First Big Molt, Lost Partially Clipped Flight Feathers

[Puck]

My RB2 girl, Lucille, is going through her first full molt at just over one year old. She looks a mess and has been acting erratically in general lately, but recently she lost her flight feathers (she was partially clipped when I got her) and, therefore, her ability to fly. Since then she has seemed like a nervous wreck--not that I can blame her! She used to spend a lot of time on the top of her cage and rarely leaves her cage now. She prefers to mess with her feathers than to play with toys and when she gets scared (which is now over practically EVERYTHING!) she tends to try to fly only to fall and then try again then flap like a maniac. I don't know what to do! How long do you think it will be before her new flight feathers come in? I feel so bad, and I'm so worried, but I don't know what I can do for her! I feel like a terrible parront, and she looks so strange with her stubby, flight featherless wings!

 

[SilverSage]

Losing enough feathers to prevent flight is NOT NORMAL.

Please get your girl to a certified Avian Vet immediately for a check up and PBFD test!


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[EllenD]

Losing enough feathers to prevent flight is NOT NORMAL.

Please get your girl to a certified Avian Vet immediately for a check up and PBFD test!


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I'm glad you said this because I have never heard of any bird molting their flight feathers even near the point where they couldn't fly! The flight feathers should never molt that drastically all at one time. They molt slowly over time, so the bird is always able to fly.

You said she was "partially clipped" before you got her or before this molt? How much was "partially clipped"? It's possible it was a really bad clip, but if she was fully flying before her first molt started and then enough of her flight feathers fell out to stop her from flying, something is very wrong. I don't mean to worry you but you should get her to your avian vet ASAP and get her checked out and screened for PBFD just as a precaution.

A photo of her flight feathers would be helpful for us, I'm trying to picture wings that have molted so much at one time that the bird cannot fly, and I can't.

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

 

[Puck]

Oops, so sorry, apparently that was a REALLY bad description--I didn't mean she lost ALL the flight feathers! I was talking about the long primaries in the very front. She still has ALL the secondary flight feathers! Sorry, I guess I wasn't being very clear!

She came with a partial clip of the lower primaries clipped with the two main primaries at the end unclipped and the secondaries unclipped. She hasn't lost all the clipped primaries yet--she has only lost the main primaries that were on the end. She couldn't fully fly really before she lost the two primaries on the end, just fly enough to get from the living room to the bedroom. But losing the two long primary feathers on the end makes it so she can only glide down a few feet to the ground instead of being able to fly enough to go to another room, something she's never experienced since she's always been able to fly a little. She's actually been to the avian vet recently and they thought she looked fine.

Also, as to them all molting at one time: some of the shorter lower primaries have come in and there would still be some long main primaries at the end if they weren't clipped--it just happened that the unclipped ones that helped her fly better were the ones she lost and the clipped ones are the ones that weren't lost.

I'm just wondering how long it will be until she has her ability to fly a little back. She finds it really freaky not to be able to go anywhere!

Here is a picture: