Rehomed blue front

[savagem13]

I'm such a worrier...now I've got myself paranoid about my new, rehomed blue front. When I first got him, I noticed his wing feathers looked funny. I assumed that he had a bad clip job. Asked the avian vet when I took him in for his checkup, and she didn't seem concerned. Today I noticed that he has lost about 6 feathers. They don't look plucked--not mutilated in any way. One is a large tail feather, the others are smaller feathers from somewhere on the body. So now I've got myself convinced that Jasper has PBFD. I didn't have him tested for it. Should I? Is he just going through a normal molt? His feathers look gorgeous to me, and the vet said the same thing when I took him in. However, she didn't examine his wings specifically. I hesitate to towel him to examine his wings more closely, because he hates it and he's just getting used to me. Should I test him though one of the mail-order labs?

[my-africangrey-echo]

If he is just loosing feathers with no signs of picking I would bet he is just molting. If your vet felt he was in good feather I would not worry.. Though I have never had a zon that is my thought. Someone with more Zon experience will be along soon. Just to let you know both my tiels have no tail feathers right now and my grey drops a feather here and there too. Hope this helps you relax a little. Chris

[savagem13]

Thank you. I actually just went down and got a closer look at his wings by getting him to step onto a perch and moving it so he'd open them up. It does look like someone did a really, really bad job clipping his wings. He's got most of his primaries cut, with one in the middle left whole, and then the outer two left intact as well. So his wings just look a mess. But they definitely look cut. As for the other feathers--they just looked dropped. But there are even more now--about 8 or 10. Could he have been stressed into a major molt?

[my-africangrey-echo]

How old is he and how long have you had him? He very well could be stressed from loosing everything he ever knew..

[huntress]

If One in the middle is whole its because he IS in fact molting. They most probably didnt leave it uncut. He molted the cut feather and grew a new one,lol. My birds look like that all the time. Cut feathers molt out and a new one grows in. I personally wait until it grows all the way in before clipping it or you will have to cut it twice. They usually do wing feathers kinda sorta symetrically? So you might see another growing in the same position on the other side soon OR if the other side feather had already molted and grew back just before the cut you wont or even a half grown cut feather might be in place. If you cut a new feather growing in you can cut it to soon and with the blood still in the shaft it may bleed so its best to wait until its the proper lenghth and you can no longer see blood in the shaft. So its hard to assume a "bad" clip job because the feathers never grow back at the same time on each side perfectly. Sounds like a normal molt of all the primary outer feathers to me. In a molt they normally start with the soft downy ones (which get everywhere BTW) and then drop big feathers one to as many as several a day for what seems like eternity. I would not worry unless you begin to see bald patches.

[savagem13]

Oh, thank you so much! I feel much better. Didn't even think that maybe he just grew out the cut feather in the middle and grew a new one. Don't know why anyone would cut a wing like that on purpose! See a new primary feather dropped today, but it looks like it's from his tail. How quickly do new feathers grow in? Just a couple of days ago he had a "hole" in his tail, where he lost a feather when he was freaking out when we brought him home. Today I don't see a hole at all! And he is about 14 years old, and he has only been here for two weeks. I'm certain he is still extremely stressed, poor guy!

[savagem13]

So in a normal molt, will he look a little scruffy? There are some more small feathers on the bottom of the cage today, and he has a bit of gray fluff sticking out of one spot on his chest. No bald patches, though. Got the DNA results back today, and he is officially a HE!