Red feathers?

[Matthew]

Please help! Disese/Illness?

My peach-faced agapornis turned red and cherry red after I bought him. Is it a sign of illness?

He showed no sign of illness for 3 years, yet it just seems odd. My first parrot turned red when he was young, but came back to normal soon. This one though looked like fischer with a white beak (some sort of strange breed I assumed) when I bought him. I bought him 3 years ago, that's when the color change began. His feathers are otherwise clean and good looking (though he doesn't bath). He won't eat any fruit/ vegetable, so I give him vitamins in his food. Is the color change normal for his age, a mutation or a liver problem, as I've heared people say. (then again, he has had this color for almost 3 years now). His name is Darius.

 

[Arash]

Darius is very lovely and he has a very rare color but unfortunatly it caused by an illness.
Mr Dirk Van Den Abeele has two pragarphs in his book "love birds" page '291' about this issue.

 

[Matthew]

Darius is very lovely and he has a very rare color but unfortunatly it caused by an illness.
Mr Dirk Van Den Abeele has two pragarphs in his book "love birds" page '291' about this issue.

I see. I am afraid I do not own the book, and neither do I have the means of buying it. Could you tell me what the book says, or at least what the cause of the illness is? I have been quite desperate lately, and would really like to know what options I have.

 

[Arash]

Darius has vary nice and beautiful color but it's unusual for lovebirds in my opinion take him to a vet to see what's going on and treat him also lovebirds needs to take a bath at least every week in summer and once a month in winter (put his cage under the sun light and spray water to him then wait 20 minutes to dry him self and notice that weather should not be windy or cold) that's for having healthy and good looking feathers it's necessary for birds . In the book that I mentioned there are 2 paragraphs and a photo about red lovebirds if you want I can take a photo of 2 pages related to red lovebirds and send them to you in private also I write it down here but it contains bad news you don't need to read it maybe your case is different I think you should take him to a vet.

'love birds'
dirk van den abeele page '291'

"It was around 1980 that I first saw a 'red bird' at a dealer's.it was lutino roseicollis, in which the yellow psittacin had turned red for some reason. I had no idea whether this was a mutation or not. I thought that this was quite common and bought the bird. I was convinced that i was going to breed red birds, but nothing was further form the truth. after six months the bird died without any offspring. since then , I have seen red birds once in a while and we can actually divide them into two groups. The first group are birds which are born red. I once saw a personatus in which the yellow areas ( chest and neck) were completely red. I also once had a young fischeri in a nest which was almost completely red. some green parts of the plumage were also affected and normally yellow psittacin in the cortex of the feathers was red in these birds, which means that they have a 'brownish' colour. there also have been various reports of young roseicollis with 'red scales' on their body, etc. the result is always quite predictable: either the birds turn their normal colour again or they die before the first adolescent moult.

A second group of these birds start to turn red at an older age . they usually keep their red tinge which expands as they grow older. the redder they turn the more dangerous it is, as most die a few months after showing the first red tinge . as far as I know their is not a single case where the red tinge was passed on and we therefore cannot see this as a mutation.

 

[Matthew]

Thank you. At least now I have an answer. My first 2 parrots turned red when young. The female died after a few months. She was also plucking. The male turned back to normal, but died 10 years later in an accident, then I bough Darius. As I have stated he has been red for 2-3 years without any bad sign. It could be nutrition (working on that). Or maybe he would turn to original color soon. Right now he seems to be molting and I caught a glimpse of green bellow his cherry feathers on the wings. Anyhow I'll do all I can. Thank you again for your answer.

 

[Arash]

You are welcome. It's very strange you had 3 red lovebirds! because it's very rare phenomenon! and don't worry about Darius he had red color for three years I think his body is now immune about this issue.