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Red feathers on wings?


mareeee

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Hi everyone,

 

Charlie, our TAG, is about a year old. Over the past month or two he has had some red feathers come in on his back and wings. Most of these new feathers are just partially, not completely, red... kinda like his tail feathers. We keep noticing more and more coming too. Is this normal? Is this a sign of some kind of deficiency or something? Certain gene trait? Or just random? He doesn't seem to notice or act any different and the feathers are healthy and shiny, but I just haven't noticed this on other AGs, so thought I'd ask.

 

I'm still a relatively new owner, so this may be a silly question.

 

Here's a picture to show you what I'm talking about.

charlies_back.JPG

 

Any response would be appreciated :)

charlies_back.JPG

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Um, I meant to post a different picture that showed his tail as well. Oops! (Getting behind him to take these pictures took some effort... lol. He doesn't like me sneaking around behind him where he can't see) :)

 

Anyway, here is the other one.

 

charlies_back_3.JPG

charlies_back_3.JPG

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Welcome to the board

 

Yes, it's totally normal. The same color pigment that's in the tail is sometimes in the feathers ogf the body. More than likely, your bird got them from either the parents or grandparents. It's a gene that can be temporary or permanent. It depends upon how old the bird is. Many times, the bird loses those feathers after their first or second molt. Other times, it's permanent. 95% of people who have birds with the carotoid excess color think that's very beautiful and are sometimes saddened when the feathers disappear. There's many pictures here of birds that are the same as your, even more extreme.

Abopve you'll see an area that says SEARCH FORUM. It's above POST NEW TOPIC. Type in RED FACTOR and you'll see what I'm talking about.

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Hey Dave! Thanks for such a quick reply. I did try a quick search before I posted this, but didn't know it had a name, so had no success. :blush:

 

I'm trying to read up on it now. Thanks for the info. This is pretty interesting!

 

I might find an answer in reading through other posts, but do you think that since they are just now coming in (around his 1st birthday) they have a better chance of staying, or does that mean that its more likely to be just an adolecent-like phase? Or like you said: it depends.

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There's no way to tell if it's permanent or temporary. Some birds lose the red feathers, some don't. The most important thing here is that your bird is perfectly healthy but only time and a couple of molts will tell you if it's here to stay.

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Dave, again, thanks for the response!

 

Great info and photos too.

 

Yeah, as long as I know its not because I'm depriving him of something in his diet or he has some weird disease, I'm happy. Red factor or no red factor :)

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  • 2 months later...

Hi everyone.

 

I just wanted to post an updated picture of charlie's evolving red-factor-ness. He has one all-red tail feather (Maybe he had a grandpa who went out back with a CAG...) and more red freckles too. This picture is actually about 2 months old though. Now he has a few more freckles and all the red feathers at the top of his tail are gone and that one feather is the only red in his tail! :)

 

charlie_02.JPG

charlie_02.JPG

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