My GCC tail feathers are almost gone

[Criticlow]

hey, I’m new to this form, but in May I adopted a green cheek conure who was nine months old at the time he had a bit of a scraggly tail feathers, but I didn’t think much of it because a lot of people were talking about stress and they’re not being enough room in the cage. He’s now 11 months and he keeps preening or breaking his tail feathers and I don’t know if this is normal or not. I really just want your guys advice before I take him to a vet because where I live ones that specialize in birds are pretty far away.

 

[kme3388]

Hi there, I’m sorry to hear about your conure. Feather loss of our feathered friends is perplexing. There can be a variety of reasons for it. A vet can take labs, and make sure there isn’t something making your conure ill. They do a process of elimination. It’s an important process. I myself have, and will recommend anyone in this boat to bring their parrot to the vet.

If his cage is really small is there a way to replace it? Sometimes pet stores have really good sales. Craigslist is a great place if you are on a budget.

 

[wrench13]

Young parrots, and those with especially long tails, have a tendency to be clumbsy and manage to have pretty ratty looking tail feathers, conures and macaws come to mind. Small-ish cages dont help. Having said that, its always a good idea to take you new, healthy parrot to a CAV for a full exam, as a base line for the vet in case he gets sick in the future. THe vet will know what his readings were when he was feeling good.