Is he molting or plucking?

[MomtoPercy]

Forgive my paranoia but I found all these feathers under Percy's gym today. They were not there this morning so he's lost them all in the last eight hours. Is he molting or could it be plucking?

He looks healthy, happy and full of energy and life.

But, all these feathers?

Worried

 

[tab_xo]

Ohhhhh really.. 6? Is that it?

Fargo loses about 20 a day when he goes through his big molts... Thank god his is finally over.. I was sick of picking up feathers upon feathers!

Last years molt got about 300 feathers in my jar...

Nothing to worry about


Oh and i love your paranoia, we were all like that :09:

Honestly, the first few months i was paranoid i would wake up and find him dead on the cage floor... Then every tiny thing about him i would freak out about It gets a little easier, still paranoid, but not so much

 

[MomtoPercy]

Ohhhhh really.. 6? Is that it?

Thanks for being kind . I am a total pain (even to myself) because of my dang paranoia about Percy.

How does one know when they are molting? And what is a 'big molt'?

About plucking - is it usually confined to the torso area? I know its something only captive birds do and that it is difficult to correct once they start. Does it only happen to "poorly kept" birds? Or could happy contented birds also start?

 

[tab_xo]

Hahaha

Do you see pin feathers on Percy?

When Fargo is going through a big molt, he feels like a pin cushion, and there are just soooo many pin feathers, it feels horrible... Theres sometimes about 5 pin feathers in one clump

and in a cuddle session, when he leaves i have feathers over me :54: hahaha



An avian vet told me that it could also start at their feet.... :20:

Stupid vet told me Fargo was plucking, wasn't even examining him.. Little did he know that there were about 3 pin feathers on his foot which had made it look bare... Went to ANOTHER avian vet a week later who said he didn't even wanna get started on that vet.. and that Fargo was 100% healthy and incredible feather condition


I think as long as the bird is happy, healthy, and has things to do.. Which i KNOW Percy has hundreds of toys then it will be fine..


Fingers crossed i never have to deal with it either!

 

[Captsteve]

As Tab said, you will start to find pin feathers on him, everywhere!LOL

Your little fluff bunnie will feel like a pin cushion and might get a little grumpy. Lots of showers seems to help soften the pin feathers and make him more comfortable.

You will know when the big molt hits, there will be enough feathers around that you will think he is hiding another bird in his cage. Don't worry too much, it's a bird thing!

 

[MomtoPercy]

Thanks guys! So nice to talk to people who get the paranoia! :09:

I saw one big sheath under his wing yesterday (which is gone today) but I can't say I've seen pin feathers. He's not a touchy feely boy so I can't say I've felt pin feather...or much of anything else :54:

I try to give him regular showers (at least every second day) but the weather has been iffy the past few days so he hasn't had one since Friday. Hopefully tomorrow it will be warm and sunny.

Thanks for the input, info and advice

 

[crimson]

funny you should post this, I have been noticing the exact same thing in Willow.
I was wondering if this is her first molt, or something else, I too am paranoid that she is plucking herself when I'm not around.

she seems to be scratching a lot, now mind you the weather is cold now, -18 F....brrrrrrr!!

I have the humidifier going all the time, and have been misting her daily.
If I tried to see if she has any pin feathers, I'd be sure to loose a few fingers, so it's only a guess right now....

 

[Kalidasa]

You can usually tell if the larger feathers have been plucked if you see any blood at the tip of the quill, if a feathers's not ready to come out yet it will bleed. Those look hollow and empty so they were ready to go

 

[MomtoPercy]

You can usually tell if the larger feathers have been plucked if you see any blood at the tip of the quill, if a feathers's not ready to come out yet it will bleed. Those look hollow and empty so they were ready to go

I did not know that. Thanks so much for pointing that out!

