URGENT brown feathers

My parrot got one of his nails trapped in a whole of the cage.. I could remove it and he stills have the nail, it hurts him, I’m on the way to the vet.
I realised that some feathers in the wings and tail became brown.. how is that possible?
In the pic I add he’s wet cause I thought it was dirty..
He’s now dry but they still brown

Have you had his blood tested for abnormalities?
Have you done "beak and feather" disease testing/ other disease testing?
Has the vet run gram-stains?
How is his diet?
How old is he?
How long was he trapped?
What kind of bird is he? I can't tell from the picture.

noodles123 said:

Have you had his blood tested for abnormalities?
Have you done "beak and feather" disease testing/ other disease testing?
Has the vet run gram-stains?
How is his diet?
How old is he?
How long was he trapped?
What kind of bird is he? I can't tell from the picture.

Click to expand...

He’s a blue fronted amazon
4 months old
He eats seeds and fruits and veggies (trying to convert him to pellets)
Like 2-3 minutes.
And the other tests they are not done cause it’s just 1 week I have him and the vet didn’t have time for an appointment for me

I would get him to the vet ASAP (in general, but especially given your feather questions).


You will want to make sure that AT VERY LEAST, they run a blood panel (CBC) and do a gram-stain (+weigh bird etc). There are also some tests that your bird hopefully came with already (such as polyoma ,psittacosis etc )
If your vet is truly a certified avian vet, then he/she will also be able to make recommendations as to whether Beak and Feather disease testing.. There are also some diseases like ABV/PDD that you might consider testing for (typically, more than once) because ABV (precursor to deadly PDD)can be transmitted by asymptomatic birds, EVEN THOUGH it only shows positive on a test if the bird is actively shedding the virus. In other words, positive means your bird can transmit it for life AND may develop PDD (not a certainty), but negative doesn't necessarily mean your bird doens't have ABV....

DO try to add more than just fruit and veg...I always add a bit of seed for my adopted seed-addict (best not to start if you can avoid it but I don't think fruit an veg is enough)..I am fairly certain that as long as the seed mix is high-quality and given in MODERATION there are certain things in seeds that are important for bird if they aren't eating pellets...you just don't want them eating too many seeds, or forsaking other foods for seeds, or eating junk seeds. NEVER give sunflower seeds or peanuts....I would research diet further. This could possibly be nutritional, but I am not a vet and I don't know much about your bird type (at least not personally...it could even be age-related) BUT AGAIN, you need to get him/her tested ASAP (just out of general principal and I hope other members can provide more species-related insight).

noodles123 said:

I would get him to the vet ASAP (in general, but especially given your feather questions).
You will want to make sure that AT VERY LEAST, they run a blood panel (CBC) and do a gram-stain (+weigh bird etc). There are also some tests that your bird hopefully came with already (such as polyoma ,psittacosis etc )
If your vet is truly a certified avian vet, then he/she will also be able to make reccomendations as to whether beak and feaher disease testing is needed.

DO try to add more than just fruit and veg...I always add a bit of seed for my adopted seed-addict (best not to start if you can avoid it but I don't think fruit an veg is enough)..I am fairly certain that as long as the seed mix is high-quality and given in MODERATION there are certain things in seeds that are important for bird if they aren't eating pellets...you just don't want them eating too many seeds, or forsaking other foods for seeds, or eating junk seeds. NEVER give sunflower seeds or peanuts....I would research diet further. This could possibly be nutritional, but I am not a vet and I don't know much about your bird type (at least not personally...it could even be age-related) BUT AGAIN, you need to get him/her tested ASAP (just out of general principal and I hope other members can provide more species-related insight).

Click to expand...

Well, everything is perfect, I feel so much better.
Some test she could get the answers immediately and they are good, and some they have to send it to a lab and I won’t know it until Friday.
But everything is good!!
His foot hurts him a bit but it’s not broken or anything and she told me he will get better in 1-2 days.

And I just learned a so weird thing.
My avian vet is specialised in parrots and inside the parrots specialised in African greys, Amazons and macaws. She told me that some amazons can make their feathers become brown when they feel menaced or at so scared. They can somehow wet the feathers and make them brown.

