newly adopted senegal, very thin & has no flight feathers

[jacquie]

Hi there. I just put a "new member" post in too. I adopted a 4 yr old Senegal a few weeks before Christmas. She spent 2 yrs with an elderly woman, and the next 2 with a loving but busy family. I hope this will be her last home. Her name is Sunny and we love her very much already. She is small -about 8 inches and is very underweight (up and down between 108-113 grams over the 3 weeks I've had her). She is skin, bones & feathers. She also comes to us with all but one scraggly flight feather on each wing. I don't know whether she was severely clipped or she chewed her feathers down. I was told she molted in September. She does have some small bald patches under each wing. I have't seen any feathers in her cage and she doesn't appear to obsessivly preen. She can't coast to the ground. She has fallen like a rock from her perch and tried to fly off of my arm a couple of times. She is fearful of being up high and fearful of being on the floor because she is vulnerable. She is shy and doesn't play. The last family says she didn't play either. We have a quiet household and I am at home all week, so I hope she'll feel safe and happy soon. I am trying to feed her Harrison's High Potency pellets, Nutriberries, ABBA 92 sprinkled on her warm veggie/fruit and rice/quinoa mash and ABBA 1200 mix. She seems to pick a little at all of them but not with much gusto. She is bonding with me slowly and is stepping up a little now and chattering with me as I work around the house. She is offering me cute little dove cooing sounds too. Sorry for the long post. I want to give a thorough picture of the situation. Any advice on helping her gain weight and grow some flight feathers back and become a happy birdie would be great.

[liz]

A malnurished animal does not play. Healthy and full bellies make them want to play. Once you get a little weight on her she will become playful.

Your doing good.

[jacquie]

Thank you for the encouragement. I am just so worried about her and want the best for her.

Jacquie

[Michael]

Try to get her some natural sunlight if possible. If it's not too cold where you are, get a small wire cage and take her outside for at least 15 minutes once a week. More if able. Sunny could use some sunshine.

[jacquie]

Thank you, Michael. I've watched some of your videos and read posts of your's. I've got a background in psychology and the training and thought processes you use peak my interest in working with Sunny on tricks and behaviors once she is settled in.

As for the sunlight. It is well below freezing here for the winter. I will definitely bring her outside once spring/summer hits though. At the moment I have a full spectrum light on her and a heater at night to help her be comfortable and burn less calories while resting.

Thank you very much for the help,

Jacquie

[Michael]

BTW I do take my parrots out on rare occasion mid-winter. When the temps are over 50 and very sunny, I'll sneak a parrot out with me hiding under my jacket (with harness) to get some sun. I think they absorb most of their sunlight through the nostril skin area around the beak and the feet so this is the best way to battle the winter blues.

But don't do this if you don't think the parrot is healthy otherwise or plucked.

[Naurthon]

Hi Jacquie, welcome to the board.

My Senegal, Maxwell, sounds like he is in similar condition to yours. He is about 8 years old and weighs 111g (this has been consistent for the last two years) and has bald patches under his wings and at the base of his throat. He also doesn't play much, but just mostly sits around.

When I first got him (he was a rescue), I was told the bald patches were the result of overly-vigorous preening by a prior cage mate. I had him checked at the vet and found out that he had a pretty serious and long-term intestinal yeast infection. He suggested that Max may have been "scratching" at the irritation caused by the infection, and that may have produced the bald patches. Unfortunately, the feather follicles appear to have been permanently damaged, so Max is likely to remain, like Daddy, a little bald.

Maxwell doesn't appear to be plucking feathers. It is possible that he CHEWS them, however, especially newly erupted pin feathers. I've never seen him do it, but he has some damage on a new flight feather that looks like it has been chewed. Chewing can cause the bald spots too, but won't leave any tell-tale feathers laying on the bottom of the cage.

I wouldn't be TOO concerned about your bird's weight, as long as there aren't any sudden, radical changes. Maxwell is visibly smaller than most Senegals I see, and his lower weight is a reflection of his smaller frame. After two years, with Max having access to all the pellets he can eat (and more almonds than he should), he's never gotten above 114g. Based on an (admittedly small) data set I've found showing weights for Senegal parrots, both our birds are within two standard deviations of average and the range of variation of weight is somewhere around 60g. Some Senegals just weigh up to 50% more than others, and speaking as a data analyst (and not an avian vet) I'd say based on the raw numbers, 110-115g is low, but reasonably normal. Your bird may not be undernourished; she may just be petite!

[jacquie]

Hi. Thanks for the welcome to the board. It definitely helps hearing about your little guy. I'll keep feeding and caring for her as best I can and keep a record to start seeing what pattern of weights result. You do have a good point about averages. My little 4 year old daughter is in the 70% for height and the 15% for weight (of course we all try and pester her in to eating more too - ha ha!). Sunny's breast/keel bone is very prominent though so I'd just like to see some plumpness in that region at least. I'll update as over the next months to let you all know how she is progressing. The nearest avian vet is 3 hours away and since I am visually impaired, I cant drive her there. We'll have to wait for my husband to have a day off work before getting her a check up unless there is an serious health issue.

thanks again!