FINCHforum

Well, a fledgling that was from a clutch of 4 produced by first time parents. Father RH PB Dilute and Mother RH PB GB. All the siblings are perfectly normal but this one. It is almost 7 weeks old.
I thought maybe deficient diet but the parents fed great and the others look normal. This fellow has really strange colors, really long fluffy feathers, a rosette on his back and just strange. Opinions please


Left side


Right side


Back fluff


Strange tail feathers....


Belly feathers showing color already??? also long breast feathers.


White, yellow and green back/wing feathers


Three colors on the same feather

I would call him a pied frizzle..(I made that up, in case you didn't know). He's very interesting, though. I wish I lived closer to you Candy, you always have interesting birds. I'm curious about how he'll be after his adult molt, and what sort of offspring he'll throw. I like him.

Could be wrong but my first impression is that his/her feathers are very thin. I can see the skin on the belly, could it have been plucked by others?

Judy...pied frizzle....love that I like the term intersting birds as opposed to what I call weirdos You could be my neighbor, lots of properties for sale around here

Debbie,
no he wasn't plucked at all. I had been watching him to make sure he was being fed from his dad. He can't fly too well and his 3 siblings were beating him to the food. I made sure they had plenty and he ate alot of spray millet and eggfood placed on the cage floor.
I recently put him in this cage along with another sibling that got his leg caught and broke in the cage bars I put them on my glassed in Florida room because it is so warm. He does have very sparse feathers. Reminds me of a "french moult" in parakeets. I am hoping that he will get normal feathers as he grows older and moults. He seems to be extremely cold natured...... due to lack of feathers. They are thin everywhere, I figured due to the fact that they are longer than normal. At least 1.5 to 2 times longer than normal breast and belly feathers. He can only fly a little. Though the wing feathers are growing in.

The yellow markings on the primaries suggest to me some kind of deficiency but I'm hard pressed to remember what kind.
I think it can also be related to liver problems..
He does look frizzled though, but since I've had my own experience this year with the stress bars in a clutch that otherwise seemed completely healthy I can't immediately jump to a feather mutation..

If you look at the shoulder feathers you can see a distinct line where the color changes which reminds me of the stress bars I saw on my yellow baby.
It also looks like the feathers are a bit stunted in their development,

I think the rosette on the back is just under feathers showing - I see this in juveniles often

A cutie either way Reminds me of those mix breeds the lab/poodle mix?

I don't think that it is a new feather mutation. I think the bedraggled appearance is cause for concern. His wing feathers are just now growing in and he is very sparsely feathered.
Maybe he does have something wrong with his liver. His siblings have developed normally so I figured the diet was okay. Maybe this one just can't get the nutrition that he needs for some reason.
It really reminds me of 'french moult' as described below in the link. Though he does not have the feather breakage. I have increase the methionine in his diet in the form of spiralina... though his parents have kelp available at all times and also plenty of sunflower kernels, eggs, etc..
http://www.avianweb.com/frenchmolt.html

Thanks Misty, he is cute in his own bedraggled way. I just hope he is healthy.

I've only seen something similar once and it wasn't nearly to this degree - but it was with a clutch of babies I fostered over to societies in an emergency.
I guess the societies were over due for a break though because they pretty much neglected the babies.
I was used to them always doting on them so thought nothing of it, when I went to check why the babies hadn't fledged yet, I found them all malnourished and nearly starving

I ended up taking over the clutch and hand feeding but I ended up losing two or three in the end because their health had suffered too much by the time I found them.
One of the ones that ended up living, though, had these "curly" primary feathers (Misty, do you remember this?).. that ended up molting out perfectly normal after wards

In Robert Black's book he says how not having enough protein will prevent the chick from developing feathers correctly. Maybe this chick didn't beg enough and/or got pushed to the side by it's siblings at feeding time.
Hope it molts out correctly for you

I hope he moults out well also. The diet I beleive is high enough in protein. I also thought maybe he got pushed to the side... His body weight and size are good though. Others that I have seen pushed to the side have always been skinny and small. Anyway, he is flying better today and the feathers are growing more. He is eating well on his own so we will see if he can go from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.... so to say

nixity wrote:I've only seen something similar once and it wasn't nearly to this degree - but it was with a clutch of babies I fostered over to societies in an emergency.
I guess the societies were over due for a break though because they pretty much neglected the babies.
I was used to them always doting on them so thought nothing of it, when I went to check why the babies hadn't fledged yet, I found them all malnourished and nearly starving

I ended up taking over the clutch and hand feeding but I ended up losing two or three in the end because their health had suffered too much by the time I found them.
One of the ones that ended up living, though, had these "curly" primary feathers (Misty, do you remember this?).. that ended up molting out perfectly normal after wards

I remember them starving when you found them but I don't remember the "curly" thing?