So I was shocked with this, but then I knew it was true cause you could see his feathers going back to green... I know it sounds so weird lol. He is all green unless a bit in the tail. I’m so happy that everything was alright.
Now I’ll just have to recover from my more than 300€ spent in the vet [emoji29][emoji23][emoji23] plus the 400 for a packobird -.-
This by the way, Celltei sends things internationally, everyone knows it. So to send it to Belgium I had to pay 280€ the bag + 70!!!€ for shipping + today when I received it I had to pay 52€ more for the borders....
I think they exaggerate quite a lot..

GOOD FOR YOU FOR GETTING THE TESTING DONE!!!
It would have just worried you otherwise and it is more responsible to deal with issues upfront. It sucks though, I know!!! Money, money and more money.
Glad your baby is healthy!
Do consult with your vet about diet though!


I asked how long her was stuck there originally because I wondered if it could be a weird stress-response, but if this is the case, a new bird would likely be feeling stressed in a new home.

noodles123 said:

GOOD FOR YOU FOR GETTING THE TESTING DONE!!!
It would have just worried you otherwise and it is more responsible to deal with issues upfront. It sucks though, I know!!! Money, money and more money.
Glad your baby is healthy!
Do consult with your vet about diet though!


I asked how long her was stuck there originally because I wondered if it could be a weird stress-response, but if this is the case, a new bird would likely be feeling stressed in a new home.

Click to expand...

Yesss I feel so happy !!!

I’m gonna add another pic by the way where you can see him even darker.
He always like to look st the camera :/



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's a new one...I've not ever heard of that in birds, happens in reptiles/amphibians though, and it makes sense...

Did you get a PBFD test done on him, just to be sure? (that usually takes a week or two to get back, not an instant test done in a machine/computer like the regular blood work)...It's always good to have that tested with any and all new birds you take in, it's probably not a problem, but always good to know anyway, since they can hide all outward signs/symptoms of it forever...Glad he's doing okay...

Did the Avian Vet say how long his feathers would stay brown from the "stress response"? Did she say whether or not they can change them back themselves, or if it just has to happen gradually (or does he have to molt those brown feathers now to make them go away?)? I'm asking so that I can learn, as I've not ever heard of this or seen it before...

EllenD said:

That's a new one...I've not ever heard of that in birds, happens in reptiles/amphibians though, and it makes sense...

Did you get a PBFD test done on him, just to be sure? (that usually takes a week or two to get back, not an instant test done in a machine/computer like the regular blood work)...It's always good to have that tested with any and all new birds you take in, it's probably not a problem, but always good to know anyway, since they can hide all outward signs/symptoms of it forever...Glad he's doing okay...

Did the Avian Vet say how long his feathers would stay brown from the "stress response"? Did she say whether or not they can change them back themselves, or if it just has to happen gradually (or does he have to molt those brown feathers now to make them go away?)? I'm asking so that I can learn, as I've not ever heard of this or seen it before...

Click to expand...

They should start to go back green one he’s calmed and his heart rate is normal again ..
He’s all green btw today

I am so happy to hear the vet check up went well and your baby boy is back to his normal colors!

That is fascinating about the feathers turning brown, as frightening as it sounds to have experienced. I've never heard of that before. Did the vet have any explanations on how they manage it?

Squeeing_Onion said:

I am so happy to hear the vet check up went well and your baby boy is back to his normal colors!

That is fascinating about the feathers turning brown, as frightening as it sounds to have experienced. I've never heard of that before. Did the vet have any explanations on how they manage it?

Click to expand...

I didn’t ask anything related to that but next time I’ll go I will ask her.
She just told me that some amazon species have that “ability”.

Amazon feahers turn brown when they get wet becasue they are not reflecting the light as they would normally when dry. As the feather dries out and the water evaporatesthe feathers will return to their perceived color.

Notice i said perceived color. Parrots can see farther into the color scale than the human eye can, so they can see furhter into the ultraviolet and infrared scale. To them I am quite sure their feathers blaze with far more intensity that we can ever see. I belive that this is the cause of some parrots suddenly not liking or even attacking their owner, because they changed laundy detergent with chemical brighteners. Suddenly their person is blazing with colors not seen by them before, but only dimly perceived by us. Sorrry for the long response.

wrench13 said:

Amazon feahers turn brown when they get wet becasue they are not reflecting the light as they would normally when dry. As the feather dries out and the water evaporatesthe feathers will return to their perceived color.

