Ever since we brought Griffin home I have noticed strange marks on the ends of his feathers. They have small patches that look almost black. Also some of his feathers look like they have been cut by his beak. Here are some pictures of freashly molted feathers exibiting these marks. Are they stress marks from the move from breeder to my house? His newly grown feathers don't appear to have the marks so far...

Here is a feather that looks clipped athough neither I nor the breeder cut it. Also the ends show some of the black edges. In the picture they look more blue than black but still there.
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Here is a tail feather showing both the strange cut marks and just below it the black is visible. The second picture is a close up of his tail feathers that he has now. These havn't been molted and the ends clearly are discolored.

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Anyone have an idea???

For me, the photo's were too small and too blurry to really give you an opinion, sorry

For me, the photo's were too small and too blurry to really give you an opinion, sorry

were those taken with a camera phone? i get less than stellar pics from my phone (smallish and blurry, even with no movement), but can't find my camera.

louie has at least one of the issues you are dealing with. his feathers, just a couple of them, looked very angular but blunt, if that makes sense. what i mean is, instead of looking like a normal feather with a rounded end, his looked cut off. he doesn't have any discolored areas tho. there is one feather or 2 that he absolutely dislikes. i dunno why, but he does chew on them a lot lately, even with regular showers. i'm considering clipping that one and it's mate on the other side. hopefully that might take care of it. are you positive he isn't chewing on them?

sorry i couldn't be more help. or have a more positive possibility.

kris

Its my regular camera but lately it has been going a bit crazy. Griffin never seems to chew but he does preen quite a lot. I won't worry on it too much since he is molting and the new feathers don't appear to have the problem. I hope that it isn't something nutrition wise!!

i wonder if the food the breeder was feeding him just wasn't enough. if he is molting and the new feathers look good I would think you are giving him better food than the breeder and maybe he will be fine. I really dont know so don't take my advice...maybe ask your vet next time you go in.

Growing up can be a tough job for a baby, so it's not unusual for a baby to have stress marks. If the new feathers are coming in nicely, then I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I have the exact same problem with Bird

It seems that when i asked the bird store i bought Bird from and they just told me that it was a baby thing. That they cant keep their feathers as nice and perfect as we'd like them too. I am really not sure tho. Bird often jumps off his cage.. and off me when he gets scared. I noticed today that he must have landed wrong on a feather because one is now bent... im extrememly worryed about him and this problem of him being very jumpy? i dunno lol I hope this helps a lil Id apprecate if someone could let me know if i need to get him checked out or if he will be ok.. I could try to take some pix if itd help.

I'm not sure is this is what your talking about...but when I brought home our sun conure, she was still a baby and was not really hand tame (very jumpy as well) and many of her feathers on her wings and tail were all tattered looking. Looked like she was dragging them on the concrete or something. I chalked it up to her being so jumpy all the time and because she was eating a poor nutrition with her previous owners. She is going through her first molt right now and is seems like all the nasty feathers are falling out and all the new ones look just fine. I hope your bird's feathers come in nicely. If you are worried about him being jumpy or he looks like he is malnourished then I would take him to the vet. If you need more advice...try starting your own thread..more people might read and see it if it isn't a question in this thread Good luck!