Iyanden
Checking out the neighborhood
- Joined
- 1/30/21
- Messages
- 3
Hi everyone. New here, and I was hoping to get some advice about my female (~1.5 year old) eclectus that's been clipping her feathers. Long story, so bear with me.
My wife and I got her from a well-known local pet store two Thanksgivings ago. She was still on formula at the time, and she stayed on formula for a while. We eventually switched her over to a mix of soaked monkey biscuit with various blended veggies and fruits. She would eat 3-4 of those mixes and some safflower seeds a day until around summer of last year. We then slowly reduced the number of monkey biscuit to 1-2, replaced by carrot/yam, farro, and beans. She would still get her usual blend of veggies/fruits. In October, she clipped all of her chest feathers over the course of a few days, to the point where it was just the underneath gray fluffs. The owner of the pet store recommended an avian vet 2 hours away, and we went to see that vet. All tests came clean. After reviewing everything, the vet thought we didn't wash her enough and recommended keeping humidity above 40.
So we tried to do that, washing her almost daily and running humidifiers, especially when the humidity outside was low. She seemed okay for the last few months, but there weren't really any feathers to clip anymore. Fast forward to earlier this month, a bunch of her feathers are growing, and she starts clipping them. She also is developing some bald spots around her beak, eyes, and back of her head - looks very similar to mojo molt pictures. We checked in with the vet again, and she recommended an elimination diet (that consists of just rice and supplements/vitamins) to make sure it's not some food sensitivity. We tried the diet, but she basically refused to eat. So we tried a more expanded version of it with (all organic) brown rice, carrot, blueberries, and 20 safflower seeds. She seemed a little better for a few days, but she's clipped all last week. With all the new feathers that are growing, I'm a little worried she doesn't have enough protein.
Besides the clipping, she's seemed mostly normal. She tears apart her toys, flies around a bit daily, sits on our computers when we work, and "talks" for anywhere between 15 minutes to 2 hours a day. While on this rice, carrot, and blueberries diet, she has shown much more food motivation (sometimes flying to the kitchen whenever she sees one of us in there), talked less, and appears sleepy (long blinks) sometimes during the day.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? Is it just a really bad molt? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
My wife and I got her from a well-known local pet store two Thanksgivings ago. She was still on formula at the time, and she stayed on formula for a while. We eventually switched her over to a mix of soaked monkey biscuit with various blended veggies and fruits. She would eat 3-4 of those mixes and some safflower seeds a day until around summer of last year. We then slowly reduced the number of monkey biscuit to 1-2, replaced by carrot/yam, farro, and beans. She would still get her usual blend of veggies/fruits. In October, she clipped all of her chest feathers over the course of a few days, to the point where it was just the underneath gray fluffs. The owner of the pet store recommended an avian vet 2 hours away, and we went to see that vet. All tests came clean. After reviewing everything, the vet thought we didn't wash her enough and recommended keeping humidity above 40.
So we tried to do that, washing her almost daily and running humidifiers, especially when the humidity outside was low. She seemed okay for the last few months, but there weren't really any feathers to clip anymore. Fast forward to earlier this month, a bunch of her feathers are growing, and she starts clipping them. She also is developing some bald spots around her beak, eyes, and back of her head - looks very similar to mojo molt pictures. We checked in with the vet again, and she recommended an elimination diet (that consists of just rice and supplements/vitamins) to make sure it's not some food sensitivity. We tried the diet, but she basically refused to eat. So we tried a more expanded version of it with (all organic) brown rice, carrot, blueberries, and 20 safflower seeds. She seemed a little better for a few days, but she's clipped all last week. With all the new feathers that are growing, I'm a little worried she doesn't have enough protein.
Besides the clipping, she's seemed mostly normal. She tears apart her toys, flies around a bit daily, sits on our computers when we work, and "talks" for anywhere between 15 minutes to 2 hours a day. While on this rice, carrot, and blueberries diet, she has shown much more food motivation (sometimes flying to the kitchen whenever she sees one of us in there), talked less, and appears sleepy (long blinks) sometimes during the day.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? Is it just a really bad molt? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!