FINCHforum

Hi everyone,

Just posting to ask if anyone knows whats going on with my red headed cock, Elvis. He lost his tail completely (we thought in a stoush when he was new to our aviary about 6 months ago). He has been having a good long moult and now he is growing his tail back but quite a few of them!
I watch him a while and he seems to be bothered by it and preens a lot more than I think is normal.

Any ideas? Thanks and Merry Xmas,

Brenden

Could be a supressed molt which sometimes can occur in mutations. I cant see the tail from the back but if you spread the wing feathers, a supressed molt will be evident from their uneven development. If this is the case, iodine supplementation in the water usually fixes the problem as does balanced nutrition. From the photos this seems to be a very nice set up with birds in top condition. It is possible to have one bird only not molt correctly and by your your comment about over preening the tail area my guess would be that this is the case. A pic of the bird from the back might help with suggestions.

Maybe the feather follicles were damaged when he lost all of his tail?
Very interesting and Elvis looks pretty proud those feathers

Thanks so far for you helpful replies. Something to add - do you think there is any correlation with his very long (and somewhat yellow) toenails. I am now worried I have "over supplemented" their diets though all others in aviary are better than ever. My yellow back red headed male and orange headed normal male have had a rough time this year - both almost bald. I went on a mission of getting them good - many $$$ on vet bills (we cannot acquire ivermectin without a visit to the vet here in Australia) and I have been almost chef-like in their food preps. Calcium by way of crushed cuttle, powdered kelp and water supplements among their seed and vegies. They have been on a molting aid in their water during their current molt.
I thought maybe due to the really long toenails that I may have over done the vitamins etc? Any thoughts and thanks again to the above comments.

Just as an aside - we take our Gouldian care very seriously, they are out pets - even though we are simply lovers of them, not breeders as such (though we have had great success with strong young chicks, just now in full adult feather and are spectacular). I very much appreciated the above comment about the apparent condition of part of our flock you can see in the photo. When I showed my partner, we both smiled widely at the comment. We have tried so hard to bring our bald little vultures back from their predicament and we succeeded. I imagine many of you out there understand the feeling! Thanks again.

BAFinch wrote:Thanks so far for you helpful replies. Something to add - do you think there is any correlation with his very long (and somewhat yellow) toenails. I am now worried I have "over supplemented" their diets though all others in aviary are better than ever. My yellow back red headed male and orange headed normal male have had a rough time this year - both almost bald. I went on a mission of getting them good - many $$$ on vet bills (we cannot acquire ivermectin without a visit to the vet here in Australia) and I have been almost chef-like in their food preps. Calcium by way of crushed cuttle, powdered kelp and water supplements among their seed and vegies. They have been on a molting aid in their water during their current molt.
I thought maybe due to the really long toenails that I may have over done the vitamins etc? Any thoughts and thanks again to the above comments.

Just as an aside - we take our Gouldian care very seriously, they are out pets - even though we are simply lovers of them, not breeders as such (though we have had great success with strong young chicks, just now in full adult feather and are spectacular). I very much appreciated the above comment about the apparent condition of part of our flock you can see in the photo. When I showed my partner, we both smiled widely at the comment. We have tried so hard to bring our bald little vultures back from their predicament and we succeeded. I imagine many of you out there understand the feeling! Thanks again.

I have about 40 gouldians, all normals. I give very little in the way of supplementation except for normal cuttle bone-grits etc.About the only supplement I use is calcium water soluble for egg production, 3 times pw.You can get moxidectin from the Australian Pigeon Company in Melbourne-just google it-and they will post it to you. Good food is everything-so I rely mostly on that.If you pm me I will give you a full list of my feeding and supplement regime and all else, which for me has been very successful for me. No problems so far. I meant it about the birds-they look in wonderful condition.

BAFinch wrote:Thanks so far for you helpful replies. Something to add - do you think there is any correlation with his very long (and somewhat yellow) toenails. I am now worried I have "over supplemented" their diets though all others in aviary are better than ever. My yellow back red headed male and orange headed normal male have had a rough time this year - both almost bald. I went on a mission of getting them good - many $$$ on vet bills (we cannot acquire ivermectin without a visit to the vet here in Australia) and I have been almost chef-like in their food preps. Calcium by way of crushed cuttle, powdered kelp and water supplements among their seed and vegies. They have been on a molting aid in their water during their current molt.
I thought maybe due to the really long toenails that I may have over done the vitamins etc? Any thoughts and thanks again to the above comments.

Just as an aside - we take our Gouldian care very seriously, they are out pets - even though we are simply lovers of them, not breeders as such (though we have had great success with strong young chicks, just now in full adult feather and are spectacular). I very much appreciated the above comment about the apparent condition of part of our flock you can see in the photo. When I showed my partner, we both smiled widely at the comment. We have tried so hard to bring our bald little vultures back from their predicament and we succeeded. I imagine many of you out there understand the feeling! Thanks again.

I forgot to mention-do you have plents of large/thick branches in th eaviary. I can only seem slim ones from the pic. Branches that allow finches to curl the toenaill completely around the branch encourage long toenails because they dont get worn down. I had this problem with my orange breasted waxbills. Thick rough eucalypt and melaleuca branches sorted it out. The nail colour is ok expecially for your mutation mix

Many thanks Kenny, love to PM you but doesn't seem to let me. Send to me on brengun76@hotmail.com if you can. Thanks very much.

BAFinch wrote:Many thanks Kenny, love to PM you but doesn't seem to let me. Send to me on brengun76@hotmail.com if you can. Thanks very much.

Hi I sent you an email to your email address above

Kenny

Hi Kenny, I have no email. Can you recheck and re-send?
Many thanks

BAFinch wrote:Hi Kenny, I have no email. Can you recheck and re-send?
Many thanks

Hi
I sent it to brengun76@hotmail.com
Mine is
strategiccoms@bigpond.com-I will resend the emails again but you might like to nsend one to my email address

Looking forward to hearing from you

BAFinch wrote:Hi Kenny, I have no email. Can you recheck and re-send?
Many thanks

i have just resent