FINCHforum

Found one of my gouldian females acting a bit weird today. She seams restless and constantly keeps looking at her belly or feet (I dont now if this is what she is actually doing, but it looks like she is looking down between her legs). She also seams a bit uncomfortable on her feet... hard to explain.

At first I thought about twirling, but Im not sure at all... have you ever had any experience with this? She might be a bit thinner than normal, but than again I might just see things because Im worried.

She is about one and a half year old.

Could she possibly have a fine hair entangled around a foot or ankle? They might be a small gnat bothering her.

Ill go check right away.....

I cant see anything stuck to her feets, but she seams really botherd, like there is something itching or so. Do you think it could be some kind of feather mites or scaly mites? If so, this is a first for me... Her feathers look sharp and her legs look normal. I havent brought any new pearches in for quite some time.

I do have som sort of mite spray called dyna-mite... but I have never used it before...

She may be producing an egg inside her... I imagine that is a tad uncomfortable Is she with a male who could have mated with her... this could also make them preoccupied with what is between their legs
Could be constipation...is their any tail pumping?

She is no longer with any males... I separated them by sex about 3-4 weeks ago to try that out. Looks like there is something bothering her, like a bug or something, but she doesent pick at it with her beak just shakes her legs and jumps around, as if its something biteing her... kind of hard to explain other than that she is normal.

Are there any other birds in the same cage as her? Any of the others showing similar symptoms?

Yes she is housed together with 4 other female goulds. The others dont show any signs of illness what so ever.

Strange... are there different type perches that she may be spooked by?
Maybe examine her feet closely for a sore on the them, a splinter?
Maybe just dried leg skin... maybe offer bath or even massage them with mineral oil (no perfume like in baby oil) Also care must be taken not to get oil on the feathers... this will make the bird not be able to regulate her body temperature due to loss of insulation from the feathers.
I do this with my canaries when they pick at their feet and legs...seems to give them some comfort.

Thanks!
I will catch her tomorrow and check her out a bit closer... I hope it will go away
If I were to explain it, she looks at her belly or upper legs and when she has done that she kind of get "affraid" (at least it looks like she has seen something she is affraid of) or shakes her legs and jumps around on the spot a bit... She do it pretty often but not all the time.

About the perches... she is used to them, they are not really new in the cage so it would be a bit weird if she got spooked by them all of the suddeln.

I will try to put some oil on her leggs and see if it sooths her...

So I catched her last night after work and examined her leggs and belly closer. She is starting to lose some feathers on her belly but her leggs seams okey. Where the feathers are lost it looks like some new ones are on the way, but not sure.

Could all of this be that she is going in to the moult and it itches when the new feathers are comming out? But she doesent preen her belly like they usualy do when new feathers arive, just looks at it and then freakes out I havent seen this behaivior in any of the other birds and her cage mates are all fine. I tried to se if her feathers seamd eaten by feather mites, but not that I can se. The skinn on her belly looks intact and not really soar. She is active and eating.

I put her in the hospital cage just in case... but still no clue to what it could be

If you saw pin feathers on her belly, it could of been they were pricking her. Or just a little bit of discomfort from poking through the skin.

She is looking more scruffy today... loosing more feathers on her belly... she seams to be losing feathers in two vertical lines down on eatch side of her belly. Still eating and apears active. I hope its just a moult that produces this behaiviour, but I will keep her separated just in case.

Can you post a picture of the area? Someone might be able to help identify it that way.

I decided to put her back with the other ladies today. She is acting normal and the belly thing has decreased to almost nothing. I examined her before I put her back and noticed a bunch of new pin feathers on her belly, so I would think that thats what made her unconfortable. Its probably about right time for her to moult now, just that I havent seen any of the other birds do this before and I got a little scared thinking of all the horrible things that could be wrong

Sorry I couldnt post any pics of her... my husband is away this week and I tried to do it myself with her in one hand and the camera in the other and she escaped 3 times... and I used about every single bad word you can think of and than gave up