Molting-when to worry about feather loss

Hey everybody. Tango, who's about 18 months old seems to be going through a pretty heavy molt.

I remember the same thing happening last summer around july-august and him also getting little bald patches on his wings where you could see the down feather (they grew back) but this time hes shed a couple flight feathers as well. (you can see when he spreads his wings"

It seems like it has affected his flight a little too, doesn't seem like he can hover as well, though personality wise he's still the same old bird.

Should I be worried? What can I do to make sure his feathers grow back strong? I started grinding up a little cuttlebone into his food for extra calcium and he gets plenty of pellets, fresh veggies and fruit. Tango has strange feathers as it is, but has always been a very strong flyer.

And...before anyone says "take him to an avian vet!" remember that I live in China. There is no such thing as a competent avian vet here. I wouldn't go to a local doctor myself, and at least they have some semblance of a medical education. I know someone who took a cat to a vet and got a lethal combination of drugs. I really wish I could, I certainly would if i was back in the US, but it's just not an option here unfortunately.

without going to a vet, there is no way to be certain and we can only speculate. But as my nearest avian vet is over 2hrs away i understand that its not always possible.

this is my thoery/ speculation on this matter.

At around 18months alexs start reaching maturity and if male start developing their ring and go through a heavy moult. I would check the shafts on the flights that have fallen out (if you can find them) if when checking them look for any sign of damage, ie if they have been chewed/ pulled out or if snapped. if they look clean and undamaged i would say its just him moulting.
if you go thru and find Ash's posts about Alex getting his ring, you will notice alex looking very scruffy, this is just normal moulting.

good luck and keep us posted

How are his feathers funky? I'm never worried about the amount of feathers lost during a molt unless I start seeing blood feathers or feathers that look like they were chewed off.

chop mixes are a fantastic way to get a lot of different veggies and some very healthy grains into their diet. I make it in bulk then freeze it. It's nice to have lots of variety of the way I present their foods, and the chop mix presentation is Rosie's favorite. Kenji also enjoys the chop mix, although he prefers fruit.

Do give him pellets as well? I went on Harrison's website and there is one vet office in Hong Kong that sells Harrison's. These pellets, especially high potency, are great for molting birds. I feed both of my fids year round along with other stuff.

here is there info,

[FONT=tahoma, FontName]Tai Wai Small Animal & Exotic Hospital
69-75 Shop B, G/F Chik Shun St[/FONT]
[FONT=tahoma, FontName]Tai Wai, Shatin N.T.
Hong Kong
Phone: 011-852-2687-1030
Fax: 011-852-2887-1077
email: [email protected] [/FONT]


I hope everything turns out ok

(ps, My grandparents LOVE Hong Kong, they go there every year to see a friend of theirs from the Vietnam war who is now a tailor)

Tango's feathers are strange in that he has a color mutation. The feathers on the top of his body are yellow rather than green.

I like Hong Kong too, most of what I said doesn't apply to Hong Kong. However it's not quite the same country yet, you still have to go through customs so I couldn't just bring the tangobird with me.

I'll check his feathers after work, if he pulled them out, would there be signs of blood?

He chews off his tailfeathers unfortunately...not pulls, but chews them off, has done that since he was a little baby bird. Poor little guy. He gets plenty of attention, toys and playtime.

Of course I want him to be a happy healthy bird, but tail/wing feathers or not he'll always be my little guy, but if there's something I can do to help please give me some advice!

it is possible there coukd be signs of blood but not nessecarily.

before i rehomed prince and bruno they were both kept together in a cage that imo is too small for 1 mature alex let alone 2. they did not have much out of cage time, they had no toys or even perches in the cage and from what i could tell (the cage was filthy) they were fed predominatly a sunflower seed diet. also although their flight feathers were grown in they could barely fly (boy has that changed).

i could keep rambling but this is about tango's feathers not the story of prince and bruno, but the reason i mentioned this is due to their circumstances bruno was chewing his flight feathers. Below are pics of the 2 he finished chewing off once he moved in with me. You will see 1 has blood but the other does not, but both have tatty hollowed ends.
Bruno has since stopped chewing the shafts of his flights but although i have not seen him do it, he has slightly barbered 1 of his flight feathers slightly.

i know tango's living situation is much different from what my guys endured (they were very loved, but i guess the former owners just didnt kbow what they were doing).

i guess if he is chewing them, as hard as it i woukd suggest taking him to a vet, but if ur worried about being told the wrong thing and him being unnessisarily medicated u woukd take him to several different ones for opinions before medicating.

gemini thanks for your help, I have the feathers at home, I'll have a look. I think i'm just overreacting because the loss is symmetrical so is probably just natural molting all happening at once. Poor little featherhead tango.

glad to hear that you saved a couple of great birds like bruno and prince from a bad situation, always interested in a bird story.

And of course I know you mean well, but i'm not kidding when I say a vet isn't an option. There is no such thing as an avian vet in mainland china, it's still just too primitive and backwards a place to really have care for animals beyond getting grooming services for designer dogs (where half the time they put them under for some reason!).

I'm not being cheap or anything, I'd fly him to my mom's house in san francisco if there wasn't the stupid bird flu outbreak last month causing a ban on birds from china coming to the US!

Im glad i did too, they are such great companions and where every one warned me that taking them in may affect my bond with oxy if anything i think it enhaced it and oxy has learnt so much from them about being a bird that i couldnt teach him.

They didnt cost me anything, and when i went to see them i was not 100% that i woukd take them but seeing the situation they were in i could not.
My partner was not to impressed that i took them in as he was worried about oxy and said if they didnt get alobg and work out in a month then tgey were going to either his mate ir my sister whovwere both looking for companion birds.
Within that month all 3 bonded quite well including prince feeding oxy. I was so glad tgat this happened as i could not afford to buy a new cage for them and hated them being in that tiny cage. At first oxy was very territorial over his cage but soon alliwed them to join him and tgey have lived happily (majority of the time) together for the past 3 months in oxy's cage.

Ha! well they seem to get along really well now. The 3 amigos

Hi

My male is at exactly the same point in his moult. There are a lot of flight feathers in the cage and he looks very tufty with loads of gaps.

He often picks up the dropped feathers and preens/chews them afterwards but it's nothing to do with plucking.

When the largest feathers go they often scream in pain for a second or two as the feather comes free. If it carries on for more than a second its helpful if you can let them flap.

Mines flight is massively down too...he can make trips around the room but can't hover and I'm really careful if he's soaked from the shower.

Its really interesting to see the symmetrical pin feathers when they are soaking wet.

thanks ian, glad to hear tango isn't the only bird going through this. He's been cranky lately and I can see why. Hope our birds re-feather ASAP.