Rescued Indian Ringneck losing feathers. :(

[ChocolatePizza]

I rescued a female Ringneck about a year ago, she fell from a tree into a thorny bush while me and my friend sat in the park. I put her into my bag and brought her home, bought her a cage, the whole deal. She got used to me since then and i let her out of her cage and she goes back whenever she likes, but she can't fly. Now she has lost quite a few feathers, especially her tail and wing ones. She is also missing some on her head/neck.
I was wondering if this is to do with teh fact that she was wild and now lives in captivity or her diet? I give her fruit, nuts, leaves because she likes to eat buds. I also buy her sunflower seeds and parakeet food. I also go to bed quite late, maybe im keeping her awake? How can she grow her feathers back? Should i feed her some special food?
Thanks in advance

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Chocoloate Pizza

Books I have read, recommend that birds get 12 hours sleep a night so she may need more sleep but I doubt that is causing the feathers to fall out.

As far as diet goes, it is important to give them vegetables and not just fruit as fruit is full of sugar. I always try to give more veges than fruit. Also, most IRNs will love sunflower seeds but they are full of fat and are not considered a healthy treat. Do you notice what she eats mostly?

I guess being a wild bird, you have no idea how old she is.

I don't know anything about the effects of captivity on wild birds. All I can think to suggest is a trip to an avian vet.

Good luck!

Regards

Ellie.

[julie]

are you able to put some pictures of her on for us to have a look. They have what we call a hard molt where they loose a fair amount of feathers compared to a normal molt, but I have a feeling it may not just be a molt.
Do you have any other birds?

[ChocolatePizza]

Hi guys, thank you for answering
I gave her a variety of things including carrots, bananas, strawberries, cranberries, oranges, but come to think of it I’m not sure if i gave her enough veggies. She didn’t eat any of the things i listed above, but she loves apples and grapes.
She has 2 feeders, one has pellets and seeds in it, and the other one has the sunflower seeds, she eats the latter more. And she seems to eat around the pellets, clever little bugger.
Yeah, i have no idea how old she is, but i think she’s quite young. I wanted her to get better and grow the wing feathers she lost when she fell, but she didn’t seem to recover them and i couldn’t leave her outside. Foxes or cats would eat her or something
I also don’t have any other birds. Oh, and me and my mum noticed that she keeps itching and cleaning her feathers a lot, so we thought she might have mites. I bought some anti-mite spray, but i don’t think it worked.
I’ll post some pictures so you guys can see

[ChocolatePizza]

Ok, i failed at uploading the photos straight onto here, it kept saying "could not upload", so I uploaded them to Flickr.
Here's the link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47558960@N08/?saved=1

[julie]

There is a problem with pasting pics from flicker on this site thats why we cant get them up, I just tried too.

are you able to get some aloe vera juice? diluted in some water and sparayed onto the bird will help to soothe the itching but I think pizza will need to see a vet.

[ChocolatePizza]

I tried to upload the photos straight from my laptop, but that didn’t work. Do they not show up when you click the link?
Yeah, we have some Aloe Vera plants, im sure i can get some juice out of them! If not, i can always buy some
The problem is, Pizza doesn’t like the proximity of human hands, so I’m a little worried the vet might traumatise her.
Thanks for the advice!

[julie]

The link works but we cant get them to show on here as a pic. I seen the pics. It looks the worst in the places she can reach with either her feet or her beak. You may also have to treat her a couple of times with the mite spray and all around her cage too.

[ChocolatePizza]

Oh right, i see what you mean. Yeah, she keeps scratching her head and her neck I’ll buy some new mite spray today and spray her and the cage. Do you think that’s what causing her to lose the feathers, too much scratching and the mites?

[julie]

Its hard to say what it is exactly, it could be mites, it could also be a disease that affects the feathers.

[ChocolatePizza]

Well thank you for the help! I'll try the aloe vera and some mite spray!

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Chocolate Pizza

I’m a little worried the vet might traumatise her

I can understand your concern about the vet. Last time we took Janey to the vet, I ended up in tears because of the way she carried on! ... and Janey is a handraised bird. She got over it reasonably quickly though.

Good luck with the mite spray and the aloe. I hope it works. It's great that there are so many knowledgeable people on this forum!

Regards

Ellie.

[dog_glenn123]

Hi Chocolate Pizza,

I have a IRN that looked exactly the same from the time he had his second mult he looked terrible, i tried everthing to get him to stop scratching, it went on for 5 years and there was no medical reason for it! i used the spray that stops them from scratching but it only worked for a couple of days and i didnt like doing it because it freaked him out. I tried to to get him a mate a couple of times but the females didnt like him and tried to kill him and from there it went backwards, In january i got him a female which took me a little while to find a girl that was very plasid within an hour they where inseprable and now he has all his feathers and looks amazing, It turned out that he was sexualy frustrated, he is happier then ever an his new girl friend has 3 eggs so far. It maybe possible that your bird is a boy and may not have a ring yet and have the same issue!
Regarding mites it was explained to me that you should be able to see them as they are not micro scopic.

Good luck and its just another idea for you.

Thanks Glenn