 Baby Grey Photo by Jean Pattison [JPEG, 21k] |
 Baby Grey Photo by Jean Pattison [JPEG, 17k] |
 Baby Grey with a Jardine baby Photo by Jean Pattison [JPEG, 27k] |
 Baby Grey Photo by Jean Pattison [JPEG, 16k] |
 Baby Grey with a baby Timneh Photo by Jean Pattison [JPEG, 32k] |
The above young male African Grey (erithacus or CONGO Grey) has a large amount of RED feathering that is not normally found. The pictured bird above has been followed through its young life and all EXTRA red feathering was lost during his first molt at approximately 9 months of age.
Gwen Williams
Ottawa Canada
I have had numerous babies with extra red in their feathers. In each case the red has molted out at one year of age. The picture above is one. I have noticed that the formula seems to affect the amount of red - Hagen Tropican gives me a lot of red while Pretty Bird gives much less. In one case a baby fed Pretty Bird until six weeks of age and then Tropican until weaning had red in all the feathers or parts of feathers which were developning from 6 weeks on. I have also noted that some babies in a clutch will get extensive red while others will get none. Babies from some pairs are also more likely to get extra red than babies from other pairs.
In older Greys I have noticed that much brighter, solid red feathers sometimes occur if a bird has plucked feathers in that area. I believe that this is a result of damage to the feather follicles. Also of note is that my Meyers hen grows bight yellow feathers on her tummy where she plucks a very bare brood patch when nesting.
If you have any stories of Greys with extra RED, please share them with
us.