7 week old macaw dropping feather

[rnurse]

Hi,

My baby macaw is dropping his feathers. I noticed one drop out some time ago, now my mother has confirmed that she saw one drop today and yesterday. Is this normal?

 

[texsize]

I don't know anything about Mac babies but my Cockatiel babies did not drop feathers.
The parents did start pulling (plucking) feathers off the babies and I had to separate them except for feeding time.

I would be worried.

 

[Owlet]

Hi Murse, just a few days ago you were saying your macaw wasn't growing feathers? Do you have more than one baby macaw?

 

[rnurse]

It's growing slowly. They a about an inch long now, on the edge of the wings. But I noticed that one might drop out here and there.

 

[itzjbean]

They shouldn't be dropping feathers, they should be coming in like crazy. Here's an example picture of a 7 week old greenwing I just googled. Does your baby look anything like this? If it has much less feathers, your baby is stunted and is not thriving.

This article shows a baby greenwing growing from 1 - 11 weeks of age.

 

[Owlet]

are you feeding them the formula or still fruit/grain puree?

 

[rnurse]

I was feeding him the formula, but e started coughing majorly, so I backed off of it for a few days. Now he eats blended banana twice a day, and oatmeal twice a day, till the crop is filled. This diet isn't bad, and isn't much different from the formula, which is based on soya and wheat.

I will try the formula again in a few days. I believe I had the formula too watery of a consistency. I was averaging the 1/3 formula to 2/3 water. Now I will use tablespoons to measure the amount of water to formula, and I believe I will end up with a thicker consistency, much like the blended fruit, and blended oatmeal.

 

[rnurse]

My 7 Week old Green Wing is definitely growing, and is very full of life, passionate young parrot. I will take more pictures again next week.

But his feathers I believe are still small for 8 weeks. We'll tell with time. Maybe he's just a slow developer. The breeder i got him from feeds the fruits as well.