Greys and powdered feathers. I have a friend who just adopted an African Grey recently and what is curious is that its feathers are very dark almost a charcoal grey with the most vibrantly red tail I have ever seen on a grey parrot. This bird did experience an injury from another bird to one of its toes, the toe wound up having to be amputated at the very tip and its taken quite a long time to heal. The vet happened to notice the powderless condition of the bird  and together with the prolonged healing time, he suspected PBFD and sent the test out for this right away. Anyway, the short of it is that the test came back negative and my friend was relieved. So now the mystery still remains. My questions to you as a group are, do you know if there is anything else that could cause the powderless condition? Other than the dark quality of this birds feathers, this bird looks healthy. The feathers appear flawless even without the powder. Its feathers do have a very different texture to the touch than the other two greys my friend has which are very powdery and very soft. I would say the difference is like comparing rabbit fur to a cats or dogs. There is one more piece of history to this bird and that is that its former owner used to let the bird wander around the house unsupervised. He would often find it in the cat litter box. Could something the cat have make the bird sick? Someone also told my friend that there is a vairety or subspecies of African Grey that has very dark feathers; do any of you know or have heard about this?  I really appreciate any replys you may have. Thank you!