Colour transformation on one of my lovebirds...

[personatus]

Rather than me type everything again on here, the story is on my website! Take a look. One of my edged masked lovebirds lost all his colour in the past few months....

http://www.agapornis-personatus.com/?page=colour-transformation

[linda040899]

I've never seen/heard of anything like this before! Any thoughts as to why it happened???

Thank you for sharing this with us!

[personatus]

I really don't have a clue!

I have spoke to various people, including Dirk van den Abeele about this and there's no real explanation. It's a random eumelanin reduction across the bird.

What I find odd is, the eumelanin (dark pigment) has gone from plumage and the feet, but not the flight feathers? The eyes and flights feathers, up until now, remain untouched, although the bird is still developing further....there's very little green left on the bird now and the black has almost gone totally from the head!

I first thought it could be 'mottle' or progressive pied as it's sometimes refered to, but that works differently though. The bird loses eumelanin from a couple of feathers each time it moults, so each year it changes appearance. After a period of 4-5 years worth of moulting the birds have lost most their colour. However, my bird lost it all in a matter of months, not years, plus is started when he was about 5 years old? That rules mottle out.

I spoke to Guido the original breeder at the International show, and he told me he has various young from this bird and he will keep hold of them to see what happens with them.

Sometimes we get freak modifications, like this blue bird with a red beak: http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt61/personatus/modifications/DSC_0310.jpg

and this strange pied bird with crazy markings and red eyes:
http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt61/personatus/Personatus%20Mutations/Blue%20Series/Dominant%20pied%20red-eyed/photo.jpg
http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt61/personatus/Personatus%20Mutations/Blue%20Series/Dominant%20pied%20red-eyed/photo2.jpg
http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt61/personatus/Personatus%20Mutations/Blue%20Series/Dominant%20pied%20red-eyed/photo7.jpg

(the above bird is another genetic modification, it has been seen a few times before where a pied bird has 1 or 2 red eyes - shows pied birds can have eumelanin reduction in the eyes too)

However, these birds were all born this way, never occured after 5 years!

The bird is fit and healthy. He may look puffed up or thin in one pic, but thats just the way the camera captured him. Even so, I don't know of any illness or condition that causes an eumelanin loss? For now I just class it as a bit of a mystery!

I lost one of my best looking edged birds, but in return I got a new case study I can follow carefully lol :D

[linda040899]

I've seen some pretty strange things in my breeding career and this is one more to add to that! Thank you for sharing the photos! It's very fascinating, even though there's no explanation.

The blue bird with the red beak was a real eye opener, as it's not something you expect to see! The two colorings just don't go together!

[personatus]

Yeah I love the blue bird with the red beak, this is a striking combination!

I will get some updated photos of the mystery bird, its been 10 days since the last ones and hes still losing the colour! Almost looks like a dark eyed clear now!

[linda040899]

I'll be looking forward to seeing more photos of your mystery bird. I wonder what the final feathering will look like and how long it's going to take before you see that final color.....

[personatus]

Somebody suggested it could be PFBD. I don't know hardly anything about this virus, but I've never heard of physical eumelanin reduction been a common symptom? Anyone else? Alot of my birds have been tested at the original breeders, but I'm paranoid now so will get him tested. :(

[linda040899]

If the cause is PBFD, I would be shocked. You've had him long enough where I would think he would be contagious to your other lovebirds and you would most likely be seeing signs in other places. All of your lovebirds have beautiful feathering so I think PBFD is stretching probability just a little bit. I know it can be carried with no symptoms for quite some time so I guess the right thing to do is do the test.

Usually, changes in feather coloring show as dull brown or dull grey. Feathers lose color rather than change color. I don't have any first hand experience with the disease and I'm very careful where all of my new stock come from. I actually have a pair of Abyssinians that survived PBFD. They were imported from Belgium and tests indicated that they had had the disease at one time and survived. They tested negative before I got them so I didn't worry about adding them to my flock.

[bird-brain]

Vitiligo maybe? I know that they have done a lot of research on human vitiligo by studying chickens with it. I have never seen a photo of a bird with it so I don't know if this is the progression but I know that it can occur in birds other than chickens. It is suspected as an autoimmune disease.

[Chickobee]

This is fascinating! It will also be interesting to see if this bird's babies have inherited this. But, if it takes five years to manifest it could be quite a while before the breeder knows.

I also love the coloring of the blue bird with the red beak. Has that one had babies? It would be interesting if that could be repeated. I think it's beautiful. How frequently does something like this occur? Do they have a section at the bird shows for unusual birds like the ones you have? That would be so interesting to see!

[personatus]

This is fascinating! It will also be interesting to see if this bird's babies have inherited this. But, if it takes five years to manifest it could be quite a while before the breeder knows.

I also love the coloring of the blue bird with the red beak. Has that one had babies? It would be interesting if that could be repeated. I think it's beautiful. How frequently does something like this occur? Do they have a section at the bird shows for unusual birds like the ones you have? That would be so interesting to see!


I don't know who owns the blue bird with the red beak. I took the photo at the international show in 2009. Modifications like that don't occur very often, but they have been documented before. At the show here there is a section called 'study group' where such birds are displayed. There was a line or red fischers at this years show.

I did make some videos of the birds at this years show, not sure whether I posted them or not though?

I have updated my website with new photos of the bird who is changing colour.

http://www.agapornis-personatus.com/?page=colour-transformation

[Chickobee]

You did post the links for the videos from this year's show and I enjoyed seeing them. I had some trouble reading some of the labels on the cages but I loved the videos. I haven't been to a bird show before so it was very educational seeing the set up and how the birds were arranged, as well as the show cages. I thought it was great that the areas were roped off too so people couldn't get right up to the cages with the birds.

You did a great job taking the videos, and it was nice of you to share them so we could all enjoy them. :)

The changes in your bird are amazing. No one would ever believe it was the same bird without the progressive photo record if the changes. Do you plan to take that one to a show? I'm sure other breeders would like to see it also, along with photos of the changes.

Your website is great!

[bird-brain]

Oh my what a change over the last month. He's actually quite beautiful. I am really on the edge of my seat waiting for the answer to this mystery.

[personatus]

Don't think there will ever be an answer. The bird is used to shows having won gold and best in series a few years back...unfortunately he is no longer that wonderful show bird, but he sure is different still! I may take him to one of the club days next year to show the original breeder.

Once all my chicks here are feathered I will send some blood samples off to the labs for testing and DNA'ing. I got some wonderful pied masked babies coming into feather now :)

[bird-brain]

Congrats on the new pieds! I hate unsolved mysteries! :) Very special birdie you have there!

[lemonypickett]

My dogs nose is changing fom black to pink.... as well as her feet pads, lips, eye skin, etc. The vet says she has vitalago, the Michael Jackson disease. I wonder it that is what is causing this in your bird....

[personatus]

possibly something similar.

[personatus]

Update on this;

The birds colour is returning very well now, i would say about 75-80% of the colour has now returned. I'll make new, updated photos soon. Quite some bird, he has been dominant edged, dominant pied, recessive pied and DEC all in the space of 18 months LOL!

I believe the whole incident was down to moult stress. The birds were upstairs in the bird room, then they were moved to the lower floor birdroom. Then they were moved outside then back inside a few months later. Everytime the birds environment changed, they moulted. Too many moults seems to have stressed the bird and the eumelanin process stopped working for whatever reason.