Weird Feather Cowlicks? After Full Body Molt

Duff, my female cockatiel who is 8 months old, recently went through what I can only call a full-body molt, as she had pin feathers on every part of her body. It was awful for her, so itchy, but she got through it and her new feathers are beautiful, she even went from a full, solid, dark gray on her belly and chest to a light grey with some subtle tan and almost some white pearl looking marks. She looks great, except for the cowlicks (only way I can describe them) she now has on both sides of her belly and chest. It's the areas right against her wings, they are really bizarre looking and she's constantly preening at them, like she's trying to get them to go down or something. Lol, it's like even she knows they look weird. They remind me of a Farrah Fawcett 70's "feathered" hairdo, lol.

Anyone else ever seen this? Doesn't bother me any, she's the sweetest little girl I've ever had and she could be completely bald and I wouldn't care, but she is quite odd looking now if you see her in person. My mom just saw her today for the first time (my mom used to breed cockatiels) and asked me where her new "wings" came from, I said "What wings?", and she said it looks like she went to bed with wet hair 😕. Duff did not find her humorous.









"Dance like nobody's watching..."

Looks like my Elvis while he is fluffed up.


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I forgot, disregard Duff's chicken butt, Mama had one of those "oops" moments last month right after she finished her molt 😏. She looked at me like "I just made that, thanks a lot".

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

Looks like a feather that has twisted slightly. My Amazons will do that from time to time. More common on a feather that is about to be molted. The area under or just in front of the Wings is a very common location.

Well it didn't occur until after she molted, lol. She's sitting on top of her cage right now trying really hard to flatten her new "wings" out, it's hilarious. It's like she's having a bad hair day and just can't get it to go the right way!

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

my tiel is like 6 or 7 months old and she has those too. They stick out sometimes. Sometimes they don't. I think they are cute.

YUMgrinder said:

my tiel is like 6 or 7 months old and she has those too. They stick out sometimes. Sometimes they don't. I think they are cute.

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They are cute, but they drive her crazy!!! They've actually gotten larger since I wrote this, she's got a a Charlie's Angels 70's hairdo going on!

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

haha ill try and get a pic of mine as well

EllenD said:

YUMgrinder said:

my tiel is like 6 or 7 months old and she has those too. They stick out sometimes. Sometimes they don't. I think they are cute.

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They are cute, but they drive her crazy!!! They've actually gotten larger since I wrote this, she's got a a Charlie's Angels 70's hairdo going on!

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

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LOL I was about to ask where is her tail... she has such a beautiful striking grey color. I love greys.

I remember when Rascal had "duck butt" from when he had night fright a few yrs ago I grabbed him by the tail to try to keep him from thrashing (big mistake) and he released his tail... oops. I will never do that again. :02:

It looks super cute when they start to grow those tiny baby tail feathers back though

Jazz gets them too sometimes lol