Conure producing dander--help!

[imouse1]

I didn't know this before today but conures aren't supposed to make dander. I was looking up something that might help him alleviate his flakes and found out they're famously non-dander producers.

I tried looking up what could make him and all I got were results for, "Conures don't." Thanks, bro.

I'm assuming if he is it's bad. He's wanted to take baths the last 3 days. They're warm, not hot. We've had the heater on but I have extra moisture around his cage to humidify his area. No change in diet, exercise, toys, cage, whatever.

Please advise! TIA!

 

[wrench13]

Like people, parrots can get dry skin, for various reasons. I would let him take as many baths as he wants, in fresh water each time. Especially if its heater time where you live. If it persists I'd go over his diet with an avian vet to see if there is something that could help alleviate the problem.

 

[imouse1]

Like people, parrots can get dry skin, for various reasons. I would let him take as many baths as he wants, in fresh water each time. Especially if its heater time where you live. If it persists I'd go over his diet with an avian vet to see if there is something that could help alleviate the problem.

Thanks! He definitely gets fresh water each time lol--he loves running water *and* a soak so his water falls into a long lunch container where sometimes he just wades awhile haha. Luckily, we have an RO tap separate from the regular tap so he can go ham up to 2 gallons or whatever the tank size is.

 

[chris-md]

I’m not sure where you’re getting this from, but most parrots in generate create some amount of feather dander.

Understand there’s a difference between dusty birds (cockatoos and African greys - a function of feather conditioning) and dander production. Conures arent the official kind of dust producers, which I suspect is what you may be thinking of, but are perfectly capable of generating some form of dander. It’s largely a functioning of preening.

even my eclectus, the species for which is the closest thing to hypoallergenic you can get in the parrot world, produces a fair amount of dust.

 

[Skarila]

The dander that usually comes from cockatiels is super fine feather particles - they have this extra underfluff on their feathers, and when they shake it off, you can usually see it flying all around. This is all year round.
And then there is a dander that all birds produce, especially when moulting and growing new feathers. New feathers grow in a keratin sheathe, which once the feather is at the end of the growth, can be opened. We refer this as a pin feather. This waxy coating can easily be opened and looks like dander when falls off. The more new growing feathers there are, more pin feathers to be opened, more dander around. I swear under any bird will look like it has been snowing after their preening. Even our senegal who recently had bit of moulting.
It is really good to offer often baths to conure and keep the air humidity high (60% is optimum for them).

 

[imouse1]

The dander that usually comes from cockatiels is super fine feather particles - they have this extra underfluff on their feathers, and when they shake it off, you can usually see it flying all around. This is all year round.
And then there is a dander that all birds produce, especially when moulting and growing new feathers. New feathers grow in a keratin sheathe, which once the feather is at the end of the growth, can be opened. We refer this as a pin feather. This waxy coating can easily be opened and looks like dander when falls off. The more new growing feathers there are, more pin feathers to be opened, more dander around. I swear under any bird will look like it has been snowing after their preening. Even our senegal who recently had bit of moulting.
It is really good to offer often baths to conure and keep the air humidity high (60% is optimum for them).

I wonder, then, if this has to do with the blood feathers I was asking about the other day.

And now I also am doubling down on the worry he's molting. He's 5 months old now so he's definitely old enough. It gets really cold here, though, and we are definitely not at the, "Put stuff on me, Mom" stage, yet.

Don't get me wrong, I do think we're speedrunning our relationship overall--in the month we've been together he's gone from, "Don't look at me, you abandoned me, you wench" to today we're under the covers together. (He nests in my hair several times a day to sleep and even though we've got the dogs and cats around he's comfortable riding my shoulder most of the day, so we eat and everything together. We've even got potty training almost completely down--pre-yay 🙃) And we've also got him slowly getting used to other occupants of the house. The married woman can carry him around on her shoulders and scratch him, as well, but her hair isn't long enough for him to nest in so he just wants to preen her haha. He'll tolerate light pets from the two men but they don't interact with him much at all so that's no surprise.

But I am worried he'll molt and then his skin will get damaged from the cold. Last Winter it got down to 20°F (≈ ‐7°C) here many days so we were running the heater fairly constantly. This year will be another La Niña so I'm anticipating it getting that cold again. And I don't know that when he's massively miserable will be the time he's going to be like, "Yeah, I hate towels, put me in a sweater." ☹️ I'll try to keep the humidifier on but any advice will be appreciated. We called it the Antarctic last year: the spaces between heat sources required suiting up.

