FINCHforum

I purchased this BH/PB/BB cock this weekend. The breeder said that he was completing his juvenile molt and that his feathers would fill in nicely when he completed his juvenile molt. Now that I look at him more closely I am wondering if maybe he is more bald than he should be.

He is now in quarantine and will get treated with S76, ronivet, worm away, and TMP-Sulfa as part of this quarantine. He is being fed with seeds sprinkled with feather fast and feather fast is also sprinkled on his egg food/veggie mix.
My questions are:
1) Is this a normal appearance for the later part of juvenile molt?
2) If it's not normal will his quarantine procedure and food/feather fast diet fix the problem?

thanks
Lori

Absolutely not normal IMHO. I hope they work to fix him up. Is he banded?

He is not banded. Is there anything else I can do to fix him up?
Lori

Sounds like you're doing everything I would do - eggfood & feather fast. Maybe vits in the water once in a while. Best wishes. I just hope it's not an older bird. How do his legs/feet appear?

If you can contact the breeder maybe trade for another
Other than that it looks like you trying the foods and supplements maybe give some extra heat at one end of cage Good luck

Well, I can't comment on the age of your bird, but if it makes you feel better, I had a female Gouldian that looked even worse than your male - mine had zero feathers on her head (the poor thing looked like a hideous vulture). After giving her a very rich diet and tender loving care, she grew her head feathers slowly and she is now a beautiful BH-PB-GB now. I hope you received a discount on that male as there's no excuse to be selling a bird in that condition. Good luck and don't lose hope. I've been in your situation and the feathers should come in just fine - it just takes time.

Doesn't look like a juvenile molt to me - looks like a bald adult
I don't see any baby feathers at all..

With proper nutrition hopefully he'll go into a normal molt quickly and reproduce the feathers he's lost.

Thanks for the encouragement. I did get a discount and I think I kinda knew this wasn't normal but I have a thing for down-trodden animals! Anyway, here are photos of the feet, the wing feathers and the whole body. Any ideas about whether this bird is a juvenile would be appreciated. That would bother me more than an unusual molt as it means I was lied to. I want to breed this bird and if its old then that might not work. As for getting better I have plenty of time to let this bird grow its feathers out. I am throwing every type of nutrition I can think of at it. Its quite active and doesn't seem to know that its not as beautiful as the usual gouldian.





Thanks
Lori

I'm going to go with an adult going through a molt :/

I would say no more than 2 years old at the most - the legs/feet look very good to me.

Well after three weeks of egg food, veggies, good seed, feather fast and a lamp over part of the cage he is starting to get pin feathers in his face and his wings! The ear holes are almost completely covered now. Should I expect him to undergo a complete molt or just sort of fill in what he was missing? Anyway, I am very happy to see him improve . I will try to post a photo of where he is today.
thanks,
Lori

Good news for sure