Concern over black lines.

[TikiAndBrandon98]

I've had Tiki for around two weeks now and he seems to be doing well. He does have very minor black lines on the edge of some feathers, which is concerning. Also, when I put him on the ground, he tries to eat fallen pellets and I worry that he'll get sick. I don't have a good picture of the black lines because they're hard to see far away.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Folks more learned than I will be along soon, but meanwhile, I do know that black bars or bands along feathers are signs of stress or nutrition problems. Certain other diet issues can cause black tipping. Maybe if you use the SEARCH tab above (or Google) to look at threads and pictures, you can find an example...
I would search for "feather stress bars" (or bands) or "black feather tips"...

 

[IndySE]

Is he young ? Stress bars are very common in baby or young birds. Mine had them too, but as she got older she became a very bright green and the black marks became few and far between. Their tiny bodies experience a lot of normal stress growing so many feathers for the first time and a few black marks here and there isn't uncommon.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oooooooooooooh, I should have added that the Rickeybird had them for his first couple of moults, a thousand years ago!

 

[TikiAndBrandon98]

That's great to hear! Yeah, Tiki is around seven months old, and the stress marks are very small and few.

 

[Shoegoo]

If I thought my Conure would eat pellets off the floor I would let her clean up. Just kidding. :27:

 

[clark_conure]

If I thought my Conure would eat pellets off the floor I would let her clean up. Just kidding. :27:

I think you'd only get smaller pellets! I think clark maybe only consumes about half of each pellet because of the whole "no lips thing".

 

[clark_conure]

AS far as the black lines I'd have to see some kind of picture.

 

[SassiBird]

Maybe this will help. The photo shows stress bars vs bronzing. Bronzing is what feathers do as they wear out. There are lots of examples of both in the photo, I just highlighted one of each.