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Feathers color change

Maggu

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Hello everyone. I need your help.
Roxana is very sweet gold and blue macaw, but she has some problems with her feathers, on her left wing. The blue feathers start to change color in to yellow. (Photo is attached) This problems started more then a year ago. From the first it was only one feather, now it's already 13 :(
So I suspect that maybe it's liver problem? Her droppings are fine so far and she is active bird but very skinny. She was like thus from the day 1 I got her it's 3 years already.
Her diet is good. But she loves sunflower seeds. She eats pallets, fruits, vegetables, boiled chicken breast (very seldom).
The problem that we live in Oman and here no avian vet.
So kindly advise what reason of the feather color change could be.
 

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Zara

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Macawnutz

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Interesting for sure.

Three years is quite a long time to not have sought a vet. You really need to start with bloodwork to determine this cause. This is one of those that bloodwork is the first step, if nothing is wrong you move on but if something is wrong it needs to be fixed. Other than the color changes her feathers look pretty good overall, would you agree? Can we have a few pictures of the whole bird? :D

EDIT... Just do me a favor and overwhelm me with photos. Give me a photoshoot please. :laugh:
 

Hankmacaw

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She does look pretty good - shiny, good color, no black feathers and some stress bars. I would cut out the sunflower seeds and find another less fatty treats like almonds or pistachios. The lack of weight gain would worry me more than the feather color. Feathers that indicate a liver problem generally turn black.You can start her on Milk thistle extract, just in case. It won't harm her, but will give her liver support. Be sure you get the non-alcoholic extract and give her about .3ml per day.

Please include a picture of her poop.

Start searching for a veterinarian - it is essential.
 

Shezbug

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Wasn’t there another bird that this happened to ? Not B&G though I don’t think.
 

Hankmacaw

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A lot of macaws seem to get a few weird colored feathers. Jasper has one tail feather that comes out a very mottled combination of colors every time. It's her funny feather.
 

Maggu

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Interesting for sure.

Three years is quite a long time to not have sought a vet. You really need to start with bloodwork to determine this cause. This is one of those that bloodwork is the first step, if nothing is wrong you move on but if something is wrong it needs to be fixed. Other than the color changes her feathers look pretty good overall, would you agree? Can we have a few pictures of the whole bird? :D

EDIT... Just do me a favor and overwhelm me with photos. Give me a photoshoot please. :laugh:
She does look pretty good - shiny, good color, no black feathers and some stress bars. I would cut out the sunflower seeds and find another less fatty treats like almonds or pistachios. The lack of weight gain would worry me more than the feather color. Feathers that indicate a liver problem generally turn black.You can start her on Milk thistle extract, just in case. It won't harm her, but will give her liver support. Be sure you get the non-alcoholic extract and give her about .3ml per day.

Please include a picture of her poop.

Start searching for a veterinarian - it is essential.
Interesting for sure.

Three years is quite a long time to not have sought a vet. You really need to start with bloodwork to determine this cause. This is one of those that bloodwork is the first step, if nothing is wrong you move on but if something is wrong it needs to be fixed. Other than the color changes her feathers look pretty good overall, would you agree? Can we have a few pictures of the whole bird? :D

EDIT... Just do me a favor and overwhelm me with photos. Give me a photoshoot please. :laugh:
 

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Maggu

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I feed my birds with 3 different kind of birds food + fresh fruits and vegetables. ZuPreem, Harrisons and seed mix, the problem is she doesn't eat if there are no sunflower seeds. :(
Her wings is full feathered and she flies all day in the house. I didn't take her to the vet because as I already mentioned in Oman no birds specialists, but if it's necessarily I will do the blood test for her. I just want to know if anyone had expirience about this issue before.
 

Maggu

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She does look pretty good - shiny, good color, no black feathers and some stress bars. I would cut out the sunflower seeds and find another less fatty treats like almonds or pistachios. The lack of weight gain would worry me more than the feather color. Feathers that indicate a liver problem generally turn black.You can start her on Milk thistle extract, just in case. It won't harm her, but will give her liver support. Be sure you get the non-alcoholic extract and give her about .3ml per day.

Please include a picture of her poop.

Start searching for a veterinarian - it is essential.
Thank you very much for the advice. I will check it in the pharmacy.
 

Maggu

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She does look pretty good - shiny, good color, no black feathers and some stress bars. I would cut out the sunflower seeds and find another less fatty treats like almonds or pistachios. The lack of weight gain would worry me more than the feather color. Feathers that indicate a liver problem generally turn black.You can start her on Milk thistle extract, just in case. It won't harm her, but will give her liver support. Be sure you get the non-alcoholic extract and give her about .3ml per day.

Please include a picture of her poop.

Start searching for a veterinarian - it is essential.
 

