Weird little horns and black dots? Help??

[worriedcockatielowner]

I thought the horns are where his feathers are going to grow from, but theyve been there for a good month. And the black dots??? Im seeing them for the first time, are they mites?? What??

 

[worriedcockatielowner]

???????????????

 

[worriedcockatielowner]

Sorry for the low quality, he was struggling a bit

 

[SailBoat]

That appears to be the start of new feather(s) coming in. They commonly start slowly and can take a couple of months to fully appear.

Depending on the energy stores and strength of the provided diet, a feather can take longer than normal to grow to full length.

Mites tend to move, change location.

 

[worriedcockatielowner]

Oh that's a relief, thank you. Do you think it'd be alright to just spray on some mite spray although I'm not sure if they are mites or not? Because it is surely strange for dirt to get that down into the feathers.

 

[SailBoat]

I would first try a fine water mist above your Bird and allow it to lightly rain down upon it.

I'm not into using medical treatment(s) without first having an Avian Vet determining whether it is needed. But, that is me...

 

[worriedcockatielowner]

Thank you so much

 

[noodles123]

Any chance you can post a better pic? When I zoomed in, I saw what looked like pepper grinds but no "horns"

 

[wrench13]

The original poster means the keratin sheaths of the new feathers when he refers to "horns". Very different than the 'horns' parrots grow when going thru puberty (this is a joke, as no actual horns grow; they just seem to act like devils during puberty)

 

[saxguy64]

All I see from the picture on my small phone screen looks like pin feathers in varying degrees of development. With my guys, little black "horns" become grey undercoat fluffies. Possible they're either taking a while to grow, as mentioned above, or just a constant development of them as you'd see during a molt.

 

[noodles123]

The original poster means the keratin sheaths of the new feathers when he refers to "horns". Very different than the 'horns' parrots grow when going thru puberty (this is a joke, as no actual horns grow; they just seem to act like devils during puberty)

Lol- I just couldn't see pin feathers or sheaths--- I thought that's what OP meant when I read the post but I just couldn't see them when I zoomed in.