 

[GaryBV]

Hi MtP - I wanted to address your plucking concerns. If your bird is plucking it would not be something that you would have to guess at, it would be obvious, and can happen quickly, and you would be seeing bare skin. In other words, I don't thnk Percy is plucking so don't worry yourself about it. As to where it happens - I've seen it everywhere. When I got my Beanieboy his back was bare, his wings and he had no tail feathers at all - but his chest was feathered. I've seen other birds with bald heads, and bare chests, so as far as I can tell, I don't think there is a 'usual' place for them to pluck, anywhere they can get too seems to be the case. And I also don't think it is only poorly cared for birds at all, some very healthy birds are pluckers - that if a physical reason for plucking has been ruled out (allergy, mites, etc), it is generally mental, and on what causes that I think there is a lot of confusion. Stress seems to make it worse, also, it can become a HABIT, which then makes it even more difficult to break. My Beanieboy was very well taken care of at his previous home, had a great cage, the owner was a very nice woman who genuinely cared about him and his welfare. He was a seed fiend though, and refused fresh foods - I now have him eating pellets as well as seeds, soaked and sprouted seeds, and he races to the fresh vegetables now and he is fully feathered. Another thing is that some species seem to be more likely to be pluckers than others, and I think the bird most often named is the African Gray. I would add that I have never seen a plucked cockatiel, or parakeet I'm not saying that they never are pluckers, only I have not seen any cases with my own eyes. Anyways, I hope this puts you at ease a bit, I think Percey is just molting, or losing a few feathers. Plucking is not one of those things that you would have doubt about, it's either he is or isn't, there really isn't an in-between.

 

[Jayyj]

Alice's first molt must have taken a good five years off my life! Every time I got in from work there'd be 6-8 feathers at the bottom of the cage and I'd get a horrible knot in my stomach thinking she'd plucked them. Even now I don't like seeing loose feathers, and have to remind myself that it's a basic part of bird design to shed the old ones.

 

[MomtoPercy]

Thanks very much Gary, that was very informative! BTW, I actually saw a plucked parakeet at that horrid pet shop I've mentioned in a few posts. Very sad little thing

 

[SandyBee]

It looks like Molting to me. you probably have been finding lots of little white down feathers as well.
Also just as a note of interest it's not very often you will see an amazon pluck, they are one of the species that are least likely too.

 

[getwozzy]

I had the same reaction when Jackie started molting for the first time- I was eyeballing him all day every day to see what was going on lol

And Chili has yet to have her first molt...I'm guessing this spring since that'll be her 1st birthday- i'm interested to see how much her "adult" feathers differ from her current "baby" feathers. She loses a feather every now and then, and her down feathers crack me up- they look like white fluffy octopuses that float about lol

 

[MomtoPercy]

Percy and I play catch with his down feathers. I put one on my hand and blow. It drifta toward him and he tries to catch it. Great fun!

 

[getwozzy]

Haha!!!

My son (almost 2) likes to try and catch the floofies as they drift down while she preens on the boing lol

 

[SpotsandSally]

Honestly, the first few months i was paranoid i would wake up and find him dead on the cage floor... Then every tiny thing about him i would freak out about It gets a little easier, still paranoid, but not so much

Exactly how I felt. I still feel like it, but a bit more relaxed now that he's seen the vet. Honestly, some mornings I didn't want to get up because my gut just told me I'd see a stiff, dead Kiwi. Gaah! My first experience with parrots made me PARANOID.
Don't even get me STARTED when he started breaking BLOOD feathers! Thought he became a mutilator / plucker in a matter of 5 seconds! A bloody feather that your parrot is chewing is never a good sight (wether he pulled it out on purpose ill never know, but it was bloody and he was chewing on it. Then the giant patch of blood on his side after that...)

 

[MomtoPercy]

You guys are enabling my paranoia, by telling me how you're the same, you know....

SpotsandSally - I know what you mean about the vet. My AV told me that Percy is in perfect health and "obviously very well cared for so stop worrying" but I still worry.

Also - reading here so often how a fid was perfectly fine at bedtime and then a parront wakes up to a sick bird shivering on the bottom of the cage, does not help my paranoia either! Someone posted the other day that "birds are so much smaller than children even babies and so things affect them so much quicker". Well, that just sent me into a tailspin! LOL! Now I'm even worse than before.

One thing though - we are only this hysterical and paranoid because of love so it can't be such a bad thing, right?

 

[getwozzy]

You guys are enabling my paranoia, by telling me how you're the same, you know....

I am paranoid about A LOT of things lol so much so, that my dear husband often teases me for it

 

[cassiepengo]

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