I was going to repost this and add Eclectus in the title, so the Eclectus people would notice it.....but thought I was in another group where I'm a manager and could delete the original.....I can't do it in here. 

 

I don't have an Eclectus so I can't tell you anything about what their feathers should look like.  A couple people in here do, though, so you should have some input soon.

First thing I thought of was stress marks from poor nutrition but stress marks usually are horizontal areas that are lacking color. When held up to light, you can see thru them. But I have never seen vertical marks next to the shaft. May be a similar problem since you are aware of her previous diet.  Being this soon after her change in diet these next feathers may not be the best either. I hope they are but since her diet was changed so recently her body has to absorb the nutrients for good feathers.

I don't think you have mentioned which species of ekkie she is.  Do you know?

I went to my bags of molted feathers looked at several of Diana's from before she became a plucker and they are perfect. No little streaks or holey looking places on them.

Eevie will improve but you'll have to be patient since she was fed so badly before.

Good luck.

Annie

Ok, I had to do an experiment before I responded.  I took a molted out B&G feather, severe macaw feather, and eclectus tail feather and held them up to a light.  No little holes in either the macaw feathers, but I duplicated your observation with Shannon's tail feather.  My theory is that since an eclectus has a bit different feather structure than other birds (the "fur" feathers) their feathers would wear differently than other birds.  All the little "clear" spots on Shannon's molted out larger feathers correspond to either the edges where they've been worn or on the vertical shaft where they've rubbed against other feathers.  I think diet is going to have something to do with how quickly the feathers get "ratty" looking. 

This is Shannon.  See all those black spots on his feathers?  Those are patches where his feathers have worn down.  The little turkey likes to do wing flapping inside his cage.  See the black on his shoulders/back?  That's where I rest my chin or place my hand to steady him.  Even though I wash my hands and face before playing with him, there's still enough oil on my skin to cause his feathers to wear faster in those spots. 

 

I'll bet that once you get Eevie on a better diet and she molts out all her old feathers she'll be beautiful. 

 

<Snicker.> I went to the ekkie board to see if that's where you put it.

I read from the All Topics board so have to backtrack to see if stuff is where it oughta be. Sure enough, it is.

 

I have had a few birds with stress marks and they were not the color of the feathers but weren't black either. Maybe the color of the feathers plays a part in that. My scarlet macaw's were grey on the red tail feathers.

Annie

It isn't you. MSN does things differently than other groups sites. Sure is easier to read from All Topics, but then you have to remember to use the drop down menu above the message box to get the messages into the right category.  Doesn't take long to get into that habit.

Annie

 

 

 

 

 

Ye olde ratty tail feather.  Looks very much like Eevie's feather, if you look down at the end where it's worn out the most.  Really hard to get a good picture of it, but that looks about the same...what do you think?

 

Shannon wants to know if Eevie has a boyfriend?  He's a Solomon Island guy.  All the other girls here are lots bigger than he is.