Help me, pls

Hi

Sorry to be such a nuisance, but not only is my bird now underweight, and unhappy, but when I got back from work yesterday, I found that he has damaged all the feathers on the top of his head. It looks as if the feather have been broken off and now he's almost bald on the top except for a stubble like look where the feathers have broken off. What is going on with my "Boy" is this because of the drastic changes to his diet that we have been conversing about, or is there another problem i don't know about. This damage is about 2mm from the top of his beak almost from eye to eye on the top of his head. I am so sorry i listened to an avarian vet regarding the health of this bird, i should have just stuck to my intuition

 

The only way they could have broken off is if something has acred him and he has been thrashing against the cage, Or he is going through a really bad molt and the stubble you see are the pin feathers with new feathers inside.

Keep a close eye on him and if they do not start to grow back within a few days i would take him to a different Avian vet and see what he/she says.

Mike

 

Happy, content bird once again

Hi
Wanted to say thanks for all the advice, you have given me in the past 1 week, this has been a trying time, but your advice has helped such a lot, amazing how a little blue "monster" can turn a human into such a neurotic. I have put him back on his previous diet, and have ensured that I spent maximum quality time with him over the weekend, and ensured he ate anything and everything that he wanted, and I cannot tell you the change in personality as opposed to 4 days ago.

I have decided that I will take him to an avarian vet only if I think that he really needs it, and any other queries I'll read and talk to people first before I get help from a vet, sometimes all the training in the world can also be wrong, vets are not perfect they also make mistakes.

As for the top of his head, he has been undergoing a molt since October, and the vet told me that this is common, so I assume that this is part of the molt, when you say a couple of days before I see some results if it is part of the molt, how many days are we talking about. I believe they have 1 "big" molt a year and a couple of smaller molts throughout the rest of the year, pls can you explain when I can expect him to molt I live in SA, so our seasons are (Summer - Dec to Feb) (Autumn - March - May)
(Winter - June - Aug) and Spring (Sept to Dec). Are molts seasonal or whenever they are born and then the months thereafter, in other words do they molt every 3 months or whenever???

 

Happy, content bird once again

Hi
Wanted to say thanks for all the advice, you have given me in the past 1 week, this has been a trying time, but your advice has helped such a lot, amazing how a little blue "monster" can turn a human into such a neurotic. I have put him back on his previous diet, and have ensured that I spent maximum quality time with him over the weekend, and ensured he ate anything and everything that he wanted, and I cannot tell you the change in personality as opposed to 4 days ago.

I have decided that I will take him to an avarian vet only if I think that he really needs it, and any other queries I'll read and talk to people first before I get help from a vet, sometimes all the training in the world can also be wrong, vets are not perfect they also make mistakes.

As for the top of his head, he has been undergoing a molt since October, and the vet told me that this is common, so I assume that this is part of the molt, when you say a couple of days before I see some results if it is part of the molt, how many days are we talking about. I believe they have 1 "big" molt a year and a couple of smaller molts throughout the rest of the year, pls can you explain when I can expect him to molt I live in SA, so our seasons are (Summer - Dec to Feb) (Autumn - March - May)
(Winter - June - Aug) and Spring (Sept to Dec). Are molts seasonal or whenever they are born and then the months thereafter, in other words do they molt every 3 months or whenever???

 

Glad he is doing better.

When a bird is going through a molt its usually 2-5 days later you will see the new feathers breaking out of what is called pin feathers this is the shaft that looks like a pin.

Birds will molt different times. Mine have 1 big molt once a year and then they have smaller molts where they only use the odd feathers every couple of months.

During the main yearly molt they can lose quite a few feathers which make them look all raggy and horrible but these do grow back in.

Also depending on when they were born they will have there first molt at 6months and this will carry on in small stages until a year old and then its the birds body clock that will decide when it will molt.

Mike

 

Hi,
I just wanted to ask how did you change his food? I have spoken to a few people regarding changing food as I have a female cockatiel that is quite happy eating seed and shys away from eating fruit and veges or anything new. The general concensis that I have been able to find is that the pellets should be very gradually be introduced with small parrots. If a bird is as large as a cockatoo they will not lose too much body weight and simply get hungry and eat the new food but smaller birds loose too much body weight too quickly. The best solution that we came up with is one or two pellets in with the seed so they get used to the smell and sight of them and slowly increase the number of pellets and reduce the amount of seed. I have also found that my cockatiel will try anything I eat so if she see me eat a bit of apple she will try it too.

She is now with an adventerous male cackatiel who is happy to try anything and so take the lead whne anything new is introduced.

Hope this helps anyway.

Mel.