From green to grey! Any advice appreciated!

We have had Chester just over a year now, and we believe he is about 3 and a half years old.
We rescued him from a life in a little cage and eating nothing but oranges and it didn't take long for us to fall for his charm!
Essentially he is my girlfriend's bird, but when I am in the house, she doesn't get a look in!

Anyway, when we first got him, he was a bit of a mess, with his one dimensional diet and not very happy habitat, so we got him a nice big cage, and changed his diet. He now has pomegranate, kiwi, grapes and passion fruit. We have tried him on various fruit and veg but he seems to have settled on the fruit listed above. He has a sunflower free seed mix which he seems to love.
After a few weeks he started to get his colour back and he was looking beautiful. Fingers crossed if I can suss out how to do it I'm going to upload a before and present day picture!
After a few months he started to lose his lovely green feathers and he is left with these crappy grey downy feathers. We have no idea why, his temperament and his cheeky character are all still there! It's just his feathers that have
gone tits up! I am now going to attempt to upload a couple of pictures!
Thanks in advance for any advice that may be helpful!:

He could be in a major molt. Some times when there is a big diet change it can trigger this. I would look into a vet trip. When you have a big change like this it flips on a red light.
Does he have pin feathers under the fluff?

A vet visit is in order but to me it looks like he is plucking his feathers. A vet visit could eliminate a health reason or a problem with his diet. I do not have experience with eclectus but I have read enough to know they seem to have slightly different dietary needs. There are a lot of ecchy owners on here that I am sure will be along to help

I said to my girl friend after some investigation on the internet that he could be molting, but his diet changed sometime before his green feathers started disappearing and these downy feathers came through. We have both examined him and we can't feel any prickly feathers coming through. Although having said that we are not really sure what we are looking for apart from obvious prickly things!

We do have a fantastic avian vet so we may take him there if he doesn't start greening up soon!!

If he has not been seen in the last 6 months to a year I would go sooner then later. With out Pin feathers he could be plucking and ruling out a heath problem is always first on the list. They are great about acting fine when they can be really sick.

I'd bet my house he's not sick but of course am not going to tell you not to vet him.

When you clean the papers on the bottom of his cage do you see short green feathers still with a bit of the feather sheath attached?

And by any chance is he super attached to you? I mean does he try to feed you or get cranky if he can't be with you?

Not sure about the feathers as my missus cleans the cage out normally but she tells me that there are green feathers with grey at the root laying at the bottom of the cage.

Regarding the other observations, yes he is super attached to me and yes, he does try to feed me ..... a lot!!

What does this possibly mean? I know about the regurgitation and he is mega affectionate, particularly to me.

Cheers......

It means he's either snipping them off or pulling them out, or both.

I'll be honest, I don't think you are going to change his behavior, at least not without some serious behavior changes on your part which you may not want to do and even if you do, he may get so upset he plucks because of that.

He sounds like he is very attached to you and because he cannot literally be your mate, he likely gets a bit frustrated which results in plucking. That's my best guess anyway. Fairly typical with birds who do not know how to entertain themselves and especially with birds who are so very grateful to have a safe, happy home after spending lots of time alone.

Be sure to feed him sprouted seeds and pulses and any greens that he will eat, along with a couple almonds a day so he is getting a steady source of protein, in case he is plucking and regrowing feathers continuously.

Don't worry, he is turning to African Grey, it happens some times
Now seriously, It looks like he is getting all that he needs and you take a good care of him. I hope that it is only molting.

lotosha said:

Don't worry, he is turning to African Grey, it happens some times
Now seriously, It looks like he is getting all that he needs and you take a good care of him. I hope that it is only molting.

Click to expand...

It is NOT molting. Birds do not molt all their feathers at once. Eclectus molt in patterns (head/neck, body, wings, tail) and usually you cannot even tell they are molting.

Sometimes they go through a heavy molt where you can see grey down in small patches because the new feathers do not come in as soon as the old ones are dropped. This seems to be the case with certain birds and often it occurs about the same time of year on each individual bird.

It is definitely plucking. Have you tried getting him some toys to occupy his attention / burn his energy?

I agree with everything Kathy has said. At any rate, a vet check up is in order. This poor thing has been through a lot of change recently, and becoming so attached to you is a natural reaction to its dreadful past. But, as the flock leader, you must show it how to properly act. See what the vet says, and then go accordingly. Gakking (regurgitation) is not good for either of you. But, this baby is so grateful for your help that it has fallen in love with you. You can fix all of these problems, but, it will take time, vet help, and your continuous diligence. Good luck.

Well, his personality has not changed one bit, he is an extremely happy little bird, but I am starting to lean more towards the frustration of not being able to get it on with me! There is an overwhelming desire to be with me, indeed as I type this reply, he is simply sitting on my back all hunckered down ( not sure if that is a proper word or not!! lol ) perfectly contented!My missus would agree, he would perfectly happy if he could judt sit on me all day long!
Hopefully his lovely green feathers do come back, but if they don't and he is still happy then so be it.
I will take your advice onboard and see what happens.
I will keep you posted!!

Many Thanks Ian

Got him booked in at the vets 10.00 tomorrow morning. Better safe than sorry.!!!

Kathy gave the perfect advice. let us know what the vet finds.

I have to agree he is definitely plucking. I hope the vet gives him a clean bill of health. His health is the most important thing! From there you have a lot of work to try and figure out just how to address the plucking. There's never any one clear cut answer to fix it and it may never be fixed. Some Ekkies pluck.

I have one that overpreens. His feathers look fine until he spreads his wings and you see that he has chewed out the insides of them.

toys and even maybe a mate for him to love, and im with Kathy, and id put my house on it too.in all my years and with all mine and my brothers eckkies ive never seen a moult like that on an eckkie, plucking yes. good luck at the vet and keep us posted

I think first and foremost is that a diet change is in order... a sunflower seed based diet, even with fruits added, is not a healthy diet whatsoever.

If he wont eat healthy, he could be tried on natural/dye-free/organic pellets and see how well he does on them.

Otherwise, switch to sprouted grains and legumes! And keep trying with feeding other fresh foods! Try presenting the food in various ways!


And any updates since the vet visit?

I have sort of an OT question. Volkman's Eclectus Diet has a lot of sunflower seeds. Isn't this an issue for ekkies? I try to pull them out and use them as treats, but there seems to be a ton. I usually mix in a sprinkling of Volkman into his breakfast and dinner to get him interested, seems to be working