Could this be due to baby feathers being weak?

[dollfish]

Hi everyone!

Astro as some of you may know from earlier posts is 11 months old but I noticed this when he was about 5-6 months old. He seems to be chewing his feathers on his belly on the right side.

We went to the vet 3 weeks ago and had a full check up. Everything seems fine but he had changed 2 homes before he came to me at 3 months old. I'm also guessing that he was a little malnourished, as the previous owner gave him 2 syringe fulls of water to fill him up when he fed him. He only had one toy and he can't have been looked after well.

I was wondering if this could be due to his baby feathers being weak, even though it isn't likely, I still wanted to ask your opinion. There are stress bars on the feathers but the chewed up bits seem very random. So here are the pictures.

 

[clarousel]

Commenting here so I see what info you get! Preeno has some chewed up old feathers too from her dirty nest box. I've been wondering if it's from preening...

 

[dollfish]

Actually I forgot to mention that he was a little low on calcium, omega and protein.

 

[Mizzely]

Yes if the diet was poor during feather formation then the feathers can be weak. As they try to preen them they can break off and then that can cause the bird to continue to try to zip them up in vain.

Babies are hard on their feathers too, so that doesn't help.

If he's only chewing on one side I would worry something is irritating him.

 

[dollfish]

That's what all the parrot owners around me have told me. They say that babies do damage their feathers and but it gets resolved when they grow up and it doesn't necessarily have to mean they are stressed. Looking at the pictures, could this be the case?

I told the vet that and she said that Astro did have a little tendon weakness/loseness on the joint on that side from not having developed well and she said it would get better with exercise. Also that side always clicks when he stretches far.

I don't know, maybe I am a little too worried about this. The support on this forum is amazing though.

 

[Ulis_Beast]

Lokis feathsrs Look eerily similar.
He had a really bad diet and was cramped in a small cage with 5 siblings.
When preening he isn't exactly gentle.
The new ones look really nice.

If I were you I'd just keep a close eye on the way your bird does the preening. Is he obsessing over any particular feather/body part or does he do what is intended and then moves on?
Does he find other animations or is the preening the only thing he does?

 

[dollfish]

Lokis feathsrs Look eerily similar.
He had a really bad diet and was cramped in a small cage with 5 siblings.
When preening he isn't exactly gentle.
The new ones look really nice.

If I were you I'd just keep a close eye on the way your bird does the preening. Is he obsessing over any particular feather/body part or does he do what is intended and then moves on?
Does he find other animations or is the preening the only thing he does?

Very good points to watch for. And no, he definitely does not seem obsessive with preening. He is just very mouthy which I think is completely normal and being a young bird, this trait does not translate well into preening. He is going through a moult at the moment and even now he does not seem to be preening much at all.

He was on a bad sleeping schedule and only then he preened a lot but that has been long fixed.