 

[imouse1]

I’m not sure where you’re getting this from, but most parrots in generate create some amount of feather dander.

Understand there’s a difference between dusty birds (cockatoos and African greys - a function of feather conditioning) and dander production. Conures arent the official kind of dust producers, which I suspect is what you may be thinking of, but are perfectly capable of generating some form of dander. It’s largely a functioning of preening.

even my eclectus, the species for which is the closest thing to hypoallergenic you can get in the parrot world, produces a fair amount of dust.

These are very large flecks. I haven't seen any dander on him before but these massive flecks I've been able to see the last few days.

 

[Zoruace]

These are very large flecks. I haven't seen any dander on him before but these massive flecks I've been able to see the last few days.

is he molting?

large flecks mean a pin feather is ready to be well..
a feather its normal..
(that is if he is molting)

 

[imouse1]

is he molting?

large flecks mean a pin feather is ready to be well..
a feather its normal..
(that is if he is molting)

If he's molting, he's not losing any feathers. That's why I was asking last week about all the blood feathers on his shoulders. He'll lose like a small down feather here and there but I can count on one hand how many those are in a day based on the bottom of his cage and in my hair/on my shoulder. All of those are pinhead size to (maybe) half the size of a dime. Those usually come out when he's flapping his wings play-flying or trying to levitate the cage or finger or something. He's lost less than 5 total feathers bigger than those in the last month, and the last one was his tail feather a couple weeks back. So, I'm honestly not sure.

 

[jce2005]

Hi,

the "dandruff" most likely aren't dandruff, but broken "Feathertubes". When parrots grow new feathers or are molting, new feathers are in sort of a tube and when the tube breaks away or if the bird bites the tube, then it looks like dandruff. When I see this tubes on my Green Cheeked Conure, I slightly squeeze the tubes to break them off so the new feather can come out. Some birds like it when you do that ( like several Macaws I did it with ) some like my GCC don't like it and bite me.... LOL

 

[Laurasea]

agree probably the feather sheath from around a new feather that normally crumbles as new feather matures, and flakes away

 

[Ryled1]

I didn't know this before today but conures aren't supposed to make dander. I was looking up something that might help him alleviate his flakes and found out they're famously non-dander producers.

I tried looking up what could make him and all I got were results for, "Conures don't." Thanks, bro.

I'm assuming if he is it's bad. He's wanted to take baths the last 3 days. They're warm, not hot. We've had the heater on but I have extra moisture around his cage to humidify his area. No change in diet, exercise, toys, cage, whatever.

Please advise! TIA!

I would take the bird to an avian vet. The bird could have mites.

I didn't know this before today but conures aren't supposed to make dander. I was looking up something that might help him alleviate his flakes and found out they're famously non-dander producers.

I tried looking up what could make him and all I got were results for, "Conures don't." Thanks, bro.

I'm assuming if he is it's bad. He's wanted to take baths the last 3 days. They're warm, not hot. We've had the heater on but I have extra moisture around his cage to humidify his area. No change in diet, exercise, toys, cage, whatever.

Please advise! TIA!

Can you show pics? Your bird might be molting. My bare eyed has dander from the feathers flowing in. The top part that doesn't have blood gets chewed gently by the bird bc the feathers are inside.
You can see the new feathers. So if it isn't that, I'd go to an avian vet to make sure it's not mites. Can you show a pic on here of what you are talking about?

 

[fiddlejen]

I'm not sure what you mean by blood feathers on the shoulders? Do you mean pinfeathers?

My conure -- AND my budgies -- currently molting right now. The casings on the new feathers And the new fluff that come in, really does give the appearance of dander as it breaks away.

(On the other hand, someone mentioned possibility of mite -- IF you do truly think there's a problem, then best to get checked by a avian vet!)

I'm also not sure it almost looks like you're saying INdoor temp gets down to 20F. ??? That's not what you mean, is it? Perhaps I am reading incorrectly. But, be aware, MOST birds are Not gonna willingly submit to wearing Any sort of clothing, sweaters included. You do need to keep your bird's room at a reasonable temperature for bird's survival. It is a good idea to humidify the room as it gets colder, because indeed the birds are less-comfortable with dry-er air.