Red’s feathers are thinning, please help

[rmashriqi]

Hello, our Eclectus (Red) feathers are thinning on both wings and lightly on her breast area. We feed her 3 times daily, veggies for breakfast, fruits for lunch and then seeds for dinner.

We shower her 4-5 times as week.

The thinning is not on all feathers, it is in patches.

Hope we can figure out what we can do to fix it.

Thanks.

 

[Tami2]

Hello rmashriqi and welcome to the Parrot Forums. Glad you joned us!

How old is she? How long has she been with you?
Have you consulted with her Vet about this?
My Levi molts this time of year and doesn't look his best. Could she be molting?

I see you have found the Eclectus Forum, that is a good source of information.

 

[rmashriqi]

Hello and thank you. Glad I found this site. There is a lot of nice info.

We got Red when she was 6 months and have had Red for ~18 months; so I she is 2.

We haven’t taken her to the Vet yet. I don’t think it’s molting it looks different. With the molting the gray feathers come off but this is with her full grown feathers.

Maybe we need to change her diet?

Thanks

 

[Tami2]

Thank you for the information.

Please get her to a Certified Avian Vet (CAV) ASAP before you do anything.
She should get a complete w/u including blood work. Feathers issues, plucking etc ... could very well be a sign of malnutrition or illness in addition to stress.
Ekkies have complicated dietary needs. Blood work will be definitive on that and the Vet can give you all the information you'll need, as well as a dietary plan and possibly supplements.

I'm sure some of our Ekkie owners will chime in as well.

 

[saxguy64]

Wow those feathers are rough. As recommended above, first thing, get her to a CAV. Feathers don't just "get thin" on their own, unless there's something going on. Very possibly diet/nutrition based, and looks to me like over-preening is what's happening. The question is, why? That's where the vet comes in. Figure out where she is medically, then you have a better picture.

The info you gave on her diet makes me a little suspicious. Veggies are great, with some exceptions. Fruit, MUCH less than veggies - too much sugar. Seed diet for ekkies, not good, especially if they are fortified with anything. Grains are a really important part for them.

That's the very brief highlights on diet. Not at all complete, but just the general idea Lots of great info on this forum about it. Definitely look into it further if you haven't already. Again, start with the vet, including blood work for a baseline. Best of luck, and keep us posted. This is a wonderful, supportive group of folks here, always happy to help. Glad you found us.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[rmashriqi]

Thanks for the replies. Will make sure to get her to a CAV. And will get an update on what they think.

Thanks again.

 

[chris-md]

Aw poor baby! Hopefully we can help.

We don’t have to speculate about whether it’s molting or not. Can you provide us a photo of any feathers you find on the go ground? Well know right away if your are able to get a clear close up.

Also agree with the diet: “seeds for dinner” is unfortunately not ok for ekkies. They need a low fat diet...seeds are high fat so should NOT be the star of the meal.

And definitely do keep us updated on what your avian vet says - definitely do the bloodwork.

Honestly, at around 2, it’s possible this is hormonal barbering from puberty. Do you know her subspecies?

 

[rmashriqi]

I don’t know her subspecies. What do you recommend we feed her. We had a local bird store tell us that the seeds were good for her.

Breakfast: green beans, garbanzo beans, corn, and other mixed beans.

Lunch: cantaloupe, watermelon, peach, grapes, mangos, strawberry and bananas. We mix it up for her.

Dinner: seeds; she typically only eats the sunflower seeds and leaves the rest.

As soon as we see a feather I’ll take a picture and post.

Thanks

 

[rmashriqi]

Here are some close of picture of her feather we found laying around.

 

[Tami2]

Too much fruit equals too much sugar equals an imbalance of the gut bacteria. Than, leads to future illness.
Those feathers do not resemble a normal molt. Unless of course she chewed them afterwards.

Did you get a Vet appt yet?

 

[chris-md]

Ok, I actually *think* I have this solved for you.

It’s the fruit.

This is barbering, similar to plucking, except instead of ripping the feather out, they simply chew on it like we might chew on our fingernails.

Why barber? HORMONES.

This is why I asked the subspecies, because the larger species hit puberty around 1.5-2 years, smaller subspecies at around 1 year. . Puberty is the start of what you may have heard of as the annual hormones you have likely heard about in other birds species.

But Ekkies are different with hormones. Ekkies can breed any time of year, not just the spring. This means hormones are inducible. You can cause the hormones by elements of their environment and care.

Sugar is one of those things that can trigger hormones, even sugar in fruits. Excess sugar - Too many fruits - in the diet will cause them to become hormonal. .

This is what has happened to your girl. Whether it’s puberty (this is inevitable but will go away on its own in a year or so), or she is being induced to hormones (past puberty at this point), either way the sugar is likely pushing the hormones to exacerbated levels.

