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Help! It looks like my bird Gee has razored off some of his wing feathers!

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Tamara

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Did he break any feathers? BeBe has a tendency to break feathers and get gaps like that. I would say if there is no blood, just give it time to grow back and keep an eye out for any more missing feathers.
 

Gibbey07

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Budgies arent known to do this. This is a cause for concern.

How big is the cage?

Do you have any chewable soft wood toys inside the cage and other interactive fun toys?

A cage smaller than 30"long and 18" wide and tall is TOO small for a budgie, so any wing flapping against the cage bars or movement in a smaller cage can and often will cause broken feathers.

If you lack in chewable toys his friend or he himself are bored and will take it out on their feathers :(
Yeah I have lots of toys, most are chewable. He has a big cage also. Do you think I should take him to the Avian vet.
 

Gibbey07

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how old is he? could be going through a heavy molt
He is only 3 or 4 months old...I think....yeah he seems to be molting...I was sweeping today and it was like a little tornado of feathers, but you can't see his skin anywhere
 

Gibbey07

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Did he break any feathers? BeBe has a tendency to break feathers and get gaps like that. I would say if there is no blood, just give it time to grow back and keep an eye out for any more missing feathers.
Yeah it seems like he broke a few...
 

Bokkapooh

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Yeah I have lots of toys, most are chewable. He has a big cage also. Do you think I should take him to the Avian vet.
The only thing I can think of is he is sick and losing flight feathers (typically am illness and a deficiency is involved) or the cage is too smal..

Is he active?

How big is his cage? (length and width?)
 

chompie_puppy

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If he is moulting then it is highly likely that he just moulted out those feathers. :)

One of my budgies, Monster, moults out most of her flight feathers all at once! I have no idea why because it leaves her unable to fly at all. :rolleyes:

Does he show any other signs of illness? Sitting in one spot, fluffed up, not eating, closing eyes a lot, etc.?

Since he is moulting, I would say the most likely answer is that he just lost those couple of feathers in a very noticeable spot. :)
 

Gibbey07

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The only thing I can think of is he is sick and losing flight feathers (typically am illness and a deficiency is involved) or the cage is too smal..

Is he active?

How big is his cage? (length and width?)
I'm not exactly sure, but I'll have to measure it and post in on here later, but it was the second to largest budgie cage at petsmart....He is active. Hes been playing and eating fine. The vet said that it is likely that he is molting, but I'm going to bring him in on Tuesday anyway.
 

Gibbey07

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If he is moulting then it is highly likely that he just moulted out those feathers. :)

One of my budgies, Monster, moults out most of her flight feathers all at once! I have no idea why because it leaves her unable to fly at all. :rolleyes:

Does he show any other signs of illness? Sitting in one spot, fluffed up, not eating, closing eyes a lot, etc.?

Since he is moulting, I would say the most likely answer is that he just lost those couple of feathers in a very noticeable spot. :)
He seems fine. He sings in the morning and plays all day and is eating fine. He's not fluffed up or anything...but I'm going to take him in anyway just to be sure.
 

atvchick95

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He is only 3 or 4 months old...I think....yeah he seems to be molting...I was sweeping today and it was like a little tornado of feathers, but you can't see his skin anywhere
budgies have their 1st molt between 4-6 months of age, This maybe all it is. but keep an eye on him. and budgies grow feathers back rather quickly (at least mine seem to) so in a couple weeks they should be back. or at least starting to come back in

they (along with most parrots i do believe) molt in increments they don't loose all their feathers at once. some only molt out one or 2 wing/tail feathers then they grow back and a couple others molt out and new ones grow back in and so on
 
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