Birds like to keep their appearance up by preening themselves, making sure that they take regular baths, and wiping their beaks off if needed, but some parrots will still start to look scruffy.
This article is a look into why your parrot looks scruffy.
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Why does my parrot look scruffy?
A healthy bird takes good care of its appearance no matter how much effort this takes, so if your bird starts looking bad this means that there is something going on with the bird.
Here is why your parrot’s feathers may start to look scruffy:
Molting:
If your parrot’s feathers are starting to look bad, and the bird hasn’t molted its feathers in a while, then the bird may simply be about to molt
By the time that your bird’s feathers are ready to molt they likely look raggedy, dull and scruffy.
The molting process allows all of these old feathers to fall off and enables the bird to grow new, fresh, and beautiful feathers
What to do:
This is quite normal and natural, your bird likely looks quite bad during this time and will likely continue to look quite bad throughout the molting process but don’t worry this is normal.
That being said, while molting is normal it can be quite uncomfortable for the bird.
You can help the bird by putting your bird in a humid area or misting your bird to relieve the irritation that it may be feeling.
Feeding your bird a healthy diet during the molting and feather regrowth phase is also recommended so that the bird’s new feathers grow in as well as possible.
Also, let the bird be and simply allow it to molt in peace, don’t handle it during this time.
Mineral deficiency:
If your bird’s feathers start to look frayed and scruffy then the bird may be suffering from a mineral deficiency.
A lack of vitamin D in particular will result in birds growing feathers that are dull, tattered, discolored, ruffled, and scruffy overall.
What to do:
If your bird seems to be suffering from some sort of mineral deficiency then you would need to take a closer look at the bird’s diet and make sure that the bird is eating the correct pellets for its age and weight
You may also want to give the bird a mineral block to eat as a supplement to its diet. The bird will eat as much as it needs
Feather destructive behavior:
Your bird may start to look scruffy because it has a condition called feather-destructive behavior.
As the name suggests, birds will be destructive towards themselves by picking their feathers out, this picking will make the feathers fall out.
The bird may also chew on their feathers or shred the feathers at the central shaft. All this will make the bird’s feathers look scruffy.
This is quite common in companion parrots but isn’t something that any bird owner wants for their pet. This is a sign that something is wrong and that you’d need to intervene.
What to do:
The reason why your bird may be doing this may be that the bird experienced a triggering situation that caused distress and resulted in this condition.
Other reasons for this behavior could include an incorrect or lacking diet, stress, and anxiety, increased hormone production that becomes chronic because of the conditions in your home, not enough opportunity to bath, not enough rest, not enough exercise, and the ingestion of foreign and toxic substances.
You would need to figure out what triggered this behavior in your bird and then correct the problem.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Parrot Feathers Turning White?, Sun Conure Feathers Turning White, Why Do My Budgie’s Feathers Look Scruffy?, Brown Spot On Cockatiel Beak, Brown Spot On Parakeets Beak