Feathers changing colors

Question
We have a green winged macaw.  Got him at 4 months, hand fed,he is now 27 months.  We clip his first 5 flight feathers.  Recently the first feather is coming back mostly white in color with a touch of yellow.  Why would this be?  We also got a blue and gold that is 10 years old about a year ago.  She allows no one but my husband to handle her, is this normal?  Just as added info--they have their own cages next to each other, and the green wing spending alot of time on the blue's cage.  I think their diet is ok, natural light could be improved, just not sure about this color change.  Any ideas?  Thanks!  Julie

Answer
Julie-

The coloring change of your Green-wing macaw is not normal. I would recomend contacting an avian vet to get his/her advice. Uusally changes in coloration or feather condition are caused by health. (Either because of a poor diet or a diet that might be lacking something *like a particular vitamin or mineral*, stress, humidity or a couple of other factors).

Some parrots as they mature will have their coloring change. Sun Conures are the perfect example of this. They start out with a lot of green. Their backs/wings are virutally all green when they are babies. But as they mature and go through their first couple of molts- they develope that yellow and orange coloring that sun conures are so well known for. However, green-wings do not have any yellow/white coloring normally.

Visit this website for some wonderful shots of normal, healthy coloring in macaws (they are beautiful photographs too!) :)

http://www.parrotsinternational.org/Greenwing%20Photos_1.htm

As far as your blue and gold only accepting your husband... Unfortunately, undersocialized birds can develope this habit. And some indivuals (no matter how well socialized they are) will be more prone to this bad behavior than others. Your blue and gold's previous owners probably never worked with him to keep him well socialized. (Or maybe he came from a poor breeder, who never socialized him well to begin with). Birds in the wild live in flocks with many, many other flock members. It is not natural for a parrot to only socialize with one other individual. However- it is normal for parrots to form and bond more strongly with one member of the flock than the other memebers. This "favorite" would be a bird's mate. In captivity... a bird's favorite person is usually the person they view as their mate.

Here are some articles that should help you re-socialize your blue and gold macaw:

http://www.companionparrot.com/articles/differentstrokes.html (there is a section in this article called "Introducing Parrots to strangers") many of the same techniques work for re-socializing a bird too.

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww5eii.htm

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww20eiv.htm

I hope this helps! :)

-Maggie