Heartwingkisses LLC

Loving their new “bird toy”. 😝

⚠️What is PBFD?⚠️

PBFD stands for Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease. It is a highly contagious, progressive, and typically fatal viral disease that affects parrots and other birds in the psittacine family.

⚠️What Causes It?⚠️

🔴 The Virus: It is caused by the Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV), a type of circovirus.

🔴 Susceptibility: All species of parrots are at risk. It is very common in cockatoos, budgerigars, lovebirds, and African greys.

🔴 High Environmental Stability: The virus is extremely durable and can survive in the environment for months or even years, making containment difficult once an area is contaminated.

⚠️Symptoms⚠️

The virus targets fast-growing tissues, specifically feathers, beaks, claws, and the immune system.

🔴 Feather Dystrophy: Loss of feathers, abnormal/discolored feather growth, and bald patches.Beak and Nail

🔴 Deformities: The beak and nails become brittle, overgrown, and can crack or develop necrosis, which is quite painful.

🔴 Immunosuppression: Because the virus destroys immune organs (like the bursa of Fabricius and thymus), affected birds often succumb to secondary bacterial, fungal, or parasitic infections.

🔴 Diagnosis & TreatmentTesting: It is diagnosed via specific DNA tests that detect the virus in blood or feather samples.

🔴 Treatment: There is no known cure or commercially available vaccine. Treatment by an avian veterinarian is strictly supportive—focused on managing pain, treating secondary infections, and making the bird comfortable.

Spending your hard earned money on a pet parrot means you want a healthy, long lived, loving companion!! Make sure you are doing your research and that your new baby has been tested for PBFD!

More information can be found in the comments.

⚠️⚠️PBFD OUTBREAK⚠️⚠️

This is why having your babies disease tested is so very important!! And also why getting your sweet new babies from a careful, cautious and reputable breeder is paramount!!

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Heartwingkiss!! 😘💐🌸🌺

Our babies are lovingly raised from the day they hatch in our home until they’re ready to adopt as loving forever companions in yours. Disease tested and gender tested with a 72 hour health warranty when you make a visit to your Avian Veterinarian.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Please use extreme caution when adopting a bird from someone who may be reselling babies. Why?

Buying birds from a reseller is extremely risky because it often supports "bird mills" that produce unhealthy, terrified, and poorly socialized animals. They don’t really care where they buy them from as long as they can resell them for a higher amount. These birds frequently carry latent, contagious diseases like Bornavirus or Psittacosis or PBFD (a highly contagious fatal virus with no cure), have behavioral issues, and often die young due to poor breeding, malnutrition, or trauma. Adopting CHEAP birds isn’t the deal you may think it is.