Gold Breast Waxbills - A constant state of "Fluff".

[Waxbilllover]

I have 5 Gold Breast waxbills that have been in a constant fluffed up appearence since early July. They give the appearence of being ill being somewhat lethargic and sitting low on the perches often with a head tucked under a wing even in the middle of the day. Two of the males especially appear quite ill and seem to crave heat sitting on top of the bird cage that covers the oil-filled heater in the aviary. Three of the five GoldBreasts are less than a year old having hatched back in February. The parents appear more healthy than the three chicks. During the time they resided in the bird breeding room they were molting quite heavilly and at that time they seemed to crave the heat as well, sitting on the flight cage floor where I had placed a heating pad under the tray under the cage grate.The birds continued to shed feathers for over four monthes. Now the birds are out in my Community Aviary but not really improving appearence-wise. I have taken three of the birds in to the avian vet over the last three monthes for health checks and at least three bird poop gram stain tests have been done from three different birds to check for infection and parasites.All tests have come back negative for any kind of disease or parisite. The birds would have surely died by now if it were any thing as serious as camphyfactor or coccidiosis. The avian vet thought that they might be harboring some kind of protazoan that did not show up on the gram stain tests and suggested a 7 day course of Ronivet S 12% which I have administered to them back in October. Did not seem to make any difference. They were also on a 10 day course of Doxycycline back in mid July. They have also had a course of Ivermectin in between the other treatments. Nothing seemed to help their condition. Whatever is affecting them does not appear contagious as the other finches in the aviary seem to be quite healthy. The Gold Breasts seem to be eating and drinking well and will vocalize quite loudly in the early morning at dawn and again in the evening just before lights out. Could their condition be diet related and an indication of something lacking? They get a varied diet with the standard finch seed mix as well as suppplements of Lafebares pellet food , Goldy quicko insect food, and dried greens like alfalfa and herbs from Higgins. They also get canned mini meal worms from time to time as a treat as well as occasional fresh wild grass seed heads which they seem to love. Any thoughts as to what their condition could be atributed to? Should I add more fresh greens to their diet or supplement with a vitamin formula ? They have plenty of calcium supplements on hand with access to cuttlebone , crushed oyster shell and eggshell in seperate cups. Any suggestions appreciated,Randy.

[Sally]

That is odd that they have not improved in all this time. The one thing I would add to their diet is homemade eggfood (or dry commercial). The amount of molting they did would make me think they might be low on protein right now, since they need a lot of protein to make feathers.

[breeze]

I hope your birds get better.