What would be the recommended diet for good feathers?

[mona]

Moult is in process for cookie and Breezie both of them. Breezie has got a lot of pin feathers on his head, neck and below the beak. I feel bad for him. There are a lot of small feather shedding. I'm not sure if I'm thinking it right.. Breezie's wing feathers appear a bit messed up.. Under his wing, there is a section with just one feather and skin showing towards the top (where wing attaches to the body). To be honest, I have never looked under the feathers so closely ever. Is it normal during moult. As such Cookie seems okay. They aren't very irritated and singing around happily as such.

Also, to mention, Breezie is bad at landing! Cookie calculates for a minute or so and then aims and lands correctly always. Breezie just does trial and error. He flies and then doesn't reach his destination and crash lands.. this happens with new places.. like the new cage right now. I'm afraid he misplaced a few wing feathers during his crash landings & later pulled them out during preening.

How can I help him with the diet or otherwise? Mashed hard boiled egg, I'm giving twice a week. Carrot daily in the veggie chop.

I'm letting them sleep during the day, as they wish and lower the radio volume.Giving them a spray bath to deal with the itching. No hard pointed objects for them to scratch and get hurt.





I might be skeptical as always. Please bear with my queries!

This is the multi vitamin content of the bottle I have (recommended by the local shop where I used to get the seed mix). I don't give this daily as recommended on the pack. Should I, during the moult? And are the ingredients okay for the birds or anything in excess? This multivitamin has a very strong smell and taste.. I have to really dilute it before giving it to them in water or they won't touch it ever, mostly to 1 drop per 100 ml

[mona]

Also, they are not touching the pink salt and mineral block as they did earlier. Would it be as per their body requirements? They were constantly nibbling at it a few months back.

I have introduced the cuttlefish bone just a month back or so. They haven't touched that too.

I have seen a few people adding shredded cuttlefish bone in the food.. Is that alright and is it required during moult?


PS: I'm amused he let me photograph him from this close distance. Cookie is super attentive looking at the camera, but Breezie seems chill.

[Morgan]

I think during the moult you can just feed some fresh hardboiled (for 20 min or so) egg or dried eggfood if you have that. I think Marianne Marlow said for her 8 birds (at the time), she feeds one egg over two days, once a week. Maybe you can make an egg for yourself and share with them! They just need some extra protein during the molt, but the people who make Guardian Angel (I really need to look them up xD) also make a powdered vitamin/nutrient formula for molting that includes other stuff too. I think it’s called “feather-up”, and maybe you can find the label online and see what extras it has. I’m assuming it’s made for birds that jut eat seeds and fresh veg but not pellets which already have added vitamins - just a note in case you need to manage the amount given per their instructions. But I’m sure Hezz and Marianne Marlow will also be on soon to help/confirm/amend this!

Btw, I love you guys. 😁

[Hezz]

You are already giving them egg during their moult, so that is good. A little multi vit won't hurt, but I certainly wouldn't give as regularly as the bottle states. Don't forget good old sunshine as well. You can see if they would eat small bits of cooked chicken. Even seed eaters will snack on the odd bug and insect at times.

Also, the underwing area of Breezie looks perfectly normal to me. Growing too many feathers under your wing is just a waste of good feathers.

[mona]

I am a hard core vegetarian, but my hubby is non vegetarian, so that helps😅

Morgan I do hard boil egg for them, use what I need and give the rest of it to my hubby. 😅🙈

Hezz Noted. I will try to steal that from my hubby's meal or ask him to get one without any spices, so that I can give some to them. We usually get it from a restaurant, so I might have to look at something without salt and spices.

[Marianne Marlow]

mona, always nice to meet another vegetarian

[tweetiepiesmom]

mona I was amused to read about Cookie's flight. My Buddy does the same thing - you can see it! He leans forward, looking intently at where he wants to go. Then he launches himself and lands spot on. Sometimes I think he must have changed his his mind - saw something he didn't like maybe - or miscalculated and then he circles over where he wanted land land and goes back to the cage top. This happens most often when I call to him from my chair about 8 ft away and hold my arm up. Maybe he doesn't like my computer or... Tweetie Pie watches Buddy but doesn't land anywhere unless he's sure he wants to be there. He just takes off, nails it and lands. Good thing both of yours are molting at the same time. Get the mess over and done with! Hope it doesn't make them too uncomfortable.

