I am watching new feathers come in on my nudist, and wondered how this works.
He has new little fluff coming in
but what about the colored ones? The green ones or I guess on his chest they will be gray,, how does that work, do they open up and are different kinds of feathers?? Or do they get down first, THEN real feathers?
Just curious.
Lori

The down will probably grow in first because they are the bottom layer. Then the contour feathers (the "real" feathers ) will probably grow in next. They are the colored feathers and grow from different follicles than the down feathers. In fact, every feather has it's own follicle. There are other feathers too, like semiplumes and filoplumes that are small and you probably won't see them.

Keep in mind too that there are bare patches of skin that never grow feathers. Feathers grow in feather tracts on the body; even though it looks like they grow from everywhere, they really don't.

Also, keep in mind that if s/he has been a plucker for some time he may never get the "real" feathers and may only get the downy feathers back, It just depends on whether the feather folicle was damaged too much. I have one bird (cockatoo) who's plucked so much and for so long that he will always be naked on his breast and legs but he will get a few downy feathers once in a while.

Thanks, I didn't know any of that!

I was so hopeful, he got 3, then 9! now he has 7,, I am just sick that he is going backwards...
his chest looks like a crisscross of lace, and I think I see little pimples under the lines that should probably be feathers coming in, I'd hope.
I just dont' know if he'll make it to being feathered or not. It makes me want to pull out my hair!!
Yikes, 2 baldies in one house!
Lori