Senegal moulting unsually

[nikkid]

Hi, this is my first posting here and I would be grateful for some advice and guidance regarding my 23 year old Senegal Japha.

I've had my boy since he was about three months old (cute as a button, all beak and feathers). He's a gorgeous, well mannered boy and seldom has given me any worries either with his health or behaviour so I consider myself lucky with him.

However, recently we've had to subject him to a disruption to his life and I wonder if this is causing him to moult what seems to me an excessive amount. I had a car accident a few months ago which has deprived me of my car. As a result I've been staying with my Mum for a couple of nights a week. I won't leave Japha for lengths of time so he's come with me and now stays with Mum all the time. I see him daily and he is in company with her all day (which is more than he usually gets) Every other aspect of his life is the same, same food etc as I am providing all his eats. It is just that he is not in his own home. He has stayed with Mum for long periods in the past and she's au fait with all his ways and he adores her. He's never displayed any stress in her company on previous stays

However a couple of months back he was taken unwell, seemed to be struggling to pass anything as we were terrified we'd lose him but he rallied within a few hours. Shortly after this he started to moult and has continued to lose major feathers off and on ever since. He isn't pulling them out, they appear to be naturally shed. His skin is fine, no damage, rashes or unexplained marks and the feathers aren't blood speckled or anything that might suggest he was pulling them out himself from stress. It seems to be largely wing feathers he is losing. His body feathers are intact and his plummage is as lustrous as I could wish for. It's just that he seems to be losing a worrying number of wing feathers and it is very noticeable when he stretches himself out fully.

I purchased a tonic to put in his water which seemed to help a little but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions or advice which might help me bring him through this.

Sorry if this is a long winded post!

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me

[Wolf]

This is one of those questions that I usually leave for Pajarita as she is far more experienced in these matters than I am.
I wanted to welcome you to the forum and say that you have done very well to not have had any health issues in 23 years. I hope that I do as well with my guys.
I wonder if your bird was DNA tested for sex to confirm whether it is male or female. While there could have been a temporary blockage in his digestive tract, which is worrisome enough, the episode is strangely close to a hen that was trying to lay an egg, perhaps a soft shelled one. Then there is the matter of a possible molt and although it seems to me to be a bit early this could just be a regular full molt. I am always a bit concerned about remedies that are given without vet supervision. Pictures would be helpful.
That is all that I have to offer, but as I said Pajarita is far more knowledgeable than I am.

[nikkid]

That's an interesting thought. I have always assumed 'he' was male largely because of his behaviour - shocking flirting with female visitors and slight hostility to men. It's a worrying thought that he could have been trying to pass an egg. It just did not occur to me. We never had Japha DNA tested because he was intended as a companion bird so it didn't matter whether we had male or female.

Since the little incident he's been as right as a bobbin, his usual chipper self and we assumed he was just a bit 'blocked' because as soon as he passed a healthy looking stool he seemed to recovery himself.

How do we go about getting him tested?

[Wolf]

Well actually if you will post some pictures of him with a full frontal view we should be able to tell you. There are a few differences between the female and male Senegal, although they are not big differences. They have to do with the shape or position of the v formed by the yellow vest, the shape of the head and the way that the bird perches. But only DNA testing is 100%. Your vet can do this or you can order a kit that you send back to the lab. You can order it online.

[nikkid]

I'm struggling to upload any pix of my lad. I keep getting the massage The image must be at least 0 pixels wide, 0 pixels high and at most 575 pixels wide and 800 pixels high. The submitted image is 1763 pixels wide and 2468 pixels high. What am I doing wrong

When I had Japha, if memory serves, the only way then of telling what gender a bird was involved surgical sexing - I don't think DNA testing was available then and since it never mattered what gender he was I didn't feel it was right to put him through the trauma of an anaesthetic.

I think I'll look into DNA testing as an option. If this is likely to happen again I'd rather know. It just never occurred to me that it was even a possiblity. We just assumed he'd got constipated and although we were worried about him at the time he recovered so quickly from it that we didn't query further. I feel thorougly neglectful now.

[nikkid]

I've been having a look at one of the other threads on this board along side some of the pics I have of my bird and I'm still convinced he's male. I don't have him in front of me directly so I'll have a proper look at him later in good light and hopefully it'll become a bit clearer. He has a short vest, quite a broad head (I always thought he had a lovely broad bonce) and judging by my rather amateur photos, no green in his covert feathers which would seem to indicate a male. He also gives a more 'butch' appearance generally, there's nothing dainty about him, he's a chunky lad.

DNA testing is a strong possiblity to make sure though

[Wolf]

Look around in your photo program for how to resize the picture. Then reduce the largest pixel number to 600 and their should be a box that allows you to retain the proportion. you check that and hit enter. Note the name of the picture and then load that one to the forum.
This is basically how mine works yours may be a little different, but it will be similar.

[Pajarita]

Senegals are sexually dimorphic (male looks different from female) so I don't think you'll need to DNA to find out. Basically, if the green V on its chest is long, reaching all the way down to the abdomen and thereby the yellow sides are small, it's a female but, if the V is short, ending up on his chest and showing a lot of yellow (sides and abdomen), you have a male.

The question here is when was the last time you took your bird to a vet for a complete physical? Because, if I go by what we knew about parrots 23 years ago in terms of diet, etc, I would have to assume that he did not have a good diet back then (none of them did, including mine). Has this been corrected? Please tell me what is his usual diet (not what you feed but what he actually eats).

The reason I am asking is that an off-season, unusual and prolonged molt (which is what you describe) is normally due to a bad diet and could mean liver disease - the body of a bird that it's fed too much protein will use as much as it can and store the rest as fatty nodules in the liver but, when the liver is already enlarged and cannot 'store' any more fat, it will try to direct it to other forms of usage for it (overgrown beak, claws, feathers).

Now, there might be other reasons for this (sudden change in light schedule, diet, temperature, other liver conditions, high cholesterol, etc) but this one is the most common - thus my question.

[nikkid]

Okay.

As far as diet goes he has a good basic mix - same one he's had for about four years which is a combi of seeds of various types with the odd peanut, brazil or other nut included which we buy packet from a reputable place this we suppliment with a dried fruit selection from the same range which ultimately makes up I would say about a quarter of the whole. He has his preferences from this, eats very few of the sunflowers, he's never been that keen. He also gets a 'fruit cup' which includes cherry toms, peas, occasional kiwi fruit pieces, apples, pears, baby sweetcorn and occasionally salad bits such as lettuce and cucumber. He's also partial to a raw sprout and the occasional broccoli floret. He also has water ever present

Over the years we have occasionally changed the seed brand if it didn't seem to be pleasing him. The current one seems to be doing the trick and even now he has a gorgeous lustre to his feathers and appears in the best of health other than moulting rather more than I've seen him do before. I did wonder if it had to do with his current circumstances, living away from home with my mother who dotes on him. Once I am able to drive again he wlll be coming home (Can't be soon enough!) so may be that will help his moulting.

[nikkid]

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Ok

Thanks Wolf for the advice. Here are the pix of my lovely boy/girl Japha. He's always been a fidget so it has never been easy to get a great shot of him so hopefully these will give you enough information to give us a clue.

Thanks all