Feathers not right ..

[Pauly]

HI there . I am relatively new to the world of Alexandrines .. the one I have is is around 18 months old and seems to have developed a problem that started with his tail feathers and seems to be progressing to his flights :-( .. has anyone any advice please ??

 

[weco]

If he is not chewing those feathers, you should probably have him looked at by an avian veterinarian as soon as possible.....

I hope I am totally wrong about this, but are his feathers starting to look like this?

 

[chasroth]

Looks like he is chewing them to me.

 

[weco]

Looks like he is chewing them to me.

That's what I thought, but someone in another group I'm on has a very similar problem that seems to be something else, but the vet she's been to claims to have never seen the problem & has no idea what it is.....

 

[chasroth]

I cant see in the cage but does he have any toys. Birds need toys or they will turn on their feathers.

WECO what does the other person think it is?

 

[weco]

I'd rather not say, because that one & this one have not yet been diagnosed, as I'm not a vet & sure would hate to be passing out bad information.....

 

[brianlinkles]

I cant see in the cage but does he have any toys. Birds need toys or they will turn on their feathers.

WECO what does the other person think it is?

I think we need to be very cautious when saying what causes a bird to chew on his feathers. Yes, lack of toys could lead to boredom and cause a bird to mess with his feathers however there are sooooo many other reasons to cause this. I have a macaw that is not even a year old, has loads of toys on constant rotation. He eats very good food has lots of attention and still he does not have a single tail feather due to him breaking them. He has become overly bonded to me and this is causing him to become anxious. He has had all the tests and all have come back as normal.
The reason I am responding like this is that sometimes people tend to over generalize what the reason a bird is doing a certain activity. Remember that birds are so complex and too smart for their own good given the parameters that captive life has for them. I am not trying to be argumentative I am just noticing that people sometimes send out random ideas that are good intentioned but sometimes don't address the actual problem.
This said, if a bird begins to suddenly mess with their feathers and this indeed is what this looks like it is always best to go to an avian vet and get tests done to rule out an illness. A bird that starts to mess with it's feathers at a young age is more difficult to get to stop. My bird as well as your alexandrine is very young and ways to stop this should be pursued asap. My bit of advice is to schedule an appt. with your avian vet, while feather destruction in itself is not usually immediatley dire, the quicker addressed the quicker you can take action especially if it means an underlying illness.
just my 2 cents.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

It looks like feather distruction to me as well. Birds should be brought to the vet when they start to be sure it is not caused by any health issues.

Also try finding out what may be causing this. A often over looked cause is the reflection of cars driving by at night. As Brian said over bonding can also be the cause. Also lack of toys or a excellent diet and much more.

Is there a chance he may have damaged show feathers in a crash landing?

 

[Peeker]

Another idea other than destroying his own feathers would be what is the size cage he is in? If the cage is too small his wing tips and tail feathers will constantly brush the sides of the cage causing them to get scruffled and damaged. Frequent bathing will aid in encourageing him to preen the feathers and re-zip them up. So my first thoughts would be larger cage, more toys, more baths and a vet visit just to be safe!

 

[Kiwibird]

Peeker has the right idea with the larger cage, more toys and a trip to the vet. I just want to add poor diet can also lead to feather problems and feather chewing. Is he eating a varied diet of species appropriate foods? I'm not familiar with alexandrines dietary needs, but I'm assuming they are like most parrots needing lots of fresh fruits and veggies as well as a high quality feed (seed, pellets or sprouted grains mix).

 

[Mayden]

I was going to suggest a cage issue, from the little snippet of a picture it looks like he's in a very small cage which means (especially with long tailed birds like alexanderines, macaws, conures, etc) they tend to get them stuck and ruffled between bars. Alexanderines are supposed to have lovely long tail feathers, but in the picture yours has none and the ones left are damaged - this says to me that they've been broken off from damage from the bars of the cage.

Just a feeling, since I haven't seen the entire cage, setup, etc. Couldn't give you an answer. I see this type of feather damage in pet stores all the time because they're put in cages too small with not enough room to move/spread wings/etc.

Have you seen him plucking or barbing his feathers at all?

If you could post more pictures we could maybe advise some more before jumping to a bunch of avian diseases .