worried my baby irn is going bald

[mavislim]

hi
im aware that my blue irn is molting atm so im not overly concerned with him,( having said that over the past month his 2 long tail feather came off?)

but as for my little 5 month old yellow, ive noticed the she is losing some body feathers which i see in the cage.
what striked me was, when i was just patting her head, her top head feathers just fall off i give it a little blow and litteraly falling off .
im actually getting worried it might be a disease or something.
can someone pls help with this, what should i do,is it normal

she is in a seperate cage from my other irn also she does the occasional scrathing not all the time

[Donna]

I think their both going through a molt, sometimes they molt so hard they do lose their tail feathers we call that a duck butt your baby is probably going through its first molt, if it isn't pulling the feathers out I wouldn't be too worried.



Donna

[mavislim]

thanks for your response;
it made me feel a lot better.

last night i had the yellow irn in my hand and noticed that the poor baby has a little bald patch on her head
so my worries kicked in again ,aslo noticing all the little feather on the cage floor,
having said that i should note that there are pigeons that come into the balcony and eat most of the seed that my irn dont eat.
i was worried that fleas might have pasted on to my birds? could it be possible


on a lighter note the yellow is starting to defend herself from my bluey, so im about to put them in the same cage and see how they get along

[ellieelectrons]

having said that i should note that there are pigeons that come into the balcony and eat most of the seed that my irn dont eat.

They can get mites and lice (and other diseases) from wild birds. Maybe a checkup from an avian vet would be useful?

You also need to think about whether you have predatory birds in your area. I was quite shocked the other day. We had taken our birds on holidays with us and I put there cage outside in a covered barbeque area so that I could sweep the floor. Within about five mins of putting them out here, I hear a terrified squarking from Janey... and I looked up and a butcher bird was trying to attack them through the wire. I ran out there and scared them all off, felt really guilty for leaving them out there as sitting ducks and then brought them inside.

Having said that, when I was a teenager we used to leave our lovebirds hanging in their cages outside all the time and never had a problem.

on a lighter note the yellow is starting to defend herself from my bluey, so im about to put them in the same cage and see how they get along

Make sure you do it when you're home for an extended period. The books I've read on the subject recommend you put them in a third cage that neither one of them feel like they "own" when introducing them. I wasn't able to do this... but I did completely revamp the cage - move perches, change toys, change food bowl positions, etc. before I put them both in together.

Good luck & best wishes.

Ellie.