Sun conure molting?

[gibson981]

Is my sun conure molting? For about a week, whenever I bring him out to play or walk up to his cage when he is playing on top, I notice that there are a couple of loose looking feathers. If he flaps his wings, those feathers float in the air. Also, for the past few days, his play is a little more aggressive. I give him a once over at least every couple of days. I never notice any bare skin patches. If he is molting, is there anything I should be doing for him? Humidity? Heat? Cold?

 

[DebsFlock]

Baths are good during a molt, but they are also good everyday anyway. To be honest, the only thing I really notice when my guys are molting is that there are lots of feathers on the ground/cage/playtop and that they get itchy pinfeathers. I try to help with the ones on the head and neck when they are mature enough to remove the sheaths. I've never noticed major mood swings and I think if nutrition is already good, there isn't any need to change up anything. It may sort of work the other way, in fact, when our found cockatiel started molting I thought he'd never stop! I suspect being well-nourished triggered him to drop every feather he owned, but he looks really good now.

It's a normal process once or twice a year... just like shedding in a mammal. If it starts to be a continuous molt, you might try installing some lighting on timers, but other than that it's not something I really fuss over.

 

[Kantia]

Is my sun conure molting? For about a week, whenever I bring him out to play or walk up to his cage when he is playing on top, I notice that there are a couple of loose looking feathers. If he flaps his wings, those feathers float in the air. Also, for the past few days, his play is a little more aggressive. I give him a once over at least every couple of days. I never notice any bare skin patches. If he is molting, is there anything I should be doing for him? Humidity? Heat? Cold?

Normally during a molt you won't find any bald patches. Tich is going through one right now and I find half a dozen feathers a day.
As DebsFlock said, baths are very good for molting. And they can reduce the itching of new pin feathers.

 

[gibson981]

Ya. I keep a ceramic bowl on his play top with 20 ounces of water in it. It's big enough that 20 ounces is only as deep as half a dime wide. Plenty of room in it for him to splash around.

 

[bettietheripper]

My conure is going through it right now, and she's very moody. A lot of loose feathers and, what I'm assuming, are pin feathers (literally look like white-ish pin shaped hard sticks) all over her face and neck. At least I hope they are pin feathers!