Sty on the eye.

[Smbrds]

I've noticed that Baby has developed a sty on the edge of his eye at the top which is really small. It almost looks like gook that we get from our eye when we wake up after sleeping. It doesn't seem to bother him, it's just there. He's going to be 14 this year - got him in 2002 - and he's been a very hardy bird. I can only say that he naps a lot more when he's in molting season and normally just takes a nap for a few hours in the afternoon anyway. He also doesn't eat his sunflower seeds as much as he used to, but safflower seeds. In addition to his seed mix he also gets Zupreem Natural pellets and fresh foods as well with some millet throughout the week.

I figured it's what people get when they age as my mom and grandma has one and figure maybe it's just age related.

Thanks for reassurance and any feedback.

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

I think it might be best to take Baby to an avian vet just to have it looked at. It may be small, but the fact that there is some kind of discharge in the area is a red flag. If there is an infection going on, better to stop it now while it isn't too bad.

 

[Macaw Lover]

Need to make sure it does not go rubbing on the eye itself either. Vet time.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I hope Baby is okay, and that it's nothing serious!

 

[Smbrds]

I appreciate the posts. He's doing fine. He's not in pain and it's not bothering him. It's incorrect that I thought it was a sty. I read and saw pictures on the sty and that's definitely not what I thought. I even looked up skin tags. Most pictures show that the birds and feathers are neglected. It looks like it'd come off with a bath. There's no discharge coming from it. It looks like a feather oddly enough. He has unique traits I like to think because he only has one clear nail and the rest of them aren't. The only thing that's bothering him is molting season approaching.

 

[Smbrds]

Well I just wanted to update. It is no longer above his eye. It looked like a little tiny feather that was there. He must've gotten it. He also finally grew in his feathers on the top of his crest that some looked spiky. He's a pretty boy now but always has been. Because he's eating pellets I think his feathers are more smooth and silky soft, he also smells good because of the powder he produces (I always loved that smell on them and cockatoos). It helped that I also gave him a bath recently.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

Glad he's doing so well. It's amazing what s good diet can do!

 

[Smbrds]

Me too. And I agree. I'm torn between the diets. When I actually fed him just pellets for awhile, he really liked them. They were pretty much shredded to a powder he ate so much of them. And this was even with the natural ones. The colored ones he ate for a while - about a year (without a seed mix) - but I switched to the natural ones. He no longer liked them (the colored), his poop wasn't normal, so I just threw them out to the wild birds. I might have to go to the parakeet sized ones because the ones he has now he struggles to eat sometimes.

He's almost out of his Vita Seed by Higgins so I'm going with Safflower Gold which has mostly safflower seeds. He prefers to eat those now especially these days. My little guy prefers safflower seeds these days. It makes me wonder about seeds in general because a local cockatiel in an article has just turned 31 (the "trick" was actually "people food" - popcorn, whole wheat pasta, etc. -- but he was well taken care of!) and a local avian vet who made a comment in the article said that birds really just need pellets, not seeds, and fresh foods.

Baby has been with me since 2002 and all those times he's been on a commercial seed diet (I also gave him millet, whole wheat bread, pasta, rice; he still gets those) up until 2013 I switched to just pellets, then the natural pellets in 2015 as well as a good seed mix. I'm excited for his Safflower Gold to come but I'll try mixing more veggies in his rice. Giving him a lot of more love is on the top of my list.