Black feathers on Eclectus??

Bethany said:

hello,

I've recently purchased a male Eclectus. And the breeder sent me a photo of something she's never seen before, he is only around 10 weeks old and has recently started to GROW black feathers. The other babies are all on the same food. And nothing is wrong with the others.

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Hawk said:

Bethany said:

hello,

I've recently purchased a male Eclectus. And the breeder sent me a photo of something she's never seen before, he is only around 10 weeks old and has recently started to GROW black feathers. The other babies are all on the same food. And nothing is wrong with the others.

Click to expand...

I have seen this in birds from time to time, especially in younger birds. This represents a weak feather pigmentation. This will sometimes go away after first molt provided the bird has a proper diet. Too much of a seed and pellet diet will do this to younger birds. Don't hesitate to change up the diet to protein snacks, oil based snacks ( give my birds flax seed oil in their morning steel cut oat cereal for breakfast). They have beautiful feathers and coat. A little fat in the diet once in a while will not harm your bird. My birds have tried everything in way of food. Hot chocolate, sharp cheddar cheese, green tea, pizza, ect....they are extremely healthy and lively birds.
The vet even commented saying " this was one of the healthiest trio of birds he's seen in a while, what sort of diet do you feed them?" Ha ha ha,,,I said everything, they aren't choosy. Of course they don't get it everyday nor get large amounts...Especially like my wife's meat loaf which they dive in literally....and smelt ...they love fish. And of course they like jalapenos and chilies.
My point is, feather pigmentation is in the birds make up or metabolism, some birds are slower than others at first. My Senegal is the smallest Senegal the vet ever seen at nearly 3 years old, he's not much bigger than a parrolet. That's small, or very petite for a Senegal. But he's healthy as an Ox.
The Black feathers I'm not concerned with in a younger bird, it is something to keep an eye on as if it was say, an older bird that developed black feathers I'd be very concerned as it is a sign of cancer, and or internal disease. In chickens it is a deadly sign.

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labell said:

Hawk said:

Bethany said:

hello,

I've recently purchased a male Eclectus. And the breeder sent me a photo of something she's never seen before, he is only around 10 weeks old and has recently started to GROW black feathers. The other babies are all on the same food. And nothing is wrong with the others.

Click to expand...

I have seen this in birds from time to time, especially in younger birds. This represents a weak feather pigmentation. This will sometimes go away after first molt provided the bird has a proper diet. Too much of a seed and pellet diet will do this to younger birds. Don't hesitate to change up the diet to protein snacks, oil based snacks ( give my birds flax seed oil in their morning steel cut oat cereal for breakfast). They have beautiful feathers and coat. A little fat in the diet once in a while will not harm your bird. My birds have tried everything in way of food. Hot chocolate, sharp cheddar cheese, green tea, pizza, ect....they are extremely healthy and lively birds.
The vet even commented saying " this was one of the healthiest trio of birds he's seen in a while, what sort of diet do you feed them?" Ha ha ha,,,I said everything, they aren't choosy. Of course they don't get it everyday nor get large amounts...Especially like my wife's meat loaf which they dive in literally....and smelt ...they love fish. And of course they like jalapenos and chilies.
My point is, feather pigmentation is in the birds make up or metabolism, some birds are slower than others at first. My Senegal is the smallest Senegal the vet ever seen at nearly 3 years old, he's not much bigger than a parrolet. That's small, or very petite for a Senegal. But he's healthy as an Ox.
The Black feathers I'm not concerned with in a younger bird, it is something to keep an eye on as if it was say, an older bird that developed black feathers I'd be very concerned as it is a sign of cancer, and or internal disease. In chickens it is a deadly sign.

Click to expand...

At this age this baby would mostly have just hand feeding formula so I doubt very much that it has anything to do with diet at this point unless the breeder is making up his own formula which is incomplete or is adding something to it that is harmful.

I know some people give their birds small amounts of cheese ( I personally don't) but chocolate and Green tea (has caffeine) those are two items that should NEVER be given to parrots.

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Hawk said:

That may be true about the breeder making up the formula, but it is a pigment problem, ( My wife's a former vet partner) and will go away. Again it may have been something of the diet the breeder whipped up. Sometimes the issue is with the parents of the baby passing the DNA to baby in a rather weak pigmentation.

That's a rather misconception about tea and chocolate that actually gotten way out of hand over the years. The truth is the purity of the say chocolate or tea. It's the "cocoa in the chocolate" most chocolate is less than 30 to 40 percent cocoa. Pure cocoa is bad. ( 100 %)Decaf tea is good for parrots. My sisters 38 year old amazon and 22 year old umbrella cockatoo umbrella Too, both have had chocolate ice cream, bit of a snickers or chocolate cake now and then most of it's life and they are both super healthy.

