Button quail... Mites?

[angelobutter]

Hello,
I have 30 button quail that I keep indoors,,, (in my house) and I just noticed some of my birds are loosing feathers, way more than they should. I gently picked up the worst looking one and his whole back is bare as well as his neck. I am 99% sure I saw a little yellow/ tan colored mite, scurrying around. I Know there are dusts and baths and stuff to treat mites, but since these are in my house I really can't use anything too toxic, especially since I am pretty asthmatic. I don't have any other birds indoors so it should be isolated to this one cage... hopefully.
anyways any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[angelobutter]

Also, not all of them seem to have mites. so it is a variety that picks one host and stays with them. out of the 30 only 6 appear to be balding/ itchy
oh and they are still all together, ( i am separating them into pairs/trios soon) but they are all fairly young still. But they are very mellow and no one is beating up anyone, I keep a very close watch on them, just got their adult feathers, but are not quite full grown.

 

[dawg53]

I'm sorry to say that you're going to have to visually inspect each one for lice or mites and you'll need to treat with sevin dust. You'll need to retreat them in 10 days as well their cages or whatever you're keeping them in. If you dont, they will multiply on your birds and they will become anemic and eventually die. Do you know someone...family, friend or neighbor that can help you out? That would be the best way to handle this situation due to your asthma.

 

[shortnsweet1025]

Hi. I work at a pet store and as a preventative measure after you do the sevin dust thing, you can buy mite protectors from the pet store you can hang on their cages that will prvent them from coming back. Good Luck.

 

[angelobutter]

Ok,
Can I just get this sevin dust from a local feed store or is it something I need to order offline?

 

[dawg53]

Walmart sells the big canister for about $10, I bought some last week. Home improvement and hardware stores sell it as well.