Poor Sugar!

[dfcauley]

This is Sugar. She is the mate to Sunshine. This happened last year when when had two clutches. This time she has had one.....

I don't know... she looks worse than she is. Poor thing! She appears to be quite healthy, tight feathered and very active. I really don't know what to do for her. Last time she molted and came back beautifully! She is certainly lacking something, but everything she would need is made available for her.

[L in Ontario]

Wow - the poor girl! I wonder if it could be a genetic thing since it's not related to diet...? Is that possible?

[CandoAviary]

Oh my, maybe a hormonal thing? Did it happen quickly?
I am sure with the molt she will feather up again.

[dfcauley]

I don't know.... but I am going to retire her I think and not let her breed anymore. It only happens after raising a clutch.

I told my husband he has to get busy on our addition...... fast!

[Finch Fry]

Personally, I cant help, only offer what I know. Before my gould balded on the head (only the head) like this, I was offering powdered kelp daily + rich fatty and high protein foods every morning. Talked to quite a few people from the forums, Larrain from LGF and one other doctor vet guy for birds via email. Here are the different opinions I got.

1. Not enough iodine. Since they can get it free of choice, you have no clue if in fact she is getting ANY at all. So this is quite possible. The solution here is to catch her, put her in a hospital cage and give her water with iodine in it for a day. This forces her to have to get some into her system. Probably have to do it once a week for a few weeks too.

2. Too much iodine. Too much of this can kill the bird. (not sure I agree with the feather loss but i do agree it can kill the bird if it takes in too much... i just dont see it losing feathers first before dieing)

3. If a gould is stimulated to breed before it has properly completed its molt or immediately after finishing its molt, the result could be this. It has to do with vitamin deficiencies and not having proper nutrition in its system. Coming out of a molt it needs a bit of time to work up the vitamins in its system to breed. Sometimes in an open aviary like that, with lots of high protein and fatty foods available at all times, they get stimulated to breed right away. The result is they burn their energy on breeding instead of taking proper care of themselves and fall back into a semi molt.

In the end, I dont know what was wrong with my birds but here are the actions I took. The result was a fully feathered and happy bird inside of 2 months. I stopped offering a fatty and high protein diet daily and switched to mainly seeds with small eggfood offering until I wanted him to breed again. I stopped offering powdered kelp daily and switched to once weekly. He started growing pin feathers inside of 2 weeks of this. He was fully feathered in about 2 months.
Also to note, the entire time, the bird showed NO signs of illness aside from lost head feathers.

GL!

[dfcauley]

Thanks Chris. I would say out of those it would possibly be number 3......

I am going to see what I need to do to help her feather back. She really does appear to be fine. As I said.... she looks worse than it is.

[Pukasand]

God love her. That looks like one of those pictures that has the caption: "You should see the other guy!". In fact, I think I kinda resembled her after my last child........ same 'hairdo' .

[cindy]

I found this, I don't know it it will help. Poor little girl. Children reak havoc on a mommy's system.

http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/features_molting.mgi

Scroll down to were it talks about feathers being mostly protein.

[dfcauley]

Thank you for sharing that Cindy. I do have Feather Fast and I bought a new jar of it yesterday. I am sprinkling it on the soaked seeds they get each day. I have to give it to all the birds since she is in the aviary with them.

Thanks again!

[MLaRue]

I think allowing her to breed year round is the main problem. She just had a clutch and went on to lay how many more eggs? Sugar needs rest - perhaps a whole year to regain what she has lost being allowed to breed right after molting. The only time she isn't breeding is when she is molting.

I would think this is the main reason and perhaps the only reason she is balding. It takes a lot of reserves to feed and raise clutch after clutch.

[GOULDYGIRL]

Poor Sugar. I hope once she rests her beautiful head feathers will grow back. I noticed lately that my BH hen Daisy who is raising chicks now is starting to get some bald patches on her head. I give her Iodine and Kelp but I think it's hormonal from breeding and laying eggs, etc. She will be on a nice long rest once she finishes weaning her babies.

Hope you finish your extension soon because I know you'll feel better letting her rest in something other then a cage. If only we all were so lucky

Keep us posted,
Renee

[dfcauley]

Thanks Renee. Sugar started out with just a few feather also, but now she is almost bald. Yes.... she has to rest.