FINCHforum

I have a 4 yr old female house sparrow who is missing most of the feathers on both of her legs. I'd say it's progressed slowly over the last half of the year. She's on a pelleted diet, but since I'm away at college most of the time, she doesn't get much else, save the occasional mealworm. She's kept singly, so it's not plucking by another bird. I was wondering if anyone else had a similar experience with any other passerine, and if the problem is health-related (a deficiency), age-related, or behavioral?

Not familiar with care for caged house sparrows--lots of them in the yard, but they are literally pests around the feeders. Is the bird 4, or have you had it 4 years? I'm not a great fan of pelleted diets--to me, the more natural (within reason) the diet, the happier and healthier the bird. Birds forage for their food, and eat a great variety of things, so to me, all pellets would be like eating oatmeal 3 times a day every day. If you are away, someone else must be doing the care-taking. Can they offer the bird some chopped up fresh veggies each day? It only needs a small amount. A good finch seed mix, mineral mix, and whatever fresh veggies/fruits it will eat, and I think you would see a huge difference. Since you aren't there, a commercial dry eggfood would give protein to replace those feathers.

The sparrow is 4 years old, I've had her since she was about 10 days. I hand-fed her and she's quite tame. I can try with the veggies, she eats just about anything, and when I'm home, I usually give her fruit and greens. My mom takes care of the birds when I'm away at college, and I feel bad asking her to do more. There's a mineral block in the cage as well. I try giving her mealworms for protein, but if you think eggfood would work as well, I can try that too. I know parrots can be feather pluckers, so I was curious if it might have a behavioral component as well. I remember reading something about baldness in finches being a sign of iodine deficiency, and it would be nice to pinpoint it a little better, but maybe that's not the case.

I second all of what Sally said...house sparrows are VERY opportunistic little buggers in the wild and will eat, as you said, just about anything. I had a male house sparrow who had pretty much free-range of my apartment, and he was on a primarily seed diet, with lots of fruits and veggies added, especially if we were eating them at the time. He got the occasional mealworm or cricket, since we have reptiles that eat them.

I would bet that her balding legs are diet-related. Mix things up! Even though I haven't heard of feather plucking in house sparrows, there's no reason you shouldn't give her some new play items in her cage. Raffia is a fun one, so is wild grass with seeds still attached. Cricket liked to shred up flowers when I brought them in for him --dandelions from unsprayed areas are safe. Have you ever tried putting in a dish of dust or sand for her to bathe in? House sparrows absolutely adore dust bathing and will even bathe on other things like towels, cardboard, and plastic (Cricket tried all of these....weird little bird). They also appreciate having a bowl of tepid water around. I don't know if this is typical, but if given the chance, Cricket probably bathed about every other day.

I could probably suggest some other cool/beneficial things you could do for your sparrow, definitely feel free to ask any other questions.