Extreme Darkening of facial feathers around beak.

by Adrianne
(Chicago,Ilinois)

My bird is a female Lupino cockatiel ( all pale yellow) named Pikachu, and she is about 10 years old. She seems healthy but the feather area round her beak has turned dark almost black, I can't imagine why she it like that,as her mate does not have this problem. Any ideas? Should I be concerned?
Thank you Adrianne

Comments for
Extreme Darkening of facial feathers around beak.

Click here to add your own comments

Sep 18, 2012

Extreme Darkening of facial feathers around beak.
by: Linda

No, this is not normal for a Lutino as they are either all white or white with a yellow wash. Either way, black feathers do not belong there.

This could be related to an illness or poor diet, and to find out if she is carrying any kind of infection either viral or bacterial, you have to take her to an Avian Vet ONLY in your area.

All seed diets result in many physical issues because this kind of diet is slow starvation for birds, and the feathers will show lack of nutrition. Inside, she is suffering as well though this does not show except in the form of frequent infections and other issues.

Your birds need to be eating a high quality organic pelleted diet like Harrisons found here. There are a couple more here also, and it takes time to change birds over from seeds to pellets. Harrisons is a 100% high quality diet that has no dangerous chemicals, sugars or dyes to hurt your birds. Both birds have to be examined by an Avian Vet before you start the changeover because sick birds cannot handle stress of change to new diet. Below is link on how to go about the change from seeds to pellets written by an avian vet.

Switching Birds To Pellets article

So, you need to have both birds checked out before diet change process starts, and your female needs to be seen right away. If she is positive for infection, the male will also have to be examined, diagnosed and treated because infections are highly contageous. Good Luck!

Linda

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Parrot Questions #2