Feather Color Change

[claudiainparadise]

My 7 yr old sun conure is undergoing a color change. The top of his head and back are getting darker, almost a muddy greenish brown. We live in the tropics and Mango lives in a large cage outdoors in bright, but not direct sunlight. His diet is quite varied, veggies, fruits, nuts and a good quality parrott food. He has always had the beautiful, classic sun conure coloring until now. Any ideas?

 

[Von1983]

Hi there,

Birds feathers can take on a darker colouring due to illness or a poor diet. The diet sounds ok apart from "parrot mix" what is this?

You're bird needs to be put onto a quality pellet such as Harrisons if the parrot mix is seed based. Seed should be for treats only.

As he is 7yrs old, I suggest you take him to an avian vet asap to rule out any deficiences or liver/kidney disorders.

Sunnies are very prone to Vit K deficiency which is natures warfarin to thin the blood. It means that the blood becomes thicker and can cause fatty deposits leading to kidney/liver/heart problems for example. This is shown in feather condition. Particularly noticible in our yellow sunnies! Foods high in Vit K are spinich and kale to name a couple.

Let us know how you get on with the lil guy at the AV.

 

[birdiemomma]

I would definitely recommend taking him to an avian vet immediately. As Von said make sure to feed lots of fresh veggies especially those high in Vitamin K!

 

[wildheart]

Welcome to the forum! Great advice upstairs.