"Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

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Betrue2yurself
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"Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

Post by Betrue2yurself » Wed Jan 07, 2015 6:19 pm

I noticed one of my birds looking like this with what I guess would be "loose" feathers. I say loose feathers because I don't know how else to describe it. Slowly the rest of my birds are looking like this - the pic is of a juvenile but the adult birds look the same. Some have somewhat droopy wings... Any ideas as to what can be causing this? Should I be concerned?
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Opaline Fallow Bourke's Parakeet

We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle

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Betrue2yurself
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Re: "Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

Post by Betrue2yurself » Wed Jan 07, 2015 6:35 pm

I was just thinking. Could this be due to the colder weather? They are housed indoors but it is a bit cooler now that it's winter.
Mark

Gouldians
Opaline Fallow Bourke's Parakeet

We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle

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Betrue2yurself
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Re: "Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

Post by Betrue2yurself » Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:40 pm

Here is one of my adults.
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Opaline Fallow Bourke's Parakeet

We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle

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dan78
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Re: "Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

Post by dan78 » Thu Jan 08, 2015 12:26 am

Well very possible cooler weather will make birds ruffle up as this is a way to keep warm also it could be getting time to moult which all birds get a bit down at this time lathargic ruffled up feathers and sleeping a bit more. Before you try any mess have a heat lamp available and see how they react with this so tight feathers then will suggest the cooler change in climate.

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Re: "Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

Post by finchandlovebird » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:50 am

I think it's just molting
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Raised Gouldians & Scarlet Chested Parakeets in past years

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lovezebs
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Re: "Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

Post by lovezebs » Thu Jan 08, 2015 11:02 pm

Betrue2yurse

They are starting to molt.
Need excellent diet now, rich in eggs, vegetables, crushed freeze dried meal worms, very good seed mix, multi vitamins, crushed egg shells, fortified grit and cuttle bone.



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Re: "Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

Post by Betrue2yurself » Mon Jan 19, 2015 2:47 pm

They are not molting. It also seemed to have spread from bird to bird. Initially only one bird looked like this and now all of them do. Any ideas?
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Opaline Fallow Bourke's Parakeet

We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle

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MiaCarter
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Re: "Loose" feathers and slightly drooping wings

Post by MiaCarter » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:36 pm

That's really odd.

I was going to say that she looks like a juvenile, and one of my gouldian juveniles looks exactly the same. Sydney has little wispies under her wings, right on her flanks. If she l lifts her wings and replaces them down again, the wispies get tamped down. Then she hops around a bit and they work their way out again.

Sydney's older siblings had the same, but it disappeared as they've molted.

I have a couple others and some others do have a bit of fluff in the same spot - on the sides, just below the wings. But that's how they always look. I suspect it's just the angle at which the feathers grow.

Of course when they're sick, cold or stressed, they fluff up a bit. And feather-related changes occur during molting.
Is there any stressor that could upset them? If not and if everyone is acting well, eating and drinking, then I'd chalk it up to molting.
Sometimes, we become aware of something and then we see that thing everywhere, whereas before we didn't notice it.
Humum to....
13 Zebra Finches....and 2 squeeps!
3 Society Finches
6 Gouldians
1 Weaver
1 Pintail Whydah
2 Cockatiels
2 Parakeets

....along with 1 MinPin, 1 Pug, 1 JRT, 1 Yorkie, 2 Chihuahuas and 15 cats.


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