[mona]

Marianne Marlow Cheers to the vegetarian life 😅

tweetiepiesmom Cookie does the same. You can see her moving her neck like a pigeon and calculating for a while. She lands correctly then. If not, she flies back to where she was. Breezie is a master of crash landings.. he would want to reach somewhere else, but would end up landing somewhere else! Cookie starts moulting a week earlier than Breezie. I had to clean their room today for almost 1.5 to 2 hours 😅 Feathers everywhere in the room. As of now, half of the room is mine with a bedding on the floor and a sitting space and rest of the half has got their cage, tree and their setup. But, my bedroom is different room. I just spend most of my day there with them. I changed all the bedsheets and everything.. deep cleaned the room along with the cage.. Pheww!!! I had to stall the house cleaning then till evening out of fatigue.. 😂 They aren't used to the vacuum cleaner yet and I didn't feel like scaring them .. so I used the broom to clean up everything (which is normal way of cleaning in India, but it just throws a lot of dander in the air 😒)

[Hezz]

Nov 20, 2020 5:06:09 GMT mona said:

I am a hard core vegetarian, but my hubby is non vegetarian, so that helps😅

Morgan I do hard boil egg for them, use what I need and give the rest of it to my hubby. 😅🙈

Hezz Noted. I will try to steal that from my hubby's meal or ask him to get one without any spices, so that I can give some to them. We usually get it from a restaurant, so I might have to look at something without salt and spices.

It would only be a small amount that they would eat, if they will eat it. I think if you poached a little of the restaurant chicken for a few minutes it should dilute or remove most spices and salt that may be present.

[tweetiepiesmom]

mona if your budgies are like most, they'll like the sound of the vacuum cleaner. Turn it on where they can hear it. They'll likely go crazy chirping and singing - they have to be louder than it!!! They might be timd at the sight of it but not too bad. Give it a try, it sure will help with the cleaning.

[Hezz]

Nov 21, 2020 0:43:05 GMT tweetiepiesmom said:

mona if your budgies are like most, they'll like the sound of the vacuum cleaner. Turn it on where they can hear it. They'll likely go crazy chirping and singing - they have to be louder than it!!! They might be timd at the sight of it but not too bad. Give it a try, it sure will help with the cleaning.

True. Mine are actually frightened of the broom!

Maybe they think I'm about to jump on and ride away.

[mona]

Hezz That's hilarious! 😆 That recalls me of the latest costume competition I took part in.. i had dressed up as the good witch with the hat and the broom..😄


tweetiepiesmom Haha... They sure want to be the loudest! I had tried earlier and they were scared, maybe they haven't heard of that noise earlier. I tried covering their cage from front side until done, to keep them sane. Might try that out again and they might get used to it 😃 It's much easier to vacuum all the feathers, seed husks and dander here and there.

[mona]

Please correct, if this info isn't practically applicable. Sorry for a long post though!

I had been looking at the nutritional content and found the following diet, useful during moult. I have copied it from my notes application, so please bear with the crisp and rough notes:

* Feather is 90 percent protein, hence protein rich diet (esp Lysine & cystine, not present in seed diet) and fat rich diet for energy (2 to 3 times more energy than egg production)


* Protein aminoacid Lysine rich diet like hard boiled egg, fenugreek seeds, quinoa, adzuki beans and other whole legumes.
* Protein Aminoacid Cystine rich diet like eggs, sunflower seeds and whole legumes like chickpeas, hemp seed, chia seeds, cashew, almonds sesame seeds, flax seeds
* Cystine level increase requires more sleep
* Sprouts for protein rich diet

* Vitamins:
+ Biotin for feather production, found in Vitamin B: self generated not found in seeds, but eggs

+ Omega 3 fatty acid + vitamin A - spinach for skin and feather. Vitamin A is required for feather color and pigmentation. Source: spinach, carrot, apricot, broccoli, parsley, bell peppers, bok choy. Vit A rich diet also required to avoid respiratory, reproduction and digestive disorders

* Vitamin D3 for feather attachments, also required for absorption of calcium, egg production, calcium, neurological activity. Sunlight (unfiltered window) or UV light.

* Vitamin C source: bell peppers, brocolli, cherries, kiwi, guava

* Calcium rich diet for attachment of feathers. Calcium affects - neurotransmitters, affects mood. Source: Cuttlefish bone, mineral block and Quinoa.

* Red millet: red millet/finger millet contains more carotene pigments than white varieties (3.4 mg/kg vs 1.8 g/kg) and is the best option for plume colour support.

[mona]

Cookie & Breezie are very sleepy and active for singing/playing for hardly an hour. Rest they are active for only food and sleep rest of the time. They seem so tired. Cookie is so cranky and Breezie is scared of Cookie - the extreme reversed persona

I'm almost giving them everything listed above, except striped sunflower seeds, fruits and nuts. Have been giving egg twice a week..maybe will increase it. Tomorrow, I'll give them the multivitamin and herbal tea. I'm keeping them warm, since I heard them sneeze in the evening since last two days. Letting them sleep as much as they want it. Poor babies 😔 My heart goes out to them!

It's so sad to see them like this!

[willowsmum]

Poor buds, it sounds like this has been a really hard moult mona I hope they are through it soon.