Sully Follow Up

I posted a couple of weeks ago about Sully and his bloodwork and rough looking feathers. I just wanted to share back with everyone... At Sully's vet appointment he weighed 378 grams, as best I can tell with my home scale he is now 368 grams. In my opinion his feather quality is horrible compared to what he looked like several months ago. But, I thought i'd share a couple of photos and see what more experienced eclectus owners think.

I've been introducing more fresh vegetables into his diet per the recommendation of many of you as well as the vet. I'm not making as many trips to the market for fresh produce as I normally would due to COVID-19 but he's been eating some shredded carrot and greens whatever I have on hand along with his pellet diet that he has been on (zupreem and roudy busch).

I scheduled a recheck with the vet for Monday so they can better weigh and compare him.

What do you guys think of his overall "look" from the photos? Is his feather quality normal? Perhaps everything going on the world has gotten me overly paranoid about my little ones at home. I dunno. I hope everyone is staying healthy!!

Hi! We have great ekkie people here do the will be weighing in.

I'm useing thawed frozen veggies for my quakers cuz I'm not going to the store during these crazy times!
Stay well freind!

Hard to tell from the pictures (on my phone) but from what I can see, he looks pretty good. Maybe a little scruffy, but it is molt season so that might account for it. Did his blood work show anything out of the ordinary? I know diet has been discussed, but how about his bathing? How often does he get a bath/shower? And does he get a quick mist, or a good soaking? There's lots of opinions out there, so I just go with what mine demand, currently about 3-4 times a week, and at least 2 of those are heavy soaking, and once in a while, just hang out in the shower and get a bit of misty spray that bounces off my shoulders. A regular schedule definitely makes a difference with my two.

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Thanks for your thoughts! His bloodwork showed slightly elevated electrolytes and potassium level. The Dr. said to add more veggies into his diet and left it at that.
As for his bathing, he normally gets a good misting (as much as I can until he shows he's rather annoyed with me). So, perhaps I need to experiment more with that to see the impact it has on his feathers. You make a great point, as my Sun Conure looks very different when he's willingly taking a good bathing on the regular.
Overall, he's acting normal, talkative and very attentive.
Sorry I couldn't seem to figure out how to get the photos to load in the right direction, not sure what i'm missing there lol!

I'd love to see pictures of your ekkie!!

Ahh thanks for the reminder! I do believe I have a big bag of mixed veggie out in the garage freezer. However, i'll have to check as annoyingly I think most of my mixed veggies have onion in the mix as they're for stir fry. Maybe I can just pick out the broccoli and other veggie chunks and avoid the onion???

Happy to oblige with pictures of my boy Tucker. No worries on the sideways ones, I've had that happen before. Sometimes a nice moderator will come along and help fix it. I was more looking at the lighting. Bright background or back lighting makes it harder to see details on your bird.

Here is my buddy. He's a red sided, and weighs in at a solid 420g give or take a few. He'll be 5 in July.

My suggestions for bathing... Try different things to find his preference. They are PICKY. Everything counts. Water temperature, fine/course spray, time of day, are they sitting on you or which perch, list goes on... Mine each have a different shower perch they prefer, always want to be in the shower with me on the far wall from the spray, water pretty warm, bouncing off me at them. If it's a big soaking day, they jump off the perch to my shoulder to get right in the spray. Neither of them particularly care for the spray bottle, and almost never use a bowl of water. Point being, figure out what works, remember it, and go with it.

Diet wise, yes, more veggies! And ditch the pellets for the most part, or completely. If you haven't already, make sure grains are also a big part of his food. Brown rice is my friend, but many others, quinoa, oatmeal, wild rice, etc. Currently, butternut squash and carrots are Tucker's favorite veggies. Peppers are great although mine won't touch green ones at the moment. Regular frozen mixed veggies, thawed in hot water seem to work pretty well, but I remove the corn for Tucker, as I've heard it may have potential to lead to the dreaded toe tapping/wing flipping. He's had one bout of that, (not from corn, I think it was purple grapes) but I never want to see it again. Anyway, they are picky about foods sometimes as well. Size, shape, temp, cooked/raw, all play into it. Change it up to see what works. Tucker has certain shapes and sizes for different items that must be followed or said item will be ignored or tossed. Lol!

Most of all, don't get frustrated. They're complex animals, and just like a toddler, their preferences change, so just keep learning, always.

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Dk about picking out the onions-- when you have a fresh onion and mix it with other veggies, the juice gets onto them. I know these are frozen, but when they were processed, they would have been fresh.

oh wow, tucker is stunning! His feathers look bright and smooth and just lovely. Played around with some different lighting angles and got a couple of new pics of Sully. He stretched for me too. Always love getting a wing shot.

Roo1130 said:

oh wow, tucker is stunning! His feathers look bright and smooth and just lovely. Played around with some different lighting angles and got a couple of new pics of Sully. He stretched for me too. Always love getting a wing shot.

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Aww, Sully is beautiful! Definitely has a personality about him With these pictures, I see what you're getting at. Tucker gets a similar look during a good molt. The thinning around the neck, I joke about it as "Birdy male pattern balding," and a kind of dry-ish look overall. I'm sure it will pass and Sully will be back to his sleek looking self in no time.

The regular bathing will definitely help too. My vet once told me it might help stimulate the preen gland. (That was with my first Ekkie, Patches- a long time plucker, but without question, my best friend ever)

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Hi, I just thought I'd say he looks like he's been over preening his feathers. I've got an over preener. When he molts and his new feathers grow in, they look fine, but after several months of over preening, they start to look frayed and scruffy.