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Concern over down feathers on wings

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Concern over down feathers on wings

Postby fenster4 » Sun Jun 23, 2019 12:22 pm

I have an 20 yr old Orange winged Parrot that I have had for more than a year. He has always these white downy feathers on his wings that I thought might be stress in his previous environment but he has adapted well to our household and he and I are best friends. I have also not clipped his wings in more than a year so I want to make sure this is not a sign of something serious to his health or due to a deficiency in his diet. Any input is greatly appreciated.
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fenster4
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 1
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Orange winged Green Amazon Parrot.
Flight: Yes

Re: Concern over down feathers on wings

Postby Pajarita » Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:40 am

Welcome to the forum and thank you for adopting instead of buying a baby! Now, the short of it is that it plucks - badly! But the long of it is that amazons seldom pluck and, when they do, it's because of real bad conditions because they are not like grays or cockatoos that pluck if they are left alone for a few hours, they only do it when the conditions are real bad and this usually means a bad diet and a human light schedule for many years.

As to its plucking, it could very well be that the bird plucked for many years prior to coming to you and will continue doing it out of just habit BUT, in my personal experience (and I have one that plucks herself and her mate because she lived for, at least, 25 years in a basement under real bad conditions), this bad habit becomes seasonal and not all year round because they only do it when they are producing sexual hormones. Now, we've just gone through solstice which means the days will get shorter and shorter from now on until the winter one in December so a bird kept on the right diet and at the right light schedule will decrease hormonal production until it stops completely so it might just be a matter of time. The only problem with this is that you say you had her for an entire year and, apparently, she never did stop so I strongly suggest you re-evaluate all your husbandry but mainly diet (VERY low protein, high moisture, high natural fiber -not the one in pellets which doesn't work and very low fat) and light schedule (the solar schedule needs, at least, 1.5 hours of twilight to work). I would also strongly recommend you take the bird to an avian vet for a complete physical (CBC, Chem panel, bile acids and full body XRay) because, in my personal experience (I've had several older amazons), when an amazon plucks from bad conditions, it always ends up with liver and/or kidney disease from the bad diet and the stress of a human light schedule.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Re: Concern over down feathers on wings

Postby GreenWing » Mon Jun 24, 2019 11:06 am

Welcome to the forum! And aw, what a sweetheart. He's so cute eating that grape. :amazon:

I agree that it looks like plucking. Pajarita already covered anything I could add. It's a good idea to make a list about foods and if he is on a solar schedule. It might be a time to change his foods as well as bedtime.
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GreenWing
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