Hello, I just found this forum and have a question.
First a bit of history: I'm older and have had birds since age 8, only parakeets. Then I got a GCC in 1993 named "Big" and he lived for 22 years. Very sad, had to put him down for cancer. Now I have a 3-year-old crimson-bellied male named "Rudy" who is fairly docile but of course will nip in certain situations. Eg. before his first of the day "expulsion" which is huge. Same as my GCC - maybe this is consistent across breeds. I have a routine for this, he steps out of the cage onto a 1/2" dowel over newspaper to perform his big event including the violent tail-wagging. Less mess in the cage this way.
In his first year he chewed through all his wooden perches. So I bought some 1/2" aluminum dowels at Home Depot and after careful measuring, had a machine shop turn them into perfectly fitting perches. He has 6 of them and can't eat them. And they're easy to clean.
He knows which food cup is which. When I bring fresh water, he says "Is that your water?" When I bring chopped apple, he says "Is that your apple?" No idea how he knows the difference. He has about 10 other things he says constantly, especially his name.
Now the question. His brilliant red chest feathers are turning white. He doesn't pick at them, chew them or pull them out and they are not falling out. His behavior doesn't change and his weight is constant. I shine an avian bulb light on him every day for 5 hours at a distance of 3½ feet. Could this be what's changing his color? No different than being outside in the sun I think. I am stumped.
Thanks for viewing.
-Sutt
First a bit of history: I'm older and have had birds since age 8, only parakeets. Then I got a GCC in 1993 named "Big" and he lived for 22 years. Very sad, had to put him down for cancer. Now I have a 3-year-old crimson-bellied male named "Rudy" who is fairly docile but of course will nip in certain situations. Eg. before his first of the day "expulsion" which is huge. Same as my GCC - maybe this is consistent across breeds. I have a routine for this, he steps out of the cage onto a 1/2" dowel over newspaper to perform his big event including the violent tail-wagging. Less mess in the cage this way.
In his first year he chewed through all his wooden perches. So I bought some 1/2" aluminum dowels at Home Depot and after careful measuring, had a machine shop turn them into perfectly fitting perches. He has 6 of them and can't eat them. And they're easy to clean.
He knows which food cup is which. When I bring fresh water, he says "Is that your water?" When I bring chopped apple, he says "Is that your apple?" No idea how he knows the difference. He has about 10 other things he says constantly, especially his name.
Now the question. His brilliant red chest feathers are turning white. He doesn't pick at them, chew them or pull them out and they are not falling out. His behavior doesn't change and his weight is constant. I shine an avian bulb light on him every day for 5 hours at a distance of 3½ feet. Could this be what's changing his color? No different than being outside in the sun I think. I am stumped.
Thanks for viewing.
-Sutt
