Aussie Finch Forum

Just been reading through some newsletters and came across one that says Aloe Vera is a natural bird wormer....Has anyone tried this? Vets may confirm if this would work?

To make up Gel Solution fill 1ltr Glass Jar with filtered or rainwater...then place 115gram piece of Aloe Vera leaf in there, with skin on..(place leaf in jar last) Keep jar in refrigerator for 24hrs then dilute this solution 50/50 before feeding out to birds....give daily and keep balance refrigerated...Do Not stir or shake jar...and solution can be sprayed on birds for external parasites...and best of all it says you cant overdose your birds doing this....

Has anyone got any feedback with this method? Thank Dave

I have a neighbour who is a budgie breeder (shows). This is exactly what he does and he swears by it, has done this for years. I have not tried it, his birds are very healthy, he does not use chemical wormers.

Ive seen it feed to birds but not as a wormer .

nxe04d wrote:I have a neighbour who is a budgie breeder (shows). This is exactly what he does and he swears by it, has done this for years. I have not tried it, his birds are very healthy, he does not use chemical wormers.

I'm not sure but would Budgies actually need to be wormed? Being that they don't eat insects (in aviaries anyway) would they get paraistes anyway?

Budgies are often heavily infected with roundworm in aviary situations. Saying that however, if the parasites were never present then a cycle of reinfection will not occur unless an infected bird is introduced to the flock. In this situation you could claim that a green M & M in the water bowl is doing the job.

As for the effeicacy of this - no evidence to support it (other than anecdotal evidence). I would certainly not be relying on it. Aloe vera has known health benefits but there is nothing to suggest that killing avian parasites is one of them.

Yet another unsubstantiated claim for Aloe Vera. Is there nothing this plant can't cure/treat/improve?

This sound very interesting. I was just wondering what the optimal wormer would be to use while the aviary is so rampant with breeding activity. It would be great if this turns out to be true...

Is any microscope-equipped person here in a position to test this for us, at least semi-formally, with before and after fecal smears?

There seem to be a couple of people chatting about microscopes and worms on the forum at the moment, so I thought I would bump this thread so they'll trip over it...

Is anyone here able to test this Aloe theory for us?...Some 'before and after' smears to assess efficacy? I have a mountain of fresh Aloe if that helps, but not a decent microscope nor a practiced diagnostic eye.

I'm yet to find an egg or a worm in using my microscope. So the trial with aloe would likely be 100% successful

I am more than happy to trial this and other products with such claims- eg diatomaceous earth etc- but as always the problem is finding a number of birds all infected with the same worm so that you can draw some meaningful conclusions.

To be honest the best source is a filthy mixed parrot/budgie flight where the owners have never wormed their birds before.

Any takers??