See the saying goes way back when, pure cocoa in large amounts daily is not good....well after a few thousand people heard this over the years, the true nature of the warning changed completely to No chocolate. A taste never hurts a bird. People taken things out of content over the years as it was passed from person to person. My parrots get a taste of tea every day. They love a taste of ice cream, and chocolate cookie now and then, they are healthy after 8 years and have a superior bill of health from Avian vet.

Click to expand...

labell said:

Hawk said:

That may be true about the breeder making up the formula, but it is a pigment problem, ( My wife's a former vet partner) and will go away. Again it may have been something of the diet the breeder whipped up. Sometimes the issue is with the parents of the baby passing the DNA to baby in a rather weak pigmentation.

That's a rather misconception about tea and chocolate that actually gotten way out of hand over the years. The truth is the purity of the say chocolate or tea. It's the "cocoa in the chocolate" most chocolate is less than 30 to 40 percent cocoa. Pure cocoa is bad. ( 100 %)Decaf tea is good for parrots. My sisters 38 year old amazon and 22 year old umbrella cockatoo umbrella Too, both have had chocolate ice cream, bit of a snickers or chocolate cake now and then most of it's life and they are both super healthy.

See the saying goes way back when, pure cocoa in large amounts daily is not good....well after a few thousand people heard this over the years, the true nature of the warning changed completely to No chocolate. A taste never hurts a bird. People taken things out of content over the years as it was passed from person to person. My parrots get a taste of tea every day. They love a taste of ice cream, and chocolate cookie now and then, they are healthy after 8 years and have a superior bill of health from Avian vet.

Click to expand...

Saying it's about pigmentation is stating the obvious, of course it is, that is what makes up the color of feathers and hair but something caused this. The baby had perfectly green colored feathers and developed this huge amount of black on already existing feathers so therefore something interrupted the process. The overall health of animals (and humans) can and sometimes does make it's appearance known in hair, feathers, eye clarity and brightness. So the suddenness with which this occurred is alarming and something if this was my future baby that I would be concerned over.

The diet stuff that you mentioned well we will just have to agree to disagree. 8 years is hardly a lifetime and I have personally seen the health issues and quality of life in parrots that were given those kinds of "treats" for 15 yrs plus.

Click to expand...

labell said:

Hawk said:

That may be true about the breeder making up the formula, but it is a pigment problem, ( My wife's a former vet partner) and will go away. Again it may have been something of the diet the breeder whipped up. Sometimes the issue is with the parents of the baby passing the DNA to baby in a rather weak pigmentation.

That's a rather misconception about tea and chocolate that actually gotten way out of hand over the years. The truth is the purity of the say chocolate or tea. It's the "cocoa in the chocolate" most chocolate is less than 30 to 40 percent cocoa. Pure cocoa is bad. ( 100 %)Decaf tea is good for parrots. My sisters 38 year old amazon and 22 year old umbrella cockatoo umbrella Too, both have had chocolate ice cream, bit of a snickers or chocolate cake now and then most of it's life and they are both super healthy.

See the saying goes way back when, pure cocoa in large amounts daily is not good....well after a few thousand people heard this over the years, the true nature of the warning changed completely to No chocolate. A taste never hurts a bird. People taken things out of content over the years as it was passed from person to person. My parrots get a taste of tea every day. They love a taste of ice cream, and chocolate cookie now and then, they are healthy after 8 years and have a superior bill of health from Avian vet.

Click to expand...

Saying it's about pigmentation is stating the obvious, of course it is, that is what makes up the color of feathers and hair but something caused this. The baby had perfectly green colored feathers and developed this huge amount of black on already existing feathers so therefore something interrupted the process. The overall health of animals (and humans) can and sometimes does make it's appearance known in hair, feathers, eye clarity and brightness. So the suddenness with which this occurred is alarming and something if this was my future baby that I would be concerned over.

The diet stuff that you mentioned well we will just have to agree to disagree. 8 years is hardly a lifetime and I have personally seen the health issues and quality of life in parrots that were given those kinds of "treats" for 15 yrs plus.

Click to expand...

Hawk said:

I've raised 32 parrots 4 Hawks, 5 Falcons, 1 owl....over a course of 44 years, and had visited the Brazilian rough in South America for 2 years....Not one ever had a health problem from a diet I gave them. It Amazes me that people really do not have a clue about parrots other than the typical American standards that was passed on over the years, which is 60 % accurate. But it's ok to disagree, I'm ok with that...I love saying " I told ya so." You'll have to wait for my book to come out....

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