopsies done and that his ‘mistakes’ simply ended up in the rubbish bin – twas time for me to walk away I thought!!!

Anyway, as far as evolution goes there are a few relics from the past that have remained unchanged throughout much of evolutionary history and I suspect very few people would go swimming with either crocodiles or the larger sharks!!
As many of the parasitic organisms also fit into that category how you’d expect your birds to remain free from them is beyond many of us!!

Now in order to try and reduce the infestation there are a few simple steps that anyone can try and implement.
As avid readers of all things Russell Kingston we have always remembered his catch phrase from many years ago of dry, dry, dry in relation to the aviary environment. For us this is a little easier as all our aviaries down here are covered which does make the dry part easier!!
However, as many of these aviaries are fully planted we simply cover the floor with coarse pebbles, cracked rock and even shell grit to ensure that when the plants are watered the water itself runs away and is not sitting around creating wet trouble spots throughout the cages. The compost heaps and other bare floor areas have long given way to dry floors – just means we have to work that little bit harder to supply live food to our birds.
Thus, even if you do have open aviaries it is a relatively simple matter to ensure that the floor area is properly drained reducing wet damp areas much loved by parasites of all types by using gravel coarse sand and small pebbles!
Insects are another source of annoyance as many act as intermediate hosts for a number of parasitic worms types – some have a direct life cycles too so simply removing insects won’t fully solve the potential dilemma but it will help!!
Open aviary rooves are another source of potential problems as free-flying birds can often introduce worm bundles back into your aviary system and its not by accident that many aviaries are fully rooved these days in Australia – regardless of locale.

When worming your flock you might care to ensure that you adhere to a few logical points that we’ll outline here for you.
● Try and avoid worming your birds during periods of excessive heat as this may drastically effect their water consumption.
● If the wormer is particularly bitter – say as in Cydectin Plus – then use a sweetener before presenting it to your finches. Some NSW breeders use a product called Sweetaddin from Penfolds to achieve this while I stick to good old brown sugar. How do you know if it’s too bitter? Well by tasting it of course – go on, you know you really want to!!
● When worming remove other water sources such as cucumber and even green leafy vegetables as finches will try anything rather than drink most wormers. Think I exaggerate? Then wait until you see them trying to drink the moisture off the wire in the morning!! Mind you it’s not all bad as many finches will try anything to get their moisture and if you’re having trouble getting finches to consume your vegetable mixes or such then worming time is when it will ‘magically’ disappear!!
● Avoid worming birds in any metal containers other than stainless steel.
● If your vet says the recommended dose is "X" then please do not be tempted to serve it up at "-X" strengths as this reduces the killing power of the wormer and may lead to many strains of worms developing a resistance to that wormer. Mixing at "+X" strengths may very well prove fatal!!
● Again if your vet tells you the recommended dose rate is "X days" then please adhere to it as there is no doubt a very sound reason for setting that time range. Presenting it for "-X days" may also contribute to resistance problems.
I am aware that many say the first drink is possibly enough to get rid of a worm burden but refer back to the evolutionary history bit previous and you’ll perhaps understand why we are not ever going to be blasé about anything related to worms and worming!! If it says for five days then do it for 5 days!! Especially if treating for hard to get at worms such as gizzard worm you would be well advised to adhere to the full treatment period.

Cydectin Plus is one of our ‘newer’ staple wormers of choice and one that has assisted in making air-sac mite a thing of the dark past- at least at the time of writing. Now something that never fails to annoy someone – the active ingredient of this product is Moxidectin and the plus bit refers to the addition of praziquantal which treats for tape worm. Sheep strength concentration is the only one used with our finches.
Ivomec has the active ingredient of Ivomectin and is one we use for stubborn cases of air-sac mite. It is mixed with alcohol and added directly onto the back of the neck and the alcohol speeds its passage into the blood stream. Very easy to overdose with so extreme care needs to be taken when applying unless you wish very inebriated finches!!
It works well to remove nasty cases of air-sac mite and, once removed, Cydectin Plus will weave its magic!!
We did try and use it in water but found that it was immiscible in water which resulted in an oil slick on top of the water which means most clever finches will drink around the oil slick and the dumber ones from the oil slick – with potentially terminal results!!
Panacur 100 is another old favourite but I must admit I’d never dared use this strength before Dr James Harris recommended its use to me. At this strength it does have the advantage that you only need a quarter of the Panacur 25 dose rate. That is excellent as Panacur tends to settle out and using a quarter of the volume has distinct benefits in that area! Oxfen and several other fenbendazole wormers in this line can be substituted for Panacur but if Dr Harris recommends Panacur 100 that’s good enough for us!
Even then this wormer will still tend to settle out a little so care needs to be taken to ensure that the mix is stirred up during the day and never tip a fresh mix on top of the old before thoroughly washing out the residue from the water bowl. This brand provides us with a non-praziquantal based tape wormer.
Equimax Liquid Allwormer is a horse wormer that is a good back up wormer containing abamectin (one of the avermectin family of round wormers) and praziquantal yet again!! This one was recommended by a breeder in Queensland and appears to be well received by many in the finch game.
Avitrol Plus contains levamisole hydrochloride and praziquantal and is the red coloured wormer oft commented upon.
We only use this drop wise through a crop needle on new finches that arrive and it is never presented in the water bowls based on several well documented deaths among finches treated in this manner. Some use it at well below the recommended dose rate but as this has resistance implications it is to be avoided.
I have never experienced any problems with it given straight from the bottle drop-wise. It is the only specific bird wormer that is in our cupboards.

Hopefully from that group of products there are a couple to add to your anti-parasite arsenal that will help you keep your flocks worm free!!
If you’re not a fan of water based wormers you could investigate Droncit in the seed but most fincho’s these days prefer the water based ones as it’s not really an option to crop needles huge numbers of finches every 3 months!!!

So there you have it a Mug’s Guide to worming finches so off you go and thoroughly research these products and devise your own defences to the parasite problem and never, ever underestimate those little evolutionary survivors or it’ll be your flock that will suffer!!