Green cheek loosing feathers overnight...help

[charlie75230]

Hello...i am new to this and need some help and advise.

I have a green cheek (charlie). He is 5 years old and a fantastic little ball of energy.

We came back from a two day trip to find that charlie had dropped all his feathers from his front chest and legs.

Other than the feather loss he is the same charlie...he is actice, eating, and drinking, doing all his tricks...just charlie with no feathers.

His tail, wing, and back were all fine...no loss.

There is no inflamation or sign of plucking...that is until today.

Now his back and the top of his wings are loosing feathers. Again no sign of plucking.

Does anyone have experience with something like this.

(one other important thing...he seems to have some new pin feather growth.

Could this be a massive molt and be simi-normal with some birds??? Please tell me it can be normal

we live in midland,texas and it will be saturday before we can get him to our avian vet.

Your help is greately appreciated...mike

 

[Sunnyclover]

Oh no! That sounds like plucking to me because birds don't molt that many feathers at once ever unless there was trauma in that area. Just because you don't see him doing it doesn't mean he isn't plucking. Most birds save their plucking for times when they are alone and bored or anxious. If it's not plucking it could be a horrible disease of some kind like Beak and Feather Disease or a number of other things. Hopefully it's JUST plucking or maybe he fell and had a feather trauma in those spots. I do hope I am wrong and it's some type of weird molt that happened very very suddenly.

 

[ChristaNL]

Since soo many birds are going hormonally-induced overboard I would not be surprised if your Charlie indeed is on a plucking spree.

Are you having crazy weather? Because a sudden dry skin might be an irritant (or a new picture on the wall, different hairstyle from someone in the house ... the options are endless...)

If he is explosive-molting there should be new growth already visible in the skin (pinfeathers will form the moment the old feathers are gone)

Just drain your brain about what (minute) changes have occured in your lives and if your CAV sees him get some skinscraping done to see if there is any yeast/ other fungus etc.etc. present that would make you birdy want to be bald.

In the meanwhile...try misting/bathing (use chamomile tea to calm down the skin a bit).

 

[noodles123]

You left for 2 days and he probably was super nervous and bored (which lead him to pluck his chest). You are his flock and you left, so he probably couldn't understand what was going on.

Obviously disease etc is always a possibility, but it would be fairly coincidental for that to show up immediately following a 2 day trip (and only in places he could reach).

Did someone stay at the house with him? How did you manage that?

 

[plumsmum2005]

Hey Mike, couple of things hun. Please say you didn't leave your Charlie alone for a couple of days? This would have been traumatic enough for him to start plucking hun. DYK that many vets will board birds? Another thing to check is what is your room/home humidity levels like? You can also give chamomile tea (cooled) to drink. It is calming. Plucking can become habitual, give Charlie a preening toy (safe) in his cage, near his chosen roosting spot. Ensure his diet is tip top, loads of fresh veggies, a little fruit, and a small amount of safe tree nuts. You can also opt for a organic pellets such as TOPs. A trip to the AV would be best to be on the safe side, it can be the first indications that all is not as it should be.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

To me it sounds like plucking and not disease because 1) he probably got really anxious and confused when you left him for two days, 2) the bald patches are only in certain areas, and the chest/legs/back are common places for birds to pluck, 3) it’s springtime and birds are hormonal, and 4) he lost everything at once. Of course you should still check with your avian vet to rule out medical causes, but this really sounds like a classic case of behavioral plucking.