# Missing Feathers



## mishkaroni (Jan 6, 2012)

So I accidentally snapped some shots of Zeus' underwing. I adopted him in January from the bird store I frequent. He was relinquished to them by his previous owners. He's 6 years old. He loves his head scritches and can say pretty bird. I noticed the first night I had him that he was missing a lot of feathers under both wings. I'm wondering if anyone might know a cause...and if there's anything I can do to help him get the feathers back...if at all possible. I've never seen it like this in any of my birds...and that includes my two pluckers, Indy and Turk.





































He saw the flash and in the blink of an eye would lift his wings and set them down. I swear I never saw the wing lift until I viewed the pictures!


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## WendyBeoBuddy (Dec 12, 2011)

i have never seen them pluck under the wings before! maybe he plucks himself but he still wants to be warm? so he plucks under the wings so he can be warm by covering the bald spots? his plumage is in amazing condition besides the..missing plumage 
i am sorry i cannot help much, i hope they grow back!


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## mishkaroni (Jan 6, 2012)

LOL...i'm picturing him plucking himself in the sly. I'm not sure he's actually plucking though...It doesn't seem to hinder him, but i've never seen such smooth skin on a bird before!!! Not a hint at feathers coming back in. Unlike my poor balded Jack...lol


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

I feel like this is indication of kidney/liver disease..that's just what pops into mind when I think of plucking under the wings.

Edit: this can be a symptom of giardia. I just did a search of past posts.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

It is possible for him to pluck the pins as they come in...or if he had been a plucker before you got him then he could have permanently damaged the feathers so they stopped regrowing.


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## mishkaroni (Jan 6, 2012)

hmm, well maybe he's plucked them that bad in his prior home. He was fully checked before I even adopted him and he checked out fine so I wasn't worried about anything serious. I've just never seen a tiel to this magnitude before. My two plucking tiels are just missing very small spots which they've plucked to the point of no return. I'm just going to eye him as often as possible and see about his preening. Although, I doubt he does it now since there are no lose feathers on his cage bottom.


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## mishkaroni (Jan 6, 2012)

thanks bjknight for the push in the search box direction. d'oh!!! I looked up giardia and upon reading it and checking my bird...i'm leaning towards he plucked himself for whatever reason in his last home. He has no fresh looking plucks under there. He's extremely vocal and mobile. Poop looks fine. He eats his pellets, veggies and seeds. I may re-check him for giardia as I read srtiels posted to check, wait a week and check again. I'm not sure if they did that for him during his vet check, but at least I can have my vet do it...it might even be the same vet they checked him with.


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