I should have done the reaserch, but here I am with 3 birds that I love. But I have called around and found that just an office visit per bird is $46...I dont have the money just to take them in to be looked at.
If something happened and they needed to see a vet I wouldnt be able to help them Now I am not sure if I should chance it and keep them or give them to someone who can insure they would be taken care of.
As I said I know I should have done this checking out before I got them, now I dont know what to do. I want what is best for the birds, please offer advice because I dont know???

I dont no wat 2 say......sorry

I think the fact you are thinking about this proves what a conscientious parent you are to your birds. A lot of people wouldn't give it any thought at all. Quite frankly, I don't think it is all that easy to find good homes for birds, and a lot of people would have trouble affording vet bills. So at least with you, they are with someone who cares enough to keep them well.

Since you obviously care so much for your three keets and actually would WANT to help them if they got sick. I think you should be able to keep you keets and maybe save up some money to set aside and keep just in case anything DID go wrong.

WOW DS, you really made me think on this one! My answer will be a personal opinion deriven from my own experience and thats all as other then doing this for 30+ years that is the only expertise I have. First, the logical answer would be to take any new animal you get to the vet for a check-up. For instance, when I got my dog, i took him for his rabies, heartworm, a couple other that I cant remember the name of and had his stool checked for worms. Same with any cat I ever had. My horses all had regular care. So the professional answer would have to be yes, they should have at least one check-up. Now my answer. Maybe I am a bad keet owner but no, I have never took one of my keets to the vet. I never felt the need. Every keet I ever owned I was careful with, fed properly, I kept clean, and gave alot of love. They all lived to a ripe old age and never showed any signs of pain, sickness, etc. Of course if they would have I would not have hesitated to take them. So basically it is up to you. Maybe you could put a little away for emergancys. There should not be any though as keets are pretty self sufficient as long as they have a good owner.

I have never had a problem with Daisy and have never taken her to the vet, either. I didn't even KNOW it was necessary for a keet to have check-ups like dogs or cats.

it really hit me today...but the thought was introduced when cluck wrote about his keet getting scaly face..it is treatble. But I decited to see where the vet is and how much he is. $46 per keet just to be seen, wow, I am only a house wife. To add on to this worry my husband's job is taking away the ability to have extra overtime:( That will make our household income even less. He likes the birds but he does not care for them as I do.
Here i wanted to bring home another, but after calling vets I realized that I canot afford them. I have a cat also and she is just about to get spayed, that took us forever to get to her just for that.
I am weighing the possibilites, thanks so far for all the replies.

oh another thing I think Lisa wrote somewhere is it is a good thing to take each bird to the vet so they are familiar with the pet. And before adding a new bird to make sure they dont have anything that could make the other sick.
I dont think Lisa would recommand to anyone to get a parakeet if you cant afford the vet bills...that is what really stops me and makes me think?

As I saw in a recent post from Lisa, it said something to the effect that if you bring a new keet to the flock it should be checked for mites, lice, and worms I think it said. Me, I use the store bought stuff for the mites and lice. (actually I bought a bottle but never had to use it) I just keep an eye on the keet and look for excessive itching. I also have always spent a little time every day any keets life I ever had just checking him out, you know, makeing sure there is no injuries, feather loss, scaling, that sort of thing. It just goes with keet ownership.

You also have to remember DS, Cluck has what, 20-30 keets? Big difference!