Many many times I've stumbled upon posts on social media where the feather states and issues are very often mixed up, since my little Pascal had quite some feather issues I decided to give you a close up to these most common issues. I will not be writing about plucking!
Stress bars
Most common mix up is between stress bars and discolouration of the feathers. Below you can see what are stress bars. Most visible on the tail feathers, as my partner described it, it looks like it has been broken on several places. This is visible on the front of the feather. The below of the feather on the shaft nothing will be there. The "bars" can be visible across the feather as well, aside of the shaft. The bars usually go along the entire feather.
These are more common in baby birds, but most common reason for these are stressful situations and bad diet.
Feather discolouration
As it describes, it's lack of pigment in the feather, they will often be seen as black lines, as below. While in this particular wing feather it is natural that the very tip shades into the black, it is however not normal that there are these lines, going from the shaft. This was due to very bad diet. This is not to be mixed with "bronzing" which the tip of the body feathers turn dark due to oils from our hands. The discolouration doesn't go from the shaft of the feather like in the example below.
Chewing/barbering
Again something seen very often in baby birds before they learn how to preen properly without damaging their feathers. This can also be seen on their body feathers too. However, if a bird starts chewing onto their feathers as adults, it could be a sign of stress or boredom. If a feather simply looks messy but not really missing any parts, it could be from rough play, or from the cage bars if the bird loves to cling onto the walls of the cage. In the below examples, it is clearly been chewed off, but I can assure you the new feathers from my little Pascals are beautiful and untouched
I hope this might be helpful for some folks!
Stress bars
Most common mix up is between stress bars and discolouration of the feathers. Below you can see what are stress bars. Most visible on the tail feathers, as my partner described it, it looks like it has been broken on several places. This is visible on the front of the feather. The below of the feather on the shaft nothing will be there. The "bars" can be visible across the feather as well, aside of the shaft. The bars usually go along the entire feather.
These are more common in baby birds, but most common reason for these are stressful situations and bad diet.
Feather discolouration
As it describes, it's lack of pigment in the feather, they will often be seen as black lines, as below. While in this particular wing feather it is natural that the very tip shades into the black, it is however not normal that there are these lines, going from the shaft. This was due to very bad diet. This is not to be mixed with "bronzing" which the tip of the body feathers turn dark due to oils from our hands. The discolouration doesn't go from the shaft of the feather like in the example below.
Chewing/barbering
Again something seen very often in baby birds before they learn how to preen properly without damaging their feathers. This can also be seen on their body feathers too. However, if a bird starts chewing onto their feathers as adults, it could be a sign of stress or boredom. If a feather simply looks messy but not really missing any parts, it could be from rough play, or from the cage bars if the bird loves to cling onto the walls of the cage. In the below examples, it is clearly been chewed off, but I can assure you the new feathers from my little Pascals are beautiful and untouched
I hope this might be helpful for some folks!
