I can’t tell what cockatiel molting looks like.

Kathrynn

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Apr 5, 2020
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My cockatiel has recently been dropping lots of feathers. More than usual. I don’t know if this is molting or maybe he’s bored and preening himself too much? I can’t get him to play with toys and he’s on a seed diet. (I’ve tried so much to get him to eat pellets and he won’t. I don’t know how to get him to eat them and if anyone has advice on getting cockatiels to eat pellets please let me know!) he seems perfectly fine personality wise, he doesn’t seem stressed he’s just dropping a lot of feathers. Is this something I’d need to take him to the vet for? I’ve added some photos of the feathers he’s dropped and photos of him. Thank you!
 

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Laurasea

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Aug 2, 2018
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Veggies would be great. Veggies and seeds would be good. You can try cooked veg, chopped, veg, lettace leaf, dried red chilli peppers, and any kind of peppers have good vitamin A.
You can make some oatmeal ad soaked the pellets in it as mush it up in the oatmeal miggt eat that way. Or add pellets to apple sauce, or scrambled eggs, or make bird muffins with oelmetssd seeds mixed in. Our sprout seeds that increases their nutritional.
Feathersook like molt. Think you ok
Need wide perches of different typesthsn just dowl for feet health
 

SailBoat

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Jul 10, 2015
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The diet upgrade recommended by my good friend above is a great upgrade.

'If' you live in the Northern Hemisphere and your days have become longer and your temperatures have been rising, it's Spring molting season!
 

LaManuka

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Sometimes moults are heavier than at other times, particularly ahead of a change in the seasons. Those feathers don’t look plucked to me. My Fang sometimes dumps so many feathers in one hit that I could use them to make another bird!

I once had a battle of wills with a female cockatiel, named Twinkle, who absolutely point blank refused to even recognise pellets as food, much less actually eat them. She resisted several attempts at conversion and every suggestion from my vet, the pellet manufacturers and the internet were all summarily and contemptuously rejected. Finally what worked for her was grinding her pellets up to a powder in a mortar and pestle and sprinkling it over her seeds, just so she’d get accustomed to the taste. Within a few days she was chowing down on them like she’d been eating them all her life! I’ve seen a few people report that it worked for them so it might be worth a try with yours. My two pellet eaters still get some seed in their diet too though, just for the sake of variety, along with daily leafy greens which they enjoy. Good luck with converting!
 

JPercopo

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Apr 22, 2020
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Connecticut
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2 Female (?) Cockatiels
Sometimes moults are heavier than at other times, particularly ahead of a change in the seasons. Those feathers don’t look plucked to me. My Fang sometimes dumps so many feathers in one hit that I could use them to make another bird!

I once had a battle of wills with a female cockatiel, named Twinkle, who absolutely point blank refused to even recognise pellets as food, much less actually eat them. She resisted several attempts at conversion and every suggestion from my vet, the pellet manufacturers and the internet were all summarily and contemptuously rejected. Finally what worked for her was grinding her pellets up to a powder in a mortar and pestle and sprinkling it over her seeds, just so she’d get accustomed to the taste. Within a few days she was chowing down on them like she’d been eating them all her life! I’ve seen a few people report that it worked for them so it might be worth a try with yours. My two pellet eaters still get some seed in their diet too though, just for the sake of variety, along with daily leafy greens which they enjoy. Good luck with converting!

That's such a great idea! We adopted 2 tiels Saturday, and they're not eating much. When they first get their food they're ravenous and pick out the few seeds they want out of it... I really want to get them on a pellet diet but they pick around them when I mix it with the seeds. I'm definitely going to try breaking it up! I've noticed they pick around all the bigger seeds and eat all the super tiny seeds (and LOVE millet), so grinding may be the way to go. If size is the issue, would budgie pellets be ok, or are the nutrients different? We've only had them for less than a week, and we were told that they're only around 6 months (but who honestly knows...) but haven't found any treats/food they especially like. I've tried the dry fruit treats (the cockatiel treat mix), the tropical tiel treat mix, spinach, carrots, lettuce, sweet bell peppers... they ignore it all. Any suggestions, or just wait until they acclimate a little more? I was hoping to help win them over with treats, but they don't seem interested in any treat but millet, most likely because where they came from fed them only crappy seeds, no variety, no nothing.
 

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