Will my greencheek's feathers grow back?

Kouken · Sep 17, 2014

Long story straight, I have had a Green Cheek conure and a Sun conure together as they became attached. Over the time I had him, I noticed the Green Cheeks feathers on his head growing thinner - at the time I wasn't exactly too keen and thought he was molting. Eventually I realized that my other parrot was preening him far too rough so I seperated him. At the moment my green cheek has a rather bald looking head. The feathers aren't plucked, they are still there - they just looked rather stripped with a small piece of them left (some of them lost their black color and turned a white.)

I am starting to wonder if he will ever grow new feathers there as it has been quite a while. Do parrots truly only molt once a year? Will I have til wait til spring? I'm really starting to worry - I'll try to post a picture, but my camera quality is quite bad.

11437d1402852287-possible-plucking-maybe-molt-picture-me-25.jpg

(This is an older image I had, I'll try to get something better.)

weco · Sep 17, 2014

Your green cheek will molt new feathers again, do you remember when it last molted? Although it might look a little ragged until the new feathers come in, you could enhance/quicken the molting of the feathers that look the worst, by plucking them yourself or you can just wait for nature to come along.....

All of my birds molt twice a year.....

Kiwibird · Sep 17, 2014

Separating the birds was the right choice given the circumstance. If severe pluckers/self mutilators can eventually grow back their feathers, your bird most definitely will. It could take over a year or just a few months. Thats up to him

And parrots do have one major molt a year (usually in autumn) and a mini molt in spring (mostly down that kept them toasty in winter) but they continually loose the odd feather here and there.

Kouken · Sep 17, 2014

I honestly think it was this Spring. He's been like this for about four to five months now.

weco · Sep 17, 2014

I can usually clip wings (on the occasions I ever need to and do toenails) without help, except for my Patagonian.....

You can control most conures, lovebirds & similar sized birds with this hold, the thumb rests against the bird's head & lower beak, while the forefinger holds the lower beak from the other side...this pic is of Little Bit when the Vet was ready to amputate his toe.....there is no real pressure being exerted on Little Bit, he just didn't like my vet's technician and was giving them problems when she tried to sedate him, so I got some pics for my files in the mean-time.....

My birds don't fight my handling of them, but you might want a second person to help, whether to hold her or to clip her.....

Good luck.....

Kouken · Sep 17, 2014

I'm just wondering, if I wait naturally, should he regrow his feathers by spring?

weco · Sep 17, 2014

As long as his former cagemate did not mutilate any of the feather follicles (that would have been noticeable), the feathers will molt back in.....

WannaBeAParrot · Sep 17, 2014

I would let nature take it's course for regrowth.

Kouken · Sep 18, 2014

It's been like this since Spring, is it natural to wait this long for a new molt? He's getting proper nutrition.

Kouken · Sep 20, 2014

The feathers are still attached to his head, but I think I recall them having a few little spats in the past. How would I know if the feather follicles were mutilated in the past? I don't remember him bleeding on the head. Would they look strange if they were damaged? He looks fine on the head - his feathers are just extremely sparse.

Do you guys have any estimate on how long it will be before they grow back? It's been around five months.

Kouken · Sep 22, 2014

Bump - I'm sorry for posting so much, but I'm really worried. I'm just wondering for an estimate on how long it will take to grow back. It's already been about 5 months.

EnglishMuffin · Sep 22, 2014

I's hard to say since we don't know either the age of your bird, or your location/ current season. I would estimate that over the next couple of months your bird should start a molt, logically. They take a while and it won't happen all at once.

Make sure you're feeding a healthy, rounded diet to encourage those new feathers to grow back strong and healthy. I'm sure they will grow back and as long as your conure is healthy and happy in all other respects, a few raggy or missing feathers is only aesthetics and not a big deal.

weco · Sep 22, 2014

Kouken said:
The feathers are still attached to his head, but I think I recall them having a few little spats in the past. How would I know if the feather follicles were mutilated in the past? I don't remember him bleeding on the head. Would they look strange if they were damaged? He looks fine on the head - his feathers are just extremely sparse.

Do you guys have any estimate on how long it will be before they grow back? It's been around five months.

If the follicles were damaged, there would have been some blood & there would have been noticeable sores on its head.....by sparse, you're meaning that the feather barbs have been chewed off, leaving the shafts.....until you either yank out those barbed shafts or wait until the bird does its spring molt, there is nothing to do but wait...and since you have separated them, he won't be getting the close trim anymore.....you've done all you can do unless you want to yank out the barbed shafts ! ! !

Worrying about it is not going to make it happen any faster.....sorry.....

EnglishMuffin · Sep 22, 2014

I'll also add that yanking the barbed shafts is both incredibly painful and stressful, especially since they're on the top of your bird's head. Not worth it at all in my opinion, for the sake of making your bird look prettier.

weco · Sep 22, 2014

EnglishMuffin said:
I'll also add that yanking the barbed shafts is both incredibly painful and stressful, especially since they're on the top of your bird's head. Not worth it at all in my opinion, for the sake of making your bird look prettier.

EM, although I'm not trying to argue the point, I just walked into my office & one of the girls, sun conures jumped on my shoulder, so I took two of her head feathers, neither of which she batted an eye to or even made a sound about.....I've never had a bird give any type of response to having feathers pulled.....I rather think that's just so much bird mythology, since a bird's feathers are designed for easy release, however I've seen one of the clerks at a bird store get bitten because she fiddled around & didn't pull the feather's quickly & sharply, so assume the bird noticed & voiced its opposition accordingly.....I'd post a pic of the feathers I just relieved her of, but don't know where my camera is off hand.....

Here’s an old thread from the forums: http://www.parrotforums.com/questio...g-feathers-dna-test-cause-trust-problems.html

Kouken · Sep 27, 2014

Sorry for bumping this but I wanted to post an update

He just had a few shafts come in a few days ago. Should I expect more soon?

weco · Sep 27, 2014

I don't know of any timetable for a molt to be completed, so I will say yes, you can expect new ones to follow and since you have both birds separated and it will no longer have the current feathers barbered any longer, there is no possible danger of them being plucked, since the bird cannot reach its head to pluck its own, you are just going to have to wait until its body is ready to bring the new feathers forth.....

Tosca · Sep 28, 2014

Kouken said:
Sorry for bumping this but I wanted to post an update

He just had a few shafts come in a few days ago. Should I expect more soon?

As a previous poster said, as long as a bad feather has its shaft in place, you will have to let nature take its course. Feathers are replaced all over at the body's pace which is very slow. Only time will tell. Please stop worrying how it looks and enjoy the bird with or without its feathers.

Will my greencheek's feathers grow back?

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