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Post: Difference between MITES and banged up feathers ..

Posted by HELP! on 3/23/09

I was wondering if anyone can explain to me the difference
between the look of mite damage on feathers and the birds
just beating the feathers up by playing?? My mom has a
scarlet that has recently gotten really ratty looking
feathers. Not "molting ratty" just plain ratty. The have
tiny holes that i noticed when i looked at the feathers
against a light ... the holes are in the barbs. none of the
damage is on the large wing feathers and tail feathers ...
just basically the small wing and belly feathers .. none on
the head or neck feathers either. i've tried to find info
on the web but there's soooo little out there ... at least
i'm not finding it! the bird is pretty young .. he's 2 so
he's playing with his toys ALOT and i notice he beats them
up pretty good with a couple of his toys lol he has a good
time!

any help would be appreciated! Oh! also there are black
lines on some of the feathers and look like square cut outs
on some of them! some of the edges are fringy too ... i
dunno if i explained this well but i hope i did! HELP

Posts on this thread, including this one

Difference between MITES and banged up feathers .., 3/23/09, by HELP!.