Dark Red Spots on Parakeet's Head

[BoomBoom]

Hi everyone. I plan to take Pewpew to the vet again in 2 weeks. In the mean time, I hope to get some advice.

A bit of history: About 20 weeks ago I made a thread about Pewpew's long beak. His beak keeps growing as the vet warned me. Vet prescribed a 30 day treatment of Neocal (for his calcium deficiency) to add to drinking water. I thought it was fatty liver disease, the vet did not think so. I still have my doubts so I've since been adding milk thistle powder to his dry food. Also added Nekton calcium-phosporous powder to his dry food since he rarely drinks water. Approved by vet. He's been transitioning to pellets and has been eating a lot more veggies than before (raw kale, broccoli and veggie mash assortment). He still gets his usual probiotic and Nekto multivitamin supplements. Been trying to give him more sunlight when I can. He's been extremely active more than ever.

Today I noticed small, red spots on Pewpew's head. Or I'm not sure if it's the patches of skin that is giving that effect. I attached photos. It's barely noticeable but visible in some angles. Is it the skin under his feathers? Are they blood feathers? He was molting heavily last week. He also seems to itch more but not sure if I'm hyper-imagining things.

Could it be mites? I've had him 2 years and never introduced another bird since so I'm not sure how that's possible as I don't take him outdoors. (I have 1 other parakeet and a sun conure, both very healthy). Any suggestions are appreciated before I take him to see the vet.

 

[plumsmum2005]

How to Tell if Your Bird Has Mites: 14 Steps (with Pictures)

I was thinking that either another birdie has been a little too amorous with the preening or pecking or it is new feathers coming through. A light misting could possibly help?

Keep on top of the AV re the FLD until it is clear!

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=15+1829&aid=2430 Most of the symptoms listed are advanced ones. Would he take some TOPs Crumbled pellets for small hookbills? My reasoning is if it is FLD then PewPew will be short on Vit B.

 

[BoomBoom]

Thanks, Plumsmum!

I've actually been reading the first link on mites before I posted. I stopped halfway through because I was getting so panicky and grossed out. Luckily, he has none of these symptoms except for the itching - but I'm not sure if we're on the early stages here. I haven't noticed dark red spots on the cage or the newspaper but I'll look closely. I'll use white paper so I can see better. Not sure how I can flash a light on him at night to look for mites without scaring him and Kiki, my other parakeet.

My hope is that is that it's just new feathers coming in. Kiki has some of the same dark spots on his head and he's also been molting. But his is not as pronounced as Pewpew. I'll keep observing.

Thanks for the additional reading on FLD. I'll stay on top of it with his AV. I have't tried TOPS yet but I plan to introduce this to his diet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CL115W8/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A15SLCCJ9EEA8I Currently the only pellets he is eating is Zupreem.

 

[BoomBoom]

I just had a closer look. It does seem like pin feathers coming in. I saw some that are pink stubs ending in a dark-red tip. Kiki has them too but not as much. They were heavily molting last week so I'm crossing my fingers that this is just that. Poor Pewpew's already got an ever-griwing beak to deal with.

I'll try to take better photos if it helps.

 

[plumsmum2005]

See if you can get them to at least have a misting with a scrupulously clean spray bottle? Showers/misting does help when moulting.

Great news re the veggies btw!

 

[Lacewing]

How low was his calcium? In reading your post the first thing I think of is why is your bird getting multiple supplements? His diet sounds good. If birds eat a diet that is nutritious they really do not need vitamins. Especially if they are eating pellets.

 

[Teddscau]

Nothing to add, just agreeing that it just looks like he's going through an average budgie moult. Budgies suck at moulting, so their little foreheads get full of white or pink pinnies when they're moulting. Sometimes my boys will have entire patches of sore pinnies on their little heads. It seems to be more of a problem with males than females. As for the females, Samantha tends to drop all of her tail feathers at once, which is abnormal (I think it might be due to age?).

 

[BoomBoom]

Thank you all for your input!

Plumsmum: Thank you! It makes me happy everytime I see Pewpew and Kiki eat their veggies and fruits. I gave them a light misting earlier. They weren't too happy about it but they seemed to like drying and feeling nice after. I appreciate all your advice!

Lacewing: His AV did not say how low his calcium levels were, but he suspected it even before he took Pew in the backroom for a hands on examination (I took him in due to an overgrown beak). When he came back, he said his overgrown beak was so soft he cut through it like butter (his own words). He then prescribed the Neocal (calcium) meds. His diet is a little better these days, but it didn't used to be due to my ignorance. Pew and Ki ate something like 95% seeds, the rest were broccoli and jalapeno. I thought budgies were primarily seed eaters. I'm slowly weaning them out of it and on to pellets. My target is 5-10% seeds, 45% pellets, the rest veggies, grains and fruits. Right now, they're down to 50-55% seeds.

Teddscau: After reading Plumsmum's post, I looked closely at Pew and Ki's heads and finally noticed the pin feathers. I googled budgie pin feathers and they looked exactly like theirs. Somehow I always fear the worse so I thought, of course it has to be mites or scaly face. I'm still hoping it isn't, I'm paranoid that way! They are both male as far as I can tell (blue ceres). I've never seen all tail feathers come off at once like Samantha. My sun conure did it once. Not on account of molting but due to his AV holding him the wrong way during a vet visit. He released all his tail feathers to 'escape' the vet!

 

[plumsmum2005]

Just something that works with a fussy 'too. I sprinkle a few seeds on the bottom of his newspapers on the cage bottom around his veggies pot and you know what before you know it he's forgotten what he went for and is eating his veg!

I remember my budgie hated getting wet but seemed to like spending ages preening his feathers afterwards too.

 

[Lacewing]

I fed veggies in a shallow, flat dish so they do not have to dip head so far into a bowl. Also sprinkled millet seed on top of veggies. After 2 weeks of doing this my guys ate veggies with no problem. Another thing you can do is to get a kabob server and put veggies on that and hand in cage. My guys especially love a small section of corn on cob mixed on the skewer with kale.

 

[BoomBoom]

Plumsmum, Lacewing: That's awesome! I did a variation of this technique to get them to eat their veggie chop mix. Basically sprinkled a few seeds on top of the veg for about a week. They got curious. Then I let my sun conure eat the chop mix while they watched. That pretty much sealed the deal Gave them a fresh serving of the chop mix a few minutes ago when I got home. They ate quite a bit of it! I give 1 BBQ skewer with a bunch of kale and 1 skewer with broccoli and fruits daily (sometimes twice). I have to try the corn in a cob sometime. How hard is it to skewer that thing?

 

[Lacewing]

You should purchase a skewer especially made for birds. Most places that cater to parrots sell them. My birds like them so much they don't go to the veggie dish any more.