regrowing feathers

by jana
(enid, ok)

i recently aquired a 3 yr old female quaker parrot (ava) when i got her she was nearly bald of her feathers except a few tail feathers, flight feathers and her head is covered with feathers.. how long does it normally take to grow them back? is there anything i can do to help her? right now i'm spraying her with aloe spray for molting and bitter apple spray i use one or the other every other day. her mate (paco) is fully feathered.

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regrowing feathers

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May 07, 2012

Regorwing feathers
by: Anonymous

If the male is plucking the female, I agree seperate them. This could be a sign of agression on the male's part.

Not all birds can be caged together. Sometimes long term mates even have to be seperated.

I would suggest taking them to the vet, have them both examined. I would also then ask the avian vet for some Sunshine Factor.

Sunshine Factor is a red palm base oil vitamin. This will help take care of their nutritional needs should there be a defiency. Also this will help with the regrowth of feathers, and aliviate itching.

Never switch a sick or plucking bird to pellets. Leave them on the diet they have now. Once you've gotten them to the vet to rule out illness, and giving them vitamin supplments and they've grown back all thier feathers, THEN you can begin to switch them to pellets as a main source of food.

A sick or stressed bird, will only become more sick or stressed if switched to pellets right now. I highly recommend pellets as a main source of diet, however, the switching of the food can cause more problems right now. Even severe weight loss.

Switching a bird from seed to pellets has to be done over a long period of time. You may introduce it into thier seed right now, but only mix a little in. Don't be suprised if they dont eat it tho.

Your avian vet can give tips as to HOW to properly switch your bird from seeds to pellets.

Keep in mind, birds will always eat from the highest point in thier cage. My bird when I introduced pellets to her, I put a bowl of pellets in a high place in her cage, with a seperate bowl of seeds at the bottom, with some pellets mixed in but it was mainly seed, to prevent weight loss. Then to promote pellets a bit more, I would put her on the table, and give her a plate with pellets that had fresh squeezed orange juice on it. I was lucky, my bird took to it right away. But this isnt the case for most birds.

Roudybush, and harrisons have good low sugar, high vitamin pellets. My vet recommends both.

My avian vet suggests spraying the birds with plain water once a day to help with skin conditioning and make it easier for new feathers to come in. (especially since my bird is young and not bathing on her own yet) However, if your bird has allot of big bald spots, I would ask the vet about spraying her, as this could cause her to get chilled, and eventually end up getting sick.

Only an avian vet can properly asess your birds health. A lot of times they will work with you on panyments, if payment is an issue.

GL!

May 06, 2012

regrowing feathers
by: Linda

First of all, stop all the spraying on one or both birds. The fact is that the male may be pulling out her feathers. Separate the birds into two cages and see if things get better. Also, the female has to be examined for infections or other physical causes of this problem. If she shows positive for bacterial/viral infection, the male will also have to be diagnosed and treated as well. Infections are highly contagious, so if one bird is sick, then so is the other.

If feathers are pulled out too often, feathers will not grow back, so I'm hoping this has not gone on too long without you doing something about it.

Diet is also very important, and all parrots need to be eating a healthy diet of 80-85% organic pellets like Harrison's found here. Below is a link on how to go about changing from a poor diet, which is junk pellets or seeds to a healthy diet of organic pellets. Article is written by Avian Vet:

Switching Birds To Pellets article

Make NO changes until one or both birds have been examined by an avian vet and either cleared for physical problems or treated. The stress of dietary changes is too much for sick birds.

So, put birds into separate cages and make sure they are close together so they can see and talk to each other. Take one or both to avian vet for exam and get some organic pellets and begin to feed them a high quality healthy diet.

Linda

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