Bird flu and pet birds is relatively uncommon, but the best way to protect your pet bird from any potential interaction with bird flu is to educate yourself about bird flu and pet birds. Here's all you need to know about bird flu and pet birds.

What Is Bird Flu?

Bird flu is a flu, or influenza virus that infects birds, pigs and very rarely, humans. It's commonly referred as "avian flu" because it generally affects birds. Humans rarely get it unless they come in direct contact with an affected bird. Bird flu and pet birds can be avoided.

Bird flu spreads quickly in bird populations and should be taken seriously when a strand is found. It takes on many different forms and causes birds to produce fewer eggs. Bird flu generally kills birds because it spreads fast and can go undetected for some time, but bird flu and pet birds isn't terribly common.

What about bird flu and pet birds?

Bird flu and pet birds is not nearly as common as bird flu is with livestock birds like chicken. As mentioned before, bird flu spreads from bird to bird and it spreads quickly. With pet birds, there is less of a risk of bird flu because pet birds are not usually exposed to livestock birds and don't usually live in large populations.

What can I do to prevent an interaction of bird flu and pet birds?

The best way to prevent a connection of bird flu and pet birds is to keep your bird away from other birds. This is fairly simple especially if you only have one bird and everything your bird uses or comes into contact with is touched by your bird and your bird only.

But, to be extra cautious, make sure that your bird's food and water dish are kept inside away from any wild birds. Also, don't let your pet bird come in contact with any area where wild birds may have been. You have no idea if a wild bird has the virus, so keeping your bird away from wild birds is the best way to separate bird flu and pet birds.

The next best thing to do to keep bird flu and pet birds away from one another is cleanliness. Viruses and bacteria cultivate in dirty environments. Keep the bird's cage clean, change it's liner frequently and scrub down the whole cage on a regular basis.

Any time you have contact with your bird's food, cage or droppings, wash your hands. If you're outside or anywhere where a wild bird or livestock animal could have been, wash your hands before you come in contact with your pet bird. This will help keep bird flu and pet birds separate.