Here’s your prescription:
1) cut the seeds to nothing more than a meal topper, like sesame seeds on top of a hamburger bun
2) each meal should contain no more than one or two types of fruit at most. And that’s hpuld be a small part of the meal.
3) focus the diet on vegetables, grains, and pulses/legumes (lentils, etc). Brown rice is great, as is quinoa, spelt, buckwheat groats, oat groats, wild rice, to name a few. Sprouting many of these grains and pulses adds wonderful nutrition to the diet.
4) if you want something dry, you can get a cold pressed pellet that has no additives (supplemental vitamins l/minerals are bad for Ekkies). TOPS makes a great pellet. You can also explore goldenfeast pellets and premixed blends.

 

[chris-md]

The above having been said, while I do think this intersection of diet and hormones is our problem, I still fully believe you should take her to a vet, get bloodwork.c etc. any sudden change such as this really needs to have any disease/illness based cause ruled out as well. PBFD is unfortunately a very real thing, a good friend here lost one of his males to it. And it can in fact manifest in the feathers.

So vet checks for sudden barbering very important.

 

[rmashriqi]

Yes we got an appt on 9/27.

 

[rmashriqi]

Chris, thank you and will eliminate the fruit immediately. And got to all the veggie you mentioned.

One problem is that she doesn’t eat all the veggies. And when we sprouted the grains she would only eat the sprouted part and leave the rest alone.

Also, when we drink our nightly tea. She always come down from her preach and requests a drink. We initially gave her a sip or two but now we don’t thinking the thinning feathers was a cause of that black tea.

Is it okay to give her black tea? She loves it.

 

[chris-md]

You’re welcome!

Introducing new food takes time for some birds. Vary up how you serve it: warm, cool, etc. she should accept more soon, especially if you pull out so much sugar and sunflower seeds. You can also try tricks like putting a dab of coconut oil or red palm oil. North great additives, especially the red palm oil given ekkies need for a high vitamin a diet which red palm oil has in spades (focus particularly on red/orange/yellow veggies like bell peppers, sweet potatoes. The law are staples in every Ekkie owners pantry).

Do NOT give black tea. Caffeine is bad for birds. You can give herbal tea. There are vendors out there such as greywood manor that formulate avian specific teas. You can serve it brewed, or just throw the team leaves right onto the food. And they have different formulae for stufff like regular maintenance, hormone control, low iron for softbills, etc. I have their pretty plume.

Also look into making chop as well. Great way to feed them!

 

[Anansi]

Great advice above! Yes, the photo looks like she is over-preening/barbering to me as well. It's good you have a very appointment coming up, as barbering art plucking can have dietary, medical, or psychological causes. So, it's always good to rule out the medical and, to the extent possible, dietary, before anything else.

The biggest red flag for me would be the seed dinners. Seeds should be treats for ekkies. Nothing more. And unfortunately, sunflower seeds are up there with the worst of the lot. Too much seed in the diet can lead to arteriosclerosis, and an eventual shortening of the lifespan over time.

Here is what I currently feed Maya and Jolly:

I tend to provide between 6 and 8 types of food per feeding (2 meals per day), weighted heavily toward the veggie side as only 1 of the food selections in a given meal is a fruit.
Various sprouts, carrots (very important due to the high content of beta carotene - precursor to Vitamin A), bell peppers (red, yellow, orange and green – also very high in Vitamin A), jalapeno peppers, Jamaican Scotch bonnet peppers, chili peppers, squash (butternut, green and yellow), pumpkin (again, high in Vitamin A), blueberries and pomegranates (both among the most nutritious of fruits), snap peas, broccoli (high in calcium), cactus pears, persimmon, starfruit, bananas, grapes (only for flavor and hydration. Relatively low in nutrition), kale, turnips, radishes, brown rice, quinoa, cucumbers, endives, dandelion (nutritional powerhouse offered at every meal when seasonally available), sweet potato (cooked), red swiss chard, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, cilantro, parsley, watercress, arugula, granny smith apples, papaya (don’t go too heavy on this, as it is a diarrhetic), African horned melon, hominy, oatmeal (sans sugar or flavoring), kiwi, barley, calendula flowers, fennel, chocho beans and garbanzo beans, as well as Volkman's Fancy Soak and Simmer for the majority of their legumes and grains.

For food accents I'll add one or two types of the following as well: star anise, milk thistle, elder berries, rose hips, hibiscus, bee pollen and chamomile flowers.

Twice a month, I'll give some hard-boiled egg (with the crushed shell for calcium). Slightly more frequently during a molt.

For their training treats they get an assortment of unsalted nuts (one to three per bird in a given day, broken into small pieces and fed as rewards during the training sessions). And for their "goodnight treat", up to a teaspoon or two of seeds.

Oh, and on other thing! Make sure to provide adequate toys and foraging activities to keep them mentally stimulated. Boredom can also lead to feather barbering/plucking.