Stress bars?

SailBoat said:

Commonly it takes three to six months for a Parrot to really show the results of a change to a healthy diet within the Body and Flight feathers and in the last half of that first year, they go thru a major molt.

What you are seeing are feathers that need to be attended too (beak zippered back into place). The black strips you are seeing tend to be traveling with the length of the feather. Stress Bars run horizontally across the feather and commonly are a duller version of the color of the feather itself.

If you think of feathers as 'expensive,' Parrots have to first rebuild their reserves and then set about replacing feathers. NOTE: They will always place their energy reserves toward flight feathers that need replacement to assure flight and next body feathers to assure control of body temperature. It is important to understand that flight feathers are molted in left and right sets (including tail feathers) and rarely will that be more than four at a time, two left and two right.

What you are seeing is a young Parrot who's feathers are showing a combination of over contact with the cage bars, a lack of feather care (common in young Parrots) and the effects of a poor diet and a more stressful life in the recent past.

The effects of a healthy diet and a wonderful new home will be showing up by years end.

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SassiBird said:

This photo shows the difference. These are mild stress bars from nutrition issues (per my vet).

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GaleriaGila said:

I commend you for your care and vigilance!
I'm so glad you're here. Welcome.

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EllenD said:

Sailboat explained this concept extremely well, and that photo that Sassibird posted above shows clearly what an actual Stress-Bar looks like, as opposed to what we typically see on our bird's feathers and assume to be Stress-Bars when they usually are not; I'm glad because this seems to be a really commonly-misunderstood topic/issue with bird owners, both experienced bird-owners and inexperienced bird-owners alike...And unfortunately it results in responsible and loving bird owners and Parronts becoming seriously worried about their Fids unnecessarily. So it's time that we start to educate people a little more openly/often/clearly about exactly what "Stress-Bars" are, what they look like, why they actually occur, and what to do about them...But most-importantly we need to make sure that bird-owners know that feather Stress-Bars are actually not very common at all, and rarely are they the black/brown/bronze markings that we see on our Fid's feathers. Sailboat and Sassibird both did a wonderful job of completely explaining the concept of "Stress-Bars", and that photo above is perfect for actually showing what Stress-Bars really look like, and just how different they look from what people usually see on their bird's feathers and worry about...

Just as a side-note, I have a very close, long-time friend who has owned large parrots for his entire life, he grew-up with Macaws that his mother owner, and he currently has a Sun Conure (small for him), a Blue & Gold Macaw, and a HUGE Blue-Fronted Amazon...He's a great Parront, single with no human kids, but he loves his birds just as much as any person loves their human children...And he knows his stuff, he has a Bachelor's Degree in Athletic Training from my undergrad school, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, which has one of the most highly-rated Health Science departments in the country. And the Athletic Training students take the exact same curriculum that the Pre-Med, Pre-Physician Assistant, Pre-Physical Therapy, etc. students take as far as all of the advanced Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Biochem, Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology, Nutrition, Gross-Anatomy/Cadaver Lab, etc....So the point is that he knows a ton about birds/parrots, but also about health, medicine, anatomy, physiology in-general...And one of our main Biology Professors at LHU back in the day and the head of the entire Biology department was actually a Doctor of Ornithology and always brought her birds with her to school every day, and always tailored her lectures in Advance Biology 1 and 2 around Birds and their Anatomy and Physiology, which everyone in the Health Science department/major had to take (I don't know if she's still there or not, her husband was the head of the Chemistry Department and she was the head of the Biology Department back when I graduated in 2002, so they probably have retired by now, as they were both in the 50's then)...BUT he called me not that long ago to tell me that his Amazon was developing Stress-Bars all over his feathers, and wanted me to stop by his house soon to see what I thought. I couldn't imagine why any of his birds would have Stress-Bars or be "stressed" in any way, they live out in his house free all the time, none of them have a cage at all, just stands/perches/play-gyms, etc. all over his apartment, they eat every meal with him, they sleep on floor-stands right next to his bed, they are all Aviator-Harness trained and go EVERYWHERE WITH HIM, all 3 of them, which gets a bit hairy at times, but he literally does not leave the house without all 3 of them with them..And I honestly don't know what their diet is like, but I'm sure it's Harrisons with lots of fresh Veggies and Greens, little sugar, little fat, etc. He's the poster-boy for the ultra-responsible, loving Parront...So I stopped by his apartment about a week after he called me, and he said "Here, let me get Jacque (his BFA), it's getting worse, every time I bath him they really show-up..."

Now I didn't mean to start laughing at him, lol, but I did

Long-story short, I let him do his thing with Jacque, putting him in the kitchen sink for a bath, which Jacque loves so he had no issue with an extra bath for me to see his "Stress-Bars", lol...He put Jacque on my arm while he ran around his apartment like a madman looking for Jacque's special towel, his little rubber Frogs that he loves to play with while he's taking a bath, etc. Jacque and I watched him as he started to sweat and run back and forth looking for all of Jacque's special bath stuff...He uses some kind of special Parrot "shampoo" that his CAV (my CAV too, same one, he's great) recommends, I've never used it because you have to order it online from a Veterinary-supply company and it costs $50 a bottle, which is insane, my guys don't need "shampoo"...It's actually a "Feather-conditioner" according to the company who makes it, all-natural, organic, blah blah...Anyway, I looked at Jacque's feathers while his Daddy was losing his mind, and I didn't see anything except for a few areas of Bronzing and that's it. Not a single Stress-Bar anywhere, which I told Jacque and to which he replied "Banana please!", which I translated to "I could have told you I don't have any Stress-Bars, I'm a Stud and I'm gorgeous. Dad's crazy. And i hate that shampoo, it makes me smell like a girl."...

So once he stopped running around like a chicken with it's....Anyway, I pointed to the Bronzing on Jacque's feathers and asked him if that's what he was talking about being "Stress-Bars", and he said "Yeah, but watch something...", and he then called Jacque over to his own arm, Jacque went right over, but instead of waiting for his command to get in the sink, Jacque used his arm as a diving-board and jumped right into the sink, belly-flop first, and put water all over the place...So after we let Jacque play with his little rubber Frogs for a while (he had a little rubber Crab too that he kept diving under the water to get, he's like a seal or a fish or something, it's really weird) he pulled him out, dried him off, and pointed out how his "Stress-Bars" grew to be so much larger when Jacque was wet...So I explained to him that the markings weren't Stress-Bars at all but rather just natural, regular, normal Bronzing, which does appear larger when wet, and also usually looks brown/bronze in-color when it gets wet, and he didn't believe me, he was certain that Jacque was either dying of something or he was not taking proper care of him and that he was so stressed because of the horrible, neglectful life he had been living for the first 5 years of his life that he was going to also start plucking himself bald soon as well...

So instead of believing me (or the Internet in-general, I mean Wikipedia knows-all), he spent $100 taking Jacque to our CAV for an extra Wellness-Exam. He told me he was going to have full Blood-Work done again, even though he'd just had it done in January during his yearly Wellness-Exam, because he wanted him to be tested for PBFD, but our CAV explained to him that markings on our birds are rarely Stress-Bars, and that Jacque was just fine and not going to die, nor was he "stressed", as he lives a life much, much better and more-comfortable than probably 50%+ of human-beings live.

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Thanks! I honestly am just not that experienced and basically freak out over all the little things, but I’m learning