Dry skin or shaved beak?

Billdore

New member
Nov 12, 2016
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Parrots
African Grey Timneh
Been battling some dry skin around Timnehs beak since it started to get colder. My humidity dropped 15% in a couple of days. I now have 1 small humidifier and one room sized humidifier. Also ordered another small humidifier for next to the cage. Humidity has only gone up 5 percent today but it's a start. Came home from work though and there's a little something in the corner of Timnehs mouth. She's been itching the corners of her mouth on my fingers the last couple of days. Thanks for any help.
 
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SailBoat

Supporting Member
Jul 10, 2015
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Western, Michigan
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DYH Amazon
If you are truly chasing a Humidity problem, which is very likely this year. You're target needs to be between 45 - 55 depending on a target home temperature of 70 degrees. At this moment, my house is at 70 degrees with a Humidity reading of 47 and slowly climbing. My personal target is between 48 and 50 with a temperature of 70 degrees.

This Winter has gone dry, very early. Commonly, in the Great White North, we are not dealing with such low Humidity readings until mid-January. Much can be blamed, but it all comes down to an early start of Winter and a larger number of Cold Fronts swinging down from the far North. These 'very cold' Fronts are 'much dryer' than the fronts that move in from the far Southwest and are fed with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.

Long Story Short: This Winter will require far more moisture added to our homes than past Winters. Also, dry skin will be far more common for the same reasons.

Coconut oil can be 'very' lightly applied to the beak, but it is not recommended for application more than once a day unless directed by your Avian Vet. You can increase the amount of misting /bathes, that will also help both the Parrot and the house in general.

I believe that your Parrot has any Oil Gland. If you can examine it, please do so. It is 'possible' that your Parrot's gland is not providing enough oil. Its a bit of a long short but worth checking. The area and feathers around the gland, should appear slightly more moist and the feathers' slightly darker. It this area is on the drier side, its off to the Avian Vet's for an expert's evaluation.
 
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Billdore

Billdore

New member
Nov 12, 2016
900
17
Vermont
Parrots
African Grey Timneh
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Thank you the feathers do appear to be darker in color around the gland. I think you may be on to something for sure the nutri berries i feed have no vitamin A. I'm trying to get Timneh to accept Harrisons High potency and tonight she ate her first whole pellet. I had to break it up and hand feed but a start. Also I got a nutri Meal bar made by Lafeber that has a vitamin a supplement in it. I have a mash that has carrots and sweet potatoes in it but that's also kind of slow going. Getting off of a seed diet is taking more time then I expected. A baby spoon has worked great so far today. She has fun going after the spoon and end up eating it. I have another humidifier arriving tomorrow also. The one larger one I got doesn't seem to be cutting it. So I ordered another small one today also. So hopefully 4 humidifiers can finally start making an impression here. They aren't huge ones but after Christmas I will be able to really get a nice unit. Timneh has started to accept the misting much better now. Still looks like shes about to take off but waits. Still jumps from the shower and kitchen sink. Thank you soo much for the help. We had to cancel our first routine health check up and meet with the avian vet. Because of cold weather, at that point though we weren't having any dry skin issues.
 

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