Post: POWDER DOWN QUESTION

Posted by Erin on 7/08/08

Hi, just posting this in the Parrot Section too, in case
it gets missed on the other section.

I visited a Goffin's Cockatoo that is being rehomed.
It has alot less powder then I would have imagined. If you
rub it some powder comes off on your clothes, but not as
much as with my African Grey. I expected a Goffin
Cockatoo to be much dustier then a Grey.

I checked the powder down feathers (on the flanks) and if
you rub those there is alot of powder comming off. The
beak and nails and all feathers are normal, including the
flight fleathers and countour feathers that are growing in
(blood supply is normal color, feather is not deformed).

Do Goffin's naturally make less powder? Did I just expect
her to be much dustier? Could this bird have less
powder because it plucks its feathers and takes out the
powder down feathers so doesn't produce as much? I could
see alot of holes on the flanks under the contour
feathers where feathers had been plucked out. There were
many holes around the patch of powder down on the flanks,
so I am assuming she may have less of these feathers
intact then the average Goffin.

I know the birds may pluck out the powder down when they
no longer produce powder, but I mean there was patches of
no feathers, not just like a few missing. I could see the
hole from which the feather was plucked out of.

Or it is most likely PBFD? Or are there other reasons for
less powder (like the plucking)? Or dietary reason? Etc.

(just as security, I wear clothes and slippers that I can
throw out when I go to visit birds that are being rehomed,
and I go to my mom's to change and take a very long, very
hot shower).

Posts on this thread, including this one

POWDER DOWN QUESTION, 7/08/08, by Erin.