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Maggu

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She does look pretty good - shiny, good color, no black feathers and some stress bars. I would cut out the sunflower seeds and find another less fatty treats like almonds or pistachios. The lack of weight gain would worry me more than the feather color. Feathers that indicate a liver problem generally turn black.You can start her on Milk thistle extract, just in case. It won't harm her, but will give her liver support. Be sure you get the non-alcoholic extract and give her about .3ml per day.

Please include a picture of her poop.

Start searching for a veterinarian - it is essential.
 

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Hankmacaw

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Her poop looks ok. No yellow urates, no puffy feces - both signs of liver issues. There are other signs though, so you can't hand your hat on that.
 

Maggu

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So I will try milk thistle extract and remove all sunflower seeds from her diet. And also can I give her walnut as a treat? And how many per day?
 

Hankmacaw

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Yes walnuts are fine - one per day. Other nuts that are good for them are almonds (low in calories and fat and high in calcium), pistachios, pine nuts (good for treats and training because they are small).
 

Macawnutz

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Other than the bronzing on wings she really looks great, she also does not appear underweight at all, what is her weight?
 

Maggu

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Other than the bronzing on wings she really looks great, she also does not appear underweight at all, what is her weight?
Her weight is 850 grams. And she is always in this weight. Her head is also small, but I can feel her bones. We have another macaw Alexander (male) his weight is 1kg.
 

Hankmacaw

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@Macawnutz Say, does this ring on her ankle need to come off?

@Maggu All you need to feel to see if they are underweight is their keel bone. If the keel bone is sticking out and there is no muscle near the point then she is underweight.

This is a good article by Dr. Orosz, DVM one of the best in the US.

1587668466681.png
 
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Mockinbirdiva

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I had this happen years ago with my crimson bellied conure 'Rocket'. He went through a molt in his 3rd year here and these odd colored feathers
came in. I contacted his breeder, sent him the photos, he in turn sent those to one of the original breeders of crimsons... their conclusion was his diet. Odd though, I have other crimsons and none of them had the same issue and all were on identical diets. The conclusion - Rocket would fly to me when I was washing bird cups..... he loves drinking from the faucet and regularly did this. I washed with very warm water. I indulged and let him drink the warmer water. I really had to put my brain into this oddity and that was the one and only thing different. I put a sheer curtain up to keep him from flying into the kitchen and stopped allowing him to drink the warm water from the faucet. It took time for those feathers to molt out and he no longer has any odd colored feathers. The pipes under the house are copper, and I suspect the warmer water flowing through the pipes shed enough to cause this change. He's eleven years old now and looks as a crimson belly should.

You might look into your water source as a potential problem as well.


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Maggu

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I had this happen years ago with my crimson bellied conure 'Rocket'. He went through a molt in his 3rd year here and these odd colored feathers
came in. I contacted his breeder, sent him the photos, he in turn sent those to one of the original breeders of crimsons... their conclusion was his diet. Odd though, I have other crimsons and none of them had the same issue and all were on identical diets. The conclusion - Rocket would fly to me when I was washing bird cups..... he loves drinking from the faucet and regularly did this. I washed with very warm water. I indulged and let him drink the warmer water. I really had to put my brain into this oddity and that was the one and only thing different. I put a sheer curtain up to keep him from flying into the kitchen and stopped allowing him to drink the warm water from the faucet. It took time for those feathers to molt out and he no longer has any odd colored feathers. The pipes under the house are copper, and I suspect the warmer water flowing through the pipes shed enough to cause this change. He's eleven years old now and looks as a crimson belly should.

You might look into your water source as a potential problem as well.


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Thank you so much for responding to my story. Roxana drinks filtered water and we do not allow them to fly to the kitchen when we are not at home. But she constantly picks sunflower seeds from the birds food and eats them the most. When I remove them completely she refuses food, but in the end she eats another food without much appetite. I want to ask for advice, if I be strict and completely remove the seeds, it will not harm my birds?
 

Mockinbirdiva

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Thank you so much for responding to my story. Roxana drinks filtered water and we do not allow them to fly to the kitchen when we are not at home. But she constantly picks sunflower seeds from the birds food and eats them the most. When I remove them completely she refuses food, but in the end she eats another food without much appetite. I want to ask for advice, if I be strict and completely remove the seeds, it will not harm my birds?
I thought it was worth mentioning about the water. What is the source of the filtered water? I'm not sure what macaw owners would recommend as far as seed goes. You've already been advised to substitute the sunflower seeds for almonds, pine nuts, walnut or pistachios. I give my amazons a small amount of seed for bedtime... about a teaspoon in a separate cup and that's it. They also get almond, walnut and once in a while a piece of pecan. ( neither one will eat pistachios or shelled pine nuts, pine nuts with shell they will eat.) I sprinkle a few pellets ( smaller than their regular pellets but the same brand) in with those seed as well to make the bowl look a bit more full because a teaspoon of seed looks like nothing and they have to forage more for them. It won't hurt for her to not have seed but gradually give less until there aren't any. She'll transition over. What exactly are the fruits and vegetables?
 
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