Male peacock loosing feathers

[vanconk]

He is about 5 years old. He has lost 75 % of train. Close to the end of the feather has a dry shell that comes off. I have wormed him with safe guard and put 7 dust in his dusting areas. He has been under a lot of stress lately but don't know if that is what s happening. Any advice would be appreciated. He lives in Durham NC.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

He is about 5 years old. He has lost 75 % of train. Close to the end of the feather has a dry shell that comes off. I have wormed him with safe guard and put 7 dust in his dusting areas. He has been under a lot of stress lately but don't know if that is what s happening. Any advice would be appreciated. He lives in Durham NC.

What you mean by stress? I have heard of males dropping their feathers if there is something annoying them in their pens, such as loud voices or something like that.

 

[DylansMom]

What you mean by stress? I have heard of males dropping their feathers if there is something annoying them in their pens, such as loud voices or something like that.

The dry shell sounds like the Keratin sheath. It is normal and as the tail grows the males should be picking this off each day when they preen their feathers, but sometimes they fail to do so. I have a male about 15 now and for 10 years now he has been "Lazy" and does not clean this sheath off, so every April we catch him and hubby holds him while I run a wire slicker brush down the underside of his train. Looks like it is snowing under him, we don't have to get it all off, the wire brush will damage what remains and it will slowly fall off as he displays and shakes, but what a Pain in the backside. I have never left it on, so I cannot say if it would cause premature molting??

Here is a picture as we prepared to brush it. The feathers look like they are in drinking straw wrappers.



He looks much better after brushing!

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

The dry shell sounds like the Keratin sheath. It is normal and as the tail grows the males should be picking this off each day when they preen their feathers, but sometimes they fail to do so. I have a male about 15 now and for 10 years now he has been "Lazy" and does not clean this sheath off, so every April we catch him and hubby holds him while I run a wire slicker brush down the underside of his train. Looks like it is snowing under him, we don't have to get it all off, the wire brush will damage what remains and it will slowly fall off as he displays and shakes, but what a Pain in the backside. I have never left it on, so I cannot say if it would cause premature molting??

Here is a picture as we prepared to brush it. The feathers look like they are in drinking straw wrappers.



He looks much better after brushing!

That's a lot of work! You're really taking good care of your birds, don't know if it's will cause this or not, but he said it was under stress, and i'm wondering what kind of stress? my friend green peacock lost many feathers of his train this summer when he had some workers working on his place with loud voices and much disturbance, after they finished the building his peacock stopped losing feathers, he wrote about it earlier this summer here.

 

[DylansMom]

That's a lot of work! You're really taking good care of your birds, don't know if it's will cause this or not, but he said it was under stress, and i'm wondering what kind of stress? my friend green peacock lost many feathers of his train this summer when he had some workers working on his place with loud voices and much disturbance, after they finished the building his peacock stopped losing feathers, he wrote about it earlier this summer here.

It only takes about 15 minutes and he is truly a "Lazy" bird, as I usually need to trim his toenails and his beak as well, and while we have him caught we give him a dose of wormer, try to get all the unpleasant stuff done at once. Honestly though after 10 years of this he doesn't get as stressed as he used to. We call it "spa" day, I think Minx came up with that. He is a favorite of most people who come to see the birds, I've had 2 ladies now who specifically said they wanted a male chick that would look like him when it grew up, and so far I have been able to do that for one of them, the other is still waiting. So having him looking his best is good for business.
I remember reading about your friend's male, that would probably stress mine out as well. They like to make the loud noise, not listen to it!

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

It only takes about 15 minutes and he is truly a "Lazy" bird, as I usually need to trim his toenails and his beak as well, and while we have him caught we give him a dose of wormer, try to get all the unpleasant stuff done at once. Honestly though after 10 years of this he doesn't get as stressed as he used to. We call it "spa" day, I think Minx came up with that. He is a favorite of most people who come to see the birds, I've had 2 ladies now who specifically said they wanted a male chick that would look like him when it grew up, and so far I have been able to do that for one of them, the other is still waiting. So having him looking his best is good for business.
I remember reading about your friend's male, that would probably stress mine out as well. They like to make the loud noise, not listen to it!

He seems to be smart enough to know that there is someone will do his job so why he should tired himself?

 

[DylansMom]

He seems to be smart enough to know that there is someone will do his job so why he should tired himself?

Yes, you may have a point there. I have another older IB male close to 20 now and I noticed this year he has left some of this sheath on some of his feathers, but not enough that it needed brushed out. I have quite a few aging birds now and I sure hope I don't end up having to do this for all of them.