FINCHforum

Yikes - if anyone has any idea why or what I can use to help this little female. She is about 5 months old and moulting but she shouldn't be going bald!! She's still very active and eating as normal. Has anyone had this happen to their Parrot Finch?

Liz,

When mine molted they looked awful. They didn't go bald, but just looked terrible. When it was over, they were beautiful. Perhaps give her some feather fast. She isn't being plucked is she?

I watched my male parrot finch yesterday grab hold of another bird and pull out a mouthfull of feathers!

I sure hope he is not plucking her. That would not be cool at all. I'll add Feather Up tomorrow, Donna - thank you. I hope it helps her quickly.

I will probably try it for my Fire Finch female who also lost a lot of feathers - definitely no plucking of that one... she's single... and cold!

I have a female that is pretty bald, when I bought her the breeder told me that her mate had done that and she had seperated them. She grew most back with the exception of some on the back of the nape. She has since bred and is rather bald but otherwise healthy. The male preens her alot... but I have never seen him pull feathers out in a pecking, mean, agressive way. Unless he does it when they are in the nest.
I had one youngster look really rough with her molt but not bald..... I had one youngster slightly bald before seperating them from Dad....the feathers came in right away....I guess Dad was plucking.
I understand that there mating behavior is rough but..........
Where is she bald...on the top of the head or nape of the neck? If so probably from the male plucking.

I would be inclined to think it is plucking also. Their mating rituals are awful. They are sooooo rough! I was shocked the first time I saw it.

They love nesting materials and mine play with it all day long. Steal from other's nest and build everywhere. I have been tempted to get rid of mine, but they are so darn cute!

Well I suppose pictures are worth a thousand words...



Do I have to separate them? I never thought they'd / he'd start being interested at 5 (or 6?) months of age?

I would seperate for a while. I think that the bird is being plucked.
They are notorious for that...... sorry!

I would not let them breed this young. Like gouldians, they are best to be at least 10 months old preferrably a year or older. They will breed younger but you risk problems like being too immature and tossing chicks or eggbinding of the hen or stressing the birds due to thier young age.
It is normal for the male to pluck the female..part of the courtship. My female has ended up with a bald head and no tail feathers, yet she raised perfect clutches and still seems to adore the male

I have no interest or intent to breed them before they are a year old so not nestbox til December - no problem there. Thanks for letting me know about yours too, Dianne. If it gets much worse I'll separate them but I don't really want to.

Liz...... I suspect the male is the one doing the plucking. PF males begin sexually active behavior around 5 or 6 months of age and can be very aggressive with hens. You will need to separate her from the male until you are ready to breed them or he will continue his aggressive behavior of chasing her in an attempt to mate and have her bald in short time.

I have some young red throated birds that I am in the process of dividing up this morning because of the same problem. Seagreens and Forbs are on eggs and Blueface have babies in the nest so will be setting up extra holding cages this week.

Guess you would have to say that Parrot finch love is "rough" love since the hens sooner or later will end up plucked during the mating season.

Okay, then can I put the male in with male juvenile Gouldians colouring up and put the female in a double-flight with males/female Gouldian juvies? The Parrot finches won't get aggressive with the Gouldians will they?

Liz.... you might give it a try and see how everyone behaves. Anytime we mix species it's a trial and error method. I put some young PF in a flight with young owls, young fire finches and young stars no problem. The others I put in a flight with young cherry finches, young cubans and a couple of older "retired birds" so far everybody is getting along okay. The parrot finches are probably my favorite species and the ones I keep the most of; however, during the breeding season it can be a bit of a hassle to hold all the young until they have colored and I can pick the ones I want to keep.

I did separate them into the 2 Gouldian flight cages. The male (in a single flight) was causing some havoc due to his speed and basically crass landing technique - knocking Gouldians off and causing them to panic a bit. The female is fine in the double flight so far.

I'll let them get through the night and see how things are in the morning though I really won't have time to fish the male Parrot Finch out before leaving for work.

Liz,

Mine are getting along great with gouldians. I think they should do fine mixed with them as long as there is plenty of room.

I hate it your having to seperate them.

Just to give a final update on this topic. I did separate them as mentioned and they were in their respective cages with Gouldians until about the beginning of October when I put them back together in a single flight (just the pair of them).

They laid a clutch of 4 eggs - infertile as they do not sit on them much although they do go in to the nestbox a lot! I just removed those four eggs yesterday and will let them try again.

Also I noticed some tiny grey and green feathers (down) outside their flight cage. I guess he is starting to pluck her again.