Molting or plucking?

[DexMom]

How can you tell the difference between feather plucking and molting? Dexter was beautifully feathered and lately I'll see a hand full of feathers in the bottom of his cage each day and I can tell the feathers covering his chest and neck area are kind of "splotchy" (if that makes any sense at all). My first assumption was that he was beginning to molt, but then I worried that he might be starting to pluck since our household schedule changed pretty abruptly when the kids and I went back to school a couple of weeks ago.

Is there a typical age at which they will start to molt? Dexter is 6 months old.

 

[solrac13]

Hello If he is only 5 months no way he is plucking, even do is strange for a 5 months old bird to molt, my Jade did a real molt at 2 years old, before that was few feathers ones in a while!

 

[Anansi]

Do you have any pics? Hard to go just by your verbal descriptions. Take a few shots of your bird from different angles, as well as pics of the fallen feathers and their shafts. That way we can help you more effectively.

 

[Mattroma]

What do you mean by a hand full of feathers? Are they all green feathers or are they soft down feathers, or a combination of the two? My birds are molting right now and the down feathers are everywhere.

 

[DexMom]

Here are the best pictures I could get. He would NOT let me take a picture of the back of him, but the feathers on the back of his neck are in similar patchy condition as those on his chest.

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I'm seeing about a dozen feathers similar to these each day. They look green on the ends and grey and downy near the shaft. I tried to get a good shot of the quill as I could. They don't look broken off to me.

 

[chris-md]

Dexter is such a cutie! How's his behavior? Has he gotten better?

I went through this line of questioning a month or so ago on here. It looks like he ends of the feathers are in tact (not chewed on) and there's no blood, I'd say this is definitely a molt. No worries here!

Tis the season! Parker has molted a LOT of feathers recently, and he's looking stunning. Much of his chest has returned and the back is a work in progress. Still waiting for under the wings to really start recovering though. I think hes going through a mojo moult because his head is looking pretty rough.

 

[DexMom]

His behavior has gotten MUCH better in the last month or so. We had a rough patch for a while where he was doing a LOT of biting, but he's come around. He loves me, likes the kids and tolerates the husband - all in direct proportion to how much time we spend handling him. Since he's being "nicer" the kids are more comfortable handling him now, so they're in a bonding phase. I'm trying to convince my husband that he really needs to spend more time hanging out with him before Dexter completely rejects him.

The only thing I'm struggling with right now behaviorally is getting him to step up each and every time I ask. If he doesn't want to come down from his cage-top playcenter, he will try to run away and start getting beaky. That needs to stop. I'm working on it.

 

[DexMom]

Since I suspect he is molting, I've added some extra protein to his diet - 1 tbsp of cooked egg every other day, 1 tbsp of cooked chicken on the days in between, extra beans daily and a birdy bread mini-muffin twice/week. Since he's gotten the last bit of the jumbo egg I prepared, I think I'm going to hold off on giving him any more of that (concerned with cholesterol). Any other ideas for getting protein into his diet? Do I need to make any other changes?

 

[JerseyWendy]

Those pictures helped tremendously! IMO Dexter is going through a molt. If you take a look at this thread, there are several photos to show the difference between molted and plucked feathers: http://www.parrotforums.com/behavioral/52217-plucking-search-answers.html

 

[DexMom]

Thank you so much!

 

[Anansi]

I agree with Chris and Wendy. He's just going through a molt. Definitely take a gander at that link Wendy provided. That thread is very helpful for telling the difference between molting and plucking.

As for his diet, in my opinion you should definitely pull back on the eggs. Once in a week is the most I would ever give, even during a hard molt. More likely once every other week. Eggs are quite high in cholesterol and the risk of arteriosclerosis is very real.

I would also cut the chicken down quite a bit as well. The extra protein is good, but every other day might be a bit much as well. Again, out of a concern for arteriosclerosis. Once a week should be fine. Maybe twice here and there.

 

[WilliamKenyon]

How old is he (sorry i have absolutely no idea). If he is a couple of years old he could be having what is called a mojo molt. A mojo molt is an extreme molt that adult eclectus have around their neck and head area. ( i will attach a photo example of a mojo molt). If he is not a couple of years old then he is probably just molting not plucking!. Anyway he is in beautiful condition and you should not worry as it looks like he is just molting.