feathers arent growing

hi guys

had my macaw now for 2 years and hes tail feathers broke and now wont grow back i was told he was molting but its been 2 years hes only 2 years old he had been clipped and his feathers still havent grown hes healthy and i feed him well with the macaw nuts ive been told to now pull the tail feathers but when i did one it had blood on the end and he squaked what do i do now
i want his tail to grow

DONT pull tailfeathers on a macaw (or almost any bird) unless under aneasthetic.

I have a macaw with a penguin-butt and there is 1 large feather growing in every 2-3 months or so (she murders/mutilates them all).
If you *never* see a pinfeather forming... maybe it's time to see your vet and get the full rounds of testing.

There are some nasty diseases that will interfere with feather development, but also a lot of innocent reasons - it could be something in the diet, or not enough direct sunlight -> usually easy fixable.
All of that will show up in the bloodtest (if your vet is looking).



What kind of macaw do you have?

Does he get a full diet with pellets and seeds, vegetables and fruit? Or just the macawnuts?

never pull a feather out! Come on buddy, I know you mean well but think for 2 seconds how you would feel to essentially have a clump of hair pulled out.

Get to a CERTIFIED AVIAN VET and get them to run a full blood scan, do a gram stain and check him over head to toe. Being that he's not growing feathers then clearly he is not healthy and the CERTIFIED AVIAN VET can help work out what's up with him.

What is he eating? If he's just on a basic seed mix then yeah he wont be growing feathers and will likely be malnourished. Give some good pellet food, loads of veg, some fruit and save the seeds as a snack food here and there. You mention macaw nuts, is that all he's eating? Cause if so that's not a healthy diet, you're essentially feeding him the equivalent of nothing but doughnuts just doing that.

Welcome to the forums!! There are many reasons for poor feather growth, and the first stop along the path is to a certified (or equivalent) avian vet. A baseline of blood and other tests might identify a problem easily corrected.

If his diet is limited you can introduce a variety of healthier foods. Like people, macaws are "what they eat."

A few suggestions: http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...7-converting-parrots-healthier-diet-tips.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/49831-chop-day-recipe.html

OH, YIPES!

I'm so glad you're here!

Great advice above!

I'm not sure where you got that advice but... again, I'm glad you're here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to ask...What are "Macaw Nuts"? Are you talking about just nuts? That's all you feed him are nuts? Or is "Macaw Nuts" another name for some other type of food?

Either way your Macaw's regular, daily diet should consist of a healthy, fortified pellet as his his main food, supplemented by lots of fresh veggies and dark, leafy greens, and then a small amount of a healthy, varied seed-mix that DOES NOT contain any sunflower seeds or peanuts...And then he should get occasional treats in very small quantities and for training reasons, like healthy nuts such as almonds, Brazil nuts, Filberts, pecans, etc., and then a little fresh fruit (lots of sugar in fruit, so it's more of a treat).

****NEVER ever pull out any of your bird's feathers!!! First of all, it hurts him a great deal and will only make him angry, scared of you, you'll lose his trust, and will do absolutely no good in getting his feathers to grow back if you don't know why they aren't growing to begin with, and if you don't know what you're doing...And what you pulled out is called a "blood feather", you're extremely lucky that it wasn't a large blood-feather that continued to bleed, as your bird can literally bleed to death very quickly if you happen to pull a large blood-feather out. So don't do that again. Ever.

***It sounds to me like your bird needs to see a Certified Avian Vet or Avian Specialist Vet that has a lot of experience with Feather Destructive Diseases, as well as Avian Diseases in-general, as like Christa already mentioned, there are some extremely serious diseases that parrots can suffer from that would cause his feathers to not grow, but also to eventually start falling out. And unfortunately, some of these diseases are actually fatal. So you need to get him to an experience Avian Vet for complete blood-work and some cultures, as this will tell the Vet whether or not your bird is malnourished due to a bad diet, whether or not he's deficient in certain vitamins or minerals, and whether or not her is suffering from an illness or disease that may be more serious. There's no way to know without diagnostic testing, but you need to get it done ASAP, as some of the diseases we're talking about need to be caught extremely early in order to have any chance of treating them.

In the meantime, can you tell us exactly what you've been feeding him daily since you brought him home, I'm assuming when he was just a baby? I'm sorry I don't know what "Macaw Nuts" are, maybe someone else here will...but if you've not been feeding him pellets and fresh veggies every day, then chances are that he's suffering from some malnourishment that is causing his feather issues.

What Ellen said!

Certified Avian Vets
https://abvp.com/animal-owners/find-an-abvp-specialist/
If none are near you...
Avian Veterinarians
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
In my opinion, any of the vets listed here should be better than a regular vet.

http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/

I feed Harrison's, supplemented by fresh healthy treats. My first, and later, my current avian vet recommended it. My bird loves the pellets now, but to get him converted, my avian vet suggested putting pellets out all day, and putting seeds (his old diet) out for two 15-minute periods a day. That would sustain him but leave him hungry enough to try new stuff. I presume the same technique could be used to get him to eat other healthy stuff, like fruits and vegetables! My guy was eating pellets in a couple of days, and now I can feed a good variety of other stuff, knowing he has the pellets as a basic. Pellets are out all day... fresh treats a few times a day. I also like Harrison's via mail because I never have to worry about out-of-date products.