[Nautilus12]

Greetings,
I have a 9 months male cockatiel. I did not have problems until 2 months ago. Then he had an accident with the door and had almost all of his tail feathers plucked. After that it had an accident with the curtain, when his longest wing feathers fell. I saw new feathers coming on both, tail and wings, but then I noticed they had bad quality. Also some of the newest feathers had been broken (probably in the cage bars).

PS: As I have read he should have his first big molt. Thus, I have read about some virus called PBFD which could make the feathers with bad quality.

Thanks for your attention to this matter. Sincerely, Nautilus. :wf grey:

 

[tielfan]

I have to agree that the feather quality doesn't look very good. What is his diet like? A poor diet can cause problems with feather quality.

 

[Nautilus12]

I am using VerseleLaga, Prestige, seeds. I was giving him Nekton-S in his water, but I started giving him Nekton-Bio few days ago. Sometimes I am putting some vegetables and fruits as apple, lettuce and carrot.

PS: It was winter here and the sun was not avaiable a lot. I have started to leave the cage on sunlight when it is avaiable. I still have not noticed any feather quality change, but I think there cannot be such change for few days.

 

[tielfan]

This is not a nutritionally balanced diet. It will be helpful if you can get him to eat more vegetables. It would be very desirable if you can get him to eat some good quality pellets that provide balanced nutrition.

The feathers that he has now won't change, unless there is dirt on them that can be cleaned off. There is no transport of material into or out of an existing feather, so nutritional improvements won't change the old feathers. The time to see changes is when he molts the old feathers and grows in new ones.

 

[Nautilus12]

The Little one (he) does not even want to hear about pellets. However, I will buy some. He has new feathers growing. I will take a look at them when they achieve larger size and will post the results. If you know some way to make him eat pellets I would be glad if you share it with me.

 

[tielfan]

It can be difficult to convince a bird to eat pellets. Is it possible for you to get Nutriberries? They look like seed balls so it's usually easier to teach a bird to eat those. If you're in the US, you can contact the Lafeber company and ask for a free sample. https://lafeber.com/contact-lafeber-co/

 

[Nautilus12]

Well, I am not in US and I did not managed to find NutriBerries. I bought Versele-Laga nutribird g14. He eats the pellets when in my hand but he does not want to when they are in the feeders (so I guess he will start). I really hope to see change in the feathers.

 

[tielfan]

If he eats them in your hand now, he may start eating them from the feeder later. Feeding him from your hand is very good for your relationship, so I hope you can do it often!

 

[Nautilus12]

I am glad to hear that! I will post pictures if there is change in feather quality. Thank you for the information given.