New pictures....new questions...

[Geo]

I wanted to share a few pics of Pookie! But I also have a few questions about her feathers. I have seen many pictures of B&G and their feathers are all blue. As you can see in her pictures some are blackish....I wish they weren't! How do I make 'em nice and blue?

I am giving her vitamins for it since she is not eating pellets much. I made the mistake of giving her seeds and mixing it with her food a while back and now she eats those instead of the pellets. I am slowly taking the seeds out of her plate. Hopefully by the end of the month I have her on pellets alone.

[Mike B]

They look like stress feathers to me. Hard to tell though. How old is the baby? Sorry if I missed it. A stress feather can be caused by many things. Most of them not bad. Two different handfeeders, a slight change in formula, the move to your house. Anything can cause a stress feather in a young chick. There is nothing you can do to that feather now. Well, one thing wait for it to molt out.

May I ask why you think a seed diet is not nutrishish? Why would you try to suppliment his diet? Has this been recommended by your Vet? I feed Seeds w/ fresh veggies every day. My flock is as healthy as ever. Do you feed fresh foods?

Mike

[The Outlaw]

I heartily agree on feeding a fresh diet, with a good seed and nut mix. If you get into the habit of feeding fresh with pellets as the back up, you'll have a beautiful baby next molt.

Take a look in the recipe section and look for Lissa's Kitchen sink recipe. Make and freeze it and you'll have a killer diet. I've used it for 6 years and have never had a sick bird or one that's feathers have ever had black or stress bars. I do have one BG that plucks, but heck, I have 3 others that don't.

[birdsnthings]

I am assuming this is a young bird. Don't be overly concerned about this issue. Your bird will soon lose those feathers and grow in new ones without the black on them. I tend to think that commercial hand feeding formulas don't have everything in the right amounts for birds and this could be the issue. My opinion is that these are not stress bars.
There could be two other issues that can cause this. One being called bronzing which is not enough natural light or the other is due to a fungus on the feathers. Now, don't let me get you all in panic as it probably isn't the two aforesaid conditions but are also known issues. With a younger bird I would suspect either.
Diet is very important. Researching and asking opinions is the important thing so that you have information that you can make a decision with.
I do believe that a bird's diet should be everything in moderation. Have you tried something with a garlic taste yet? My B&G's did like the taste of garlic.
Alice

[Geo]

Well she is a year and 3 months. I do give her fresh veggies and nuts. When I introduced seeds to her pellets she stopped eating the pellets and only ate the seeds. Now I'm trying to take the seeds out little by little.

I hand fed her since she was 6 months. Weaned her at about 8-9 months. She has plenty of interaction with my mom, my brother, and me. She gets about 2.5 hours of full attention every day.

I read that a diet consisting of mainly seed will not provide the necesary nutrition. I do feed her fruits and veggies every day though. And nuts every other day.

[The Outlaw]

Geo:

She also needs protein and fat. You can give her cooked chicken, bones and all, hard boiled eggs a few times a week and other cooked proteins. Some like cooked fish and others even like Tofu. Think in terms of a diabetic diet for humans and you'll come close. Its lower in sugar and salt than normal diets.

[birdsnthings]

I do feed the protein when I am hand feeding. Birds do need protein for growth but as they get older it is not needed as much. As far as the fat content for B&G's they don't need as high of a fat content as the GW's or the Hyacinth macaws so don't over do on those nuts!
Alice

[Geo]

Cooked chicken without seasoning I suppose? Cuz I've given her a few bites of mine when I eat. She LOVES it! Tears the bone up to pieces!

[candi4me]

ok since this topic has been brought up, me being a newbie mom can you tell me when we should start rio on foods other than formula? Should this be done before we bring him home from the breader? What should we start with?
Candy

[Winged_Victory]

Hi,

We all feed a little different. We feed fresh fruits and veggies, a seed mix, mac nuts for the Hy's, and some pellets. We use Harrisons and Roudybush pellets. We try to vary their diets so they don't get bored eating the same things. Most of our birds like cooked chicken. We do have a spoiled one that gets hot food in the AM (beak appetite).

The black tipped feathers will be gone next molt. You should not have to worry about vitamins if you are feeding a balanced diet.