Black tips on feathers

[JellyBean]

JellyBean is a green cheecked conure, 14 months old and lately I have noticed the tips of his feathers are black. I brought him to the vet and he said he was over-preening. I have given him mist baths, he has lots of toys and is free to fly around the house.. He is in great form, very affectionate and active... Is there something else I could do to help? Any advice would be most appreciated. I attach a picture to show his feathers. Also, he moulted 5 tail feathers but the are half way grown back!

 

[Sterling1113]

What is his diet like? If he's not getting enough nutrients it could cause feather discoloration. It could also be due to stress(known as stress bars) but if he seems happy it's unlikely.

Not saying that you aren't taking care of him- but sometimes it's just something as simple as not enough fresh foods, or no pellets in their diet.

 

[EnglishMuffin]

Stress bars wouldn't appear at the end of a feather, they appear while the feather is formed. So if they weren't there before and they have appeared at the end of old feathers I don't think they would be stress bars. When feathers get damaged (bent, bashed around or creased) due to playing or whatever reason they lose pigment and become dark (you can actually test this by gently using a fingernail against the pad of your thumb to 'crimp' a feather between- you'll get a crescent nail-shaped black mark). Over preening makes sense.

I could be wrong but I think bathing him every day might make it worse, since this encourages preening. Maybe try laying off the baths to two or three times a week and providing plenty of shredding and preening toys to keep his beak busy!

 

[Sterling1113]

Stress bars wouldn't appear at the end of a feather, they appear while the feather is formed. So if they weren't there before and they have appeared at the end of old feathers I don't think they would be stress bars. When feathers get damaged (bent, bashed around or creased) due to playing or whatever reason they lose pigment and become dark (you can actually test this by gently using a fingernail against the pad of your thumb to 'crimp' a feather between- you'll get a crescent nail-shaped black mark). Over preening makes sense.

I could be wrong but I think bathing him every day might make it worse, since this encourages preening. Maybe try laying off the baths to two or three times a week and providing plenty of shredding and preening toys to keep his beak busy!

Yeah I didn't think about that.. guess I never thought about WHEN the marks appeared, I just assumed it could be at any given time. I can see how that would be silly though.

I agree, the over-preening seems the likely cause.
My conures love chewing on plastic straws. Favorite thing in the world. Put em through a hand pencil sharpener to make them twisty and more fun!

 

[JellyBean]

Thanks everyone - definitely going to cut down on the baths and get him some straws! I do find it hard to get him to eat fresh veg - he loves grapes, raspberries and blueberries. Maybe that is adding to the problem...

 

[Dinosrawr]

That looks like a lot of discolouration to me. Avery has black tips on her flight feathers, but I attribute that to the butchering of her flight feathers when she was clipped. Otherwise, she's completely green all over with virtually no black. Here's a picture of her back I took a few days ago:



She preens quite a lot, and I actually always have wondered if she over preens. But I find in the feathers that are over preened (in particular her primary flight feathers), they take on bronzing opposed to becoming black. If he is over preening, I highly recommend any "Planet Shredder" toys if you're not toy savvy (like myself). All of the toys I have for Avery are actually shredding toys, and she absolutely adores them. I also have two different foraging toys. Otherwise, I think she'd definitely be an over-preener.

I would also recommend a food processor. I recently bought one to make my chop, and oh my goodness it's so easy! It takes 15 minutes of soaking the veggies/fruit to clean them, and then maybe 30 minutes in total to make a month worth of food that is absolutely jam-packed with veggies and fruit. I actually made a fruit chop and a veggie chop, and the birds go crazy over them. I found Avery actually ate less when I hand chopped my chop, and while I do still give her stuff I hand chop, I find she ingests way more good stuff with the processor.

Perhaps you could make a fruit based mash with lots of yummy berries and then add in some veggies high in vitamin A (carrots, sweet potato, sweet red peppers, kale) with some fruits that are also high in vitamin A (canteloupe, mango, apricots). It would probably help with feather colour and help get rid of those black tips by his next moult or two.

 

[lquan]

Not getting enough sleep will cause some black spots and blackened on the edges of some feathers. How many hours of undisturbed sleep does JellyBean get in a day? They need 11 to 12 hours of undisturbed sleep per day.

 

[JellyBean]

Yeah - I am thinking now it must be from nutrient deficiency - he gets the same sleep as I do 7-8 hours per night. Probably has a nap during the day. Will definitely put him down for 12 hours and try the veggie thing and chop them all up - that is a brilliant suggestion!! Going to attempt it this morning... Thank you guys very much - much appreciated...

 

[MonicaMc]

Depending on the time of year, my birds can get as few as 8 hrs of sleep to as much as 15 hrs of sleep, give or take. For the most part, they go to sleep with the sun and wake with the sun.


The black tips is known as 'feather bronzing', and is more common in young birds (who are rough on their feathers), birds on a poor diet (healthy diet = healthy body, skin and feathers) and birds that are over-grooming themselves. (rubbing the pigment off the feathers)

However, it can also occur due to petting, rubbing up against toys or the cage, or other potential causes.



Personally, as long as your bird is healthy and the marks molt out, I wouldn't say it's anything to worry about. If your conure spent a lot of time out in the sun, his feathers could get bleached, then when he starts molting, he could be "multi-colored" due to having both light (sun-bleached) and dark (new) colored feathers!

 

[LoriP]

For what it's worth -- When young Snoopy had a similar appearance. At that time as I recall I was told that another cause could be overhandling -- skin oils plus such things as hand lotion residue could cause the feathers to darken especially at the ends. Snoopy also had major stress bars in her first feathers (she had been stolen from the nest as an unweaned baby and then not properly fed) and they are a whole other thing. As mentioned by another post above they run across the body of the feather (not at the ends) and are there when the feather comes in. Both of these conditions were resolved by molting

 

[nailsrglue]

My conure has had that same thing before and I believe we solved it with diet. They dont just go away, though. The feathers have to be molted out, then the new ones will grow in healthy and normal looking.