Welcome @chazbrad

Hello and welcome, well this is not somthing i have observebd with Kaks, now when you say he is eating the feathers is he just chewing the endsof the featers he pulls out of the female
 
Hi @Chazbrad
There are many reasons and it does depend heavily on the circumstances of the feather removal.
Firstly do you definitely have a male and a female are they DNA sexed or are you presuming they are male and female and are unrelated to each other?

The circumstances would tell you why hmmm let me try and explain a bit better with some descriptions to go with what your seeing and that way it will give you a better understanding as to why and which one is applicable as to the feather being removed. Brace yourself there a bit of a list and some Sherlock Holmes for you to do!

If they are related siblings you will always find dominance and their reluctance to breed if they are indeed male and female and related - they should not be bred if related - separate and then find correct applicable correct sexed unrelated mates for them if this is the case.
Two birds of the same sex also a dominance thing - were you told they are male and female or are they dna sexed / a proven birds ie birds that have been matched but have bred before just with other mates and the relevant partner is definitely correct opposite sex.
Indeed sometimes if one is older than the other and the youngest not ready / old enough to breed then a spot of frustration can play a part of it all.
A pair of birds that are opposite sexed and the mutual preening goes one step too far with the yanking of an occasional feather that is then held nibbled and bits consumed can be a combination of things … a) a blood feather was discovered by one of them in the others feathers and pulled and eaten by which consuming nutritional value which means you have the amino acids incorrectly balanced in one or perhaps both birds and just need to tweak things feed wise or b) opportunity if it happens to be a damaged feather to just pull it and get rid of a damaged feather which will encourage a new one to grow especially if its a head feather that the owner of the feather cannot remove itself as its out of reach c) habit forming you often see a cock bird with a plucked head especially in birds like African greys and also in kaks which is an over bonding.
My kaks have been moulting for the last 10 days (I have 6) and it looks like somebody unstuffed a flipping duvet in my aviary and every body is itchy tickly casting and growing new ones and they have upped their bathing routine to compensate.
Is the plucked feather then held by the one that pulled it out of the other and then nibbled on etc or just discarded .....The composition of a feather is mainly keratin which has a low digestion rate of about 6% the vast majority of the nutritional content is in the feather shaft and that is often split open to gain the extra nutrients if some are lacking such as amino acids, can also have a bit of flesh or blood from the feather follicle attached at times so would be a protein thing.
Is it when sitting close together and mutual grooming and somebody yells part way through the preening and a feather is removed. Or one sits next to the other and the yell is heard as a feather is yanked out ….

Soooo if you can tell us which of the above most match behaviour then perhaps we can help you get to the bottom of the issue and fathom out the best way forward.
So to find out what the reason is need a better description of what is happening leading up to when the feather is plucked....
 
Thank you all for your reply. I am certain the yellow kakariki is a hen as she laid eggs shortly after I bought her as a pair from the same aviary. She had 4 eggs and the cock bird suddenly died for no apparent reason. I got another green cock from a different breeder so they are not related. This new bird I presume is a cock as it's bigger in size and has a bigger beak. They have not paired in any way and do not seem interested in each other. I have seen him land by her pull out a single feather and eat it all holding it in his claw.
Thanks
 
Two hens together can lead to fights especially in smaller spaces and can lead ro the deaf of one, i will not keep them together in a small cage, i have never kept kaks in cages once blood yrdt results are back
 
My aviary flight is 8x6 plenty of space , fed on parrokee mix , budgies and canary seed available and extra sunflower seed which I have the hen eating from my hand.
 
Back
Top Bottom