Feather loss/lack of feather growth

aralitra · New Member Joined: Apr 01, 2009 Posts: 1

Hi all,

I have been researching Kakariki's on behalf of a friend who bought one off a local lady last year as a chick.This lady does breed birds but from the information I have found, is not very knowledgable about their individual specie needs.
The cage given with the bird is a small parakeet cage, which as I've read is very unsuitable for such an active brd!
The reason I have been trying to find info on them is that this particular bird lost nearly all it's feathers (it is mostly yellow with a bit of green AND red on its head). My friend queried the lady over this and was told it was supposed to happen and that the feathers will grow back to cover the bird in one single colour - again, this seems contrary to what I have read on this site and others like it. The lady then suggested to get a water spray and spray the bird through the bars a few times a week to get it wet.
The feathers however are not growing back which makes me wonder about other problems that a kakariki would commonly suffer.
I have suggested to my friend that a bigger cage, a more varied and wetter diet (as it only gets fed bird food) and regular time out of the cage may help it along with a larger water bowl for it to bathe in too.

Please can someone suggest a simple treatment to try or if the bird could possibly have a mite or skin ailment that needs treatment??? Sorry it's such a long query but I think all of the above may have a an affect on the bird physically so I thought it's best to give the full picture.

Peter · Foundation Member Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 599

Unlike many other parrots Kakariki's need more proteins throughout the year. Feathers consist of 91% proteins. It is important that these proteins are present in the food in order to maintain a 100% feather developement. Unfortunately it doesn't in a diet that excist mainly of seeds. An easy way to administer proteins is eggfood.

Another possibility is the presence of feathermites. These are easy to treat with Ivermectin pour-on.