What's wrong with his feathers?

[Zumaria]

This is Jenga! Or so I'm going to name him (her?) if my adoption application gets approved. I suspect it will, he isn't as pretty as the other Greys there, and I've been out there almost every night visiting him! I believe they'll tell me at the end of the month. *crossing fingers*

I'm not sure how big this picture is going to look to you, but I have an S3 which has a solid camera. It looks to me that his flight feathers have been chewed off and kinda of like his front feathers are just ...split? They don't look whole, flat and shiny like his neighbors'.

He came from a home where the owner got a serious illness and was no longer able to care for him, so I betchya he has just chewed them off and I think I read somewhere about stress lines in feathers, but I've never seen them in real life that I know of.

What do you guys think? If I'm correct I think that after a year with me he is going to be so handsome! How often do your birds molt? When could I begin looking for new feathers to come in?

He's so sweet too...we stepped up on my second visit!

 

[Zumaria]

Side view:

 

[Echo]

He seems to be chewing/barbering his feathers. It might be a behavior that will stay with him forever, or if he hasn't done it long (how long as he been there), he might stop once in a more loving environment. He might miss his old owner too.

 

[Zumaria]

Hey Echo, thanks for your response. That's what I suspected on his flight feathers, but I'll have to do more research into 'barbering'. I don't know how long he's done it - he's been at the rescue for almost a week now, I've already put in for his adoption just waiting until they have their board meeting on the 18th - as I understand it that's when he'll be officially "available". I'm hoping to get him out of there stat!

Even if he's always going to be an ugly chicken he has a beaming personality which is what hooked me

 

[JerseyWendy]

Nothing ugly about this guy at all.

Are both wings/flight feathers looking identical? Maybe...JUST maybe he was clipped the wrong way, and the snipped feathers irritated him, so he decided to chew on them.

 

[Zumaria]

One of his wings (that you can see in the picture) is miss all the flight feathers from halfway and down. His other side has one long flight feather but the rest are missing. I had thought that too - maybe it was a bad chop job. If I get to bring him home we'll see! I can't wait for a year from now...he's going to be so beautiful (I hope!)