Notice i said perceived color. Parrots can see farther into the color scale than the human eye can, so they can see furhter into the ultraviolet and infrared scale. To them I am quite sure their feathers blaze with far more intensity that we can ever see. I belive that this is the cause of some parrots suddenly not liking or even attacking their owner, because they changed laundy detergent with chemical brighteners. Suddenly their person is blazing with colors not seen by them before, but only dimly perceived by us. Sorrry for the long response.

Click to expand...

That would be really bad.. just because you change the detergent.. but I agree, it can be possible!

I was wondering if it was just the feathers being wet in your case: if Sunny gets soaked the green and blue feathers also change, to a murky brownish-purple. I always assumed it would act as extra camouflage (looking roughly the same as wet treebark) if the birds got really wet and could not fly away as well as usual.

A wet african grey is still (darker) grey, but an oily african grey turns blue!
( One of them, D. or Appie, had a small mishap one day and I had to grab her with oily hands to prevent any more damage- she looked kind of pretty after that.)

=

How is the toe/ foot doing?
Everything back to normal?

ChristaNL said:

I was wondering if it was just the feathers being wet in your case: if Sunny gets soaked the green and blue feathers also change, to a murky brownish-purple. I always assumed it would act as extra camouflage (looking roughly the same as wet treebark) if the birds got really wet and could not fly away as well as usual.

A wet african grey is still (darker) grey, but an oily african grey turns blue!
( One of them, D. or Appie, had a small mishap one day and I had to grab her with oily hands to prevent any more damage- she looked kind of pretty after that.)

=

How is the toe/ foot doing?
Everything back to normal?

Click to expand...

His foot is perfect again!
Back to the bites hahah

Thank you to Wrench for his explanation...I had never heard of what the OP's Vet had described, and after reading their explanation I did my own research on this, and Wrench is exactly correct, and what the OP was told by his vet is completely false. I think it's important to correct the info given in the post by the OP's vet, who I'm hoping is not an actual CAV or Avian Specialist, because if they are, then they simply just made that entire explanation up and told it to the OP, which is not good and I'd definitely find a new CAV immediately...

***Contrary to what the OP's Vet told him, no Amazons have the ability to purposely "change their feather colors due to stress", nor does any other bird that I'm aware of.
The reason this Amazon's feathers turned brown was simply because they were wet at the time, and had not completely dried yet. So to anyone reading this thread, the information given to the OP by his Vet about "some Amazon's having the ability to turn their feathers brown when they are under stress" is completely false...

I'm sorry that your vet told you that, they either just made something up because they didn't know what was going on, or they just didn't have a clue what was going on...Either way, you definitely need a new vet, and I wouldn't ever take your bird back there...

EllenD said:

Thank you to Wrench for his explanation...I had never heard of what the OP's Vet had described, and after reading their explanation I did my own research on this, and Wrench is exactly correct, and what the OP was told by his vet is completely false. I think it's important to correct the info given in the post by the OP's vet, who I'm hoping is not an actual CAV or Avian Specialist, because if they are, then they simply just made that entire explanation up and told it to the OP, which is not good and I'd definitely find a new CAV immediately...

***Contrary to what the OP's Vet told him, no Amazons have the ability to purposely "change their feather colors due to stress", nor does any other bird that I'm aware of.
The reason this Amazon's feathers turned brown was simply because they were wet at the time, and had not completely dried yet. So to anyone reading this thread, the information given to the OP by his Vet about "some Amazon's having the ability to turn their feathers brown when they are under stress" is completely false...

I'm sorry that your vet told you that, they either just made something up because they didn't know what was going on, or they just didn't have a clue what was going on...Either way, you definitely need a new vet, and I wouldn't ever take your bird back there...

Click to expand...

Maybe he told me that they can change it when they want and maybe they just get themselves wet, I’ll ask anyway and correct her !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Almost a two year old post helped me out today. I noticed brown feathers on my Amazons recently and thought it was strange. They actually have been eating very well enjoying the fresh veggies and fruit over the pellets. Then the brown feathers were gone. Again I saw the brown feathers again which btw were near the beak. I was trying to figure out this issue and decided to check here. It is clear that my birds have a drinking problem. They must dunk most of their face in the water bowl. Thanks forum, I avoided needless stress.

Glad we could reduce stress- we all have enuf of that already.