Jardine Parrot losing feathers on wings... pictures inside. Cause?

[raven13]

Hello all. My Jardine Parrot of 8 years of age is suddenly losing his feathers on his wings. It's happened suddenly in the last week and I'm pretty nervous. I've never noticed this before so I'm pretty concerned. I did a lot of searches on Google and came up with dozens of possibilities as to why it's happening, but I was hoping someone here who's experienced this before might be able to shed some light on it for me before I see my vet. As for my birds living conditions, his cage is cleaned frequently, has a large water bowl just for bathing and I feed him Bird Paradise Ultimate Blend food (Paradise Ultimate Blend - BIRD PARADISE BLENDS by Bird Paradise). Any thoughts or insight are app appreciated in advance!

 

[Greycloud]

Welcome to the Avenue! He appears to be plucking. He needs to see an avian vet for a full blood work up and skin scraping to rule several things out before determining if it is behavioral. His beak looks like it needs some attention too.

 

[TextsFromParrots]

His beak looks a little odd as well. Can you get a better picture of it? I'd definitely say avian vet as well. They should be able to do a work up and let you know if it's something physically going on or not.

 

[kcbee]

It does look like he's plucking. Definitely go see an avian vet for a full work up and see if there is a medical reason for the plucking.

Does he have a lot of toys and out of cage time?

 

[Marlene]

Best of luck. I hope your baby will be fine. Do you have an avian vet?

 

[Mizzely]

Another vote for the vet! He looks like he is plucking, but it may be a medical issue that is causing him to do it. I also agree, that the beak looks a bit off.

 

[Macawnutz]

Looks like plucking to me as well. Could be a handful of different reasons why. Could be medical, could be behavorial. A trip to an avian vet is a must. After that you can determine things like boredom and such.

 

[Milo]

His beak does look odd... are you only feeding him that sort of food? Sometimes beak deformities like that can be caused by a vitamin deficiency

 

[Jazzysmama]

I was also going to ask if that is his sole diet. Do you feed fresh fruits and veggies? Any kind of pellet? A bored bird will also pluck. I'd love to see a better pic of that beak, it doesn't look good to me. I'd get an avian vet appt. and go asap., I agree it needs a full lab workup.

 

[crzybrdldy]

You want to rule out anything medical so a vet visit should be the first line of business.

Once you have concluded that your bird isn't sick then you can start to weed out the other reasons for him to be plucking. Are you sure your fid is male?

Let us know what you find out.

 

[raven13]

Thanks for the advice everybody. In a nut shell... I was so frantic about what was going on I found someone near me who has an avian specialty. I walked into her office and there were parrots all over the place, real ones, so I knew I was in the right place. She came to the conclusion it's likely a behavioral issue. He's only plucking feathers he can get to... the feathers on his head are completely fine, his beak is okay too. A little rough but healthy. She did some swabs of his wings and other areas affected and they all came back with no trace of bacteria, as well as a stool sample. She said to be absolutely sure bloodwork would rule out anything else, but it doesn't appear, based on the tests she did, that there's anything medical to worry about at this point. I concurred, especially after a quote on the bloodwork. She said to keep an eye on him and if anything changes (runny poop, acts lethargic or other changes in normal behavior) to bring him back right away for bloodwork. In the meantime, I built him a foraging tree, a good one too, and inserted some other new goodies into his cage to keep him occupied. There have been some changes in my household recently... my fiance moved in and she's 23 weeks pregnant... so that could be why he's acting strange. At least according to the vet I saw. As a side note, I have another bird and he's fine. Loud, but fine.

Thanks again everyone for your advice!