JenD
New member
I’ve posted a while back about my 29 y/o rescue blue and gold but it’s been awhile. We’ve had Dory since May 2017 and in September she started laying eggs. She is a single bird we have no other parrots. She eats Harrison’s pellets and Zupreem along with fresh foods everyday. We did as the vet advised and let her care for the eggs, which she did diligently and never really rejected but when they broke we removed. At minimum she would have the eggs for at least 2 weeks but up to 45 days. She would lay 1-3 eggs a month since September and laid her last eggs at the beginning of February. She sat on the last “clutch” for at least a month and a half and began to start showing signs (pleasuring herself) that she would begin to lay again. After trying everything under the sun to get her to stop we decided to get a new cage and put it in a different room. That was a little over a week ago and she has not since acted hormonal nor laid anymore eggs.
NOW I have done about everything possible with the exception of the hormonal injections/implant and that is still something we are considering, my question today is about feather loss. I felt it was important to know background info.
I have never observed her “plucking” and she is a very low stress bird. Rarely screams, or paces. I like to think she’s pretty happy, with the exception of her nesting aggression when she has eggs. We have notice her chest has looked not as full and had first seen a lot of down feathers in her cage. I was told by another parrot person that it was molting season and not to worry, however the past few days she has had ALOT of feathers both chest and either small wing or back feathers in her cage in the mornings and while we are at work. She is only in her cage at night and the 4-5 hours that my husband or I am not home. She has a lot of enrichment options but honestly she does not really do too much. I will have an egg carton fill of treats in her cage for a month before she completely goes through it. I have also been encouraging foraging with her regular food. What is a normal molt for chest feathers on a macaw? If I can figure out how to upload pictures I will. She probably had a fairly good sized handful of feathers just over night. She also has a completely bald spot on her chest (that can only be seen when you lift other feathers) could this be a brood spot? Any help greatly appreciated.
NOW I have done about everything possible with the exception of the hormonal injections/implant and that is still something we are considering, my question today is about feather loss. I felt it was important to know background info.
I have never observed her “plucking” and she is a very low stress bird. Rarely screams, or paces. I like to think she’s pretty happy, with the exception of her nesting aggression when she has eggs. We have notice her chest has looked not as full and had first seen a lot of down feathers in her cage. I was told by another parrot person that it was molting season and not to worry, however the past few days she has had ALOT of feathers both chest and either small wing or back feathers in her cage in the mornings and while we are at work. She is only in her cage at night and the 4-5 hours that my husband or I am not home. She has a lot of enrichment options but honestly she does not really do too much. I will have an egg carton fill of treats in her cage for a month before she completely goes through it. I have also been encouraging foraging with her regular food. What is a normal molt for chest feathers on a macaw? If I can figure out how to upload pictures I will. She probably had a fairly good sized handful of feathers just over night. She also has a completely bald spot on her chest (that can only be seen when you lift other feathers) could this be a brood spot? Any help greatly appreciated.
Attachments
Last edited:
