Two birds can't fly

ann · Post by **ann** » Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:11 pm

Last week one of my female gouldians was injured. I noticed a lot of feathers under the cage, and she wasn't able to fly. She was not puffed up or sick looking at all. I moved the food and water to where she can easliy reach them, and for the last week she has spent all her time on one perch. Other than not flying, she looks lively. Right after this happened, I went out and bought a blue light, and it gets turned on at sunset and off at dawn. In the past they have had night frights, and I thought this was probably the cause.

This morning I woke up to the same thing, with a male gouldian in another cage. Several long feathers were on the floor and lots of downy feathers. He looks healthy and lively, but he can't fly either. Does anyone have any idea of what is going on here?

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Tue Mar 21, 2017 11:09 pm

Moulting?

ann · Post by **ann** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 12:04 am

Definitely not molting.

debbie276 · Post by **debbie276** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 4:39 am

If this is happening at night, could it possibly be that a mouse is getting to them? If it's not molting it sounds like something is either grabbing their feathers and pulling them out or scaring them enough that they bang around in the cage and dislodge them.

Hope you can figure this out, good luck

ann · Post by **ann** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 10:21 am

I've never had a mouse in the house, but I guess anything is possible. Before I set traps (and hurt myself) I'm going to leave some mouse treats out tonight and see if they are eaten. Thanks for the suggestion.

debbie276 · Post by **debbie276** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 10:55 am

Good luck

lem2bert · Post by **lem2bert** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 11:14 am

ann

Have you seen any mouse droppings in or around the cages ?

The birds came from different cages, were there any other birds in there with them ?

Hope you can find a solution !!

ann · Post by **ann** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:02 pm

lem2bert

I've never seen any mouse droppings, or any evidence of a mouse. But I'm not ruling anything out. The birds are in different cages, the female had a male in with her and the other gouldian had 2 birds in with him. Everyone else is fine. I put a little dish of peanut butter out this morning, we'll see if anyone takes a bite.

Post by **lovezebs** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:11 pm

ann

That's an odd one....

Did you have any results with the mouse treats?

As was already mentioned, I would think something is scaring them half out of their minds for them to lose so many feathers that they are unable to fly.

I noticed that you have a pup, does he have access to the bird room at night? Is there a kitty as well by any chance?

I ask, because some years ago, one of my kitties, was stalking my birds at night. One Zebra girl was injured but survived ( at the time, I'd thought she'd been injured by another Zebra). Then my Shaft tail female, was horribly injured, and due to the injury and the evidence, I finally put two and two together, and realized it was the cat sticking her claws between the bars of one of my flights (sadly my lady Shaft tail succumed to her injuries).

Have you checked their wings, to see if it's only feather loss, and not a more serious injury?

isobea · Post by **isobea** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:49 pm

ann - I wish I had an answer for you but everything that comes to mind has already been mentioned by other members. When I had a pair of gouldians in the house (before my aviary was finished) I used to occasionally hear them freaking out in the middle of the night, banging around in their cage. But in the mornings they looked - and acted - quite alright. Never any loss of feathers or any kind of injury. This is really puzzling. And why would whatever the cause is, only affect the gouldians?
Iso

PS: Have you taken any pictures of what it looks like in the morning?

lem2bert · Post by **lem2bert** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 4:11 pm

lem2bert

very odd that it would be one bird in each cage .... $:-\$

wildbird · Post by **wildbird** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 11:07 pm

Do you have a light on at night? Sometimes a bird gets a night fright and if there isn't a light on can be injured.

ann · Post by **ann** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 12:03 am

Lovezebs - I do have a dog, but he's not allowed upstairs. The stairs are gated, so he couldn't go up even if he wanted to. I would like to check the wings, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Any suggestions?
The peanut butter wasn't touched today, but if there are mice, don't they mostly come out at night?

Iso - I don't have pictures of what it looked like, but I can tell you there was a little pile of downy feathers and 4 to 5 long feathers. My birds have had night frights before, and the feathers were scattered, not in a neat little pile.

lem2bert - yes, it is very strange that only one bird in each cage was hurt. I think this kind of goes along with the mouse theory.

wildbird - I bought a blue light the day after the first incident, and it goes on at dusk and off when it's light. No more dark nights for my birds!

isobea · Post by **isobea** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 12:31 am

ann - This is the craziest thing. With downy feathers and long feathers and finding them in a pile, it almost seems like somebody ripped them out. I've had birds in my aviary drop all their tail feathers at the same time after a hawk attacked the aviary, but even then there were no downy feathers.
Can you catch each bird and spread out each of their wings to see if the long feathers came from the same wing? Or some from each wing? They don't look like tail feathers, do they?
I really have no idea if any of this is going to help us solve this mystery. Just trying to think outside the box.
Iso

w.l. · Post by **w.l.** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 8:44 am

I've had this happen, too.
First a flowerpecker, then a bulbul lost several long wing feathers overnight, with the feathers lying on the bottom of the cage. I can't see how a night fright could lead to losing such feathers.
The birds these happened to were the only ones to lose feathers in cages containing several birds.
They regrew the feathers normally

The cause is still a mistery to me.

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