Aggressiveness to Preening?

I am guessing that this is probably normal behavior, but since my RB2 is the largest bird I've ever had, I may have just never noticed the details of it before in my smaller birds. However, I just wanted to confirm with you guys and make sure, being a paranoid parront and all. Is it normal for a bird going through their first big molt to be somewhat aggressive in their preening?

When Lucille preens lately, you can almost hear the words in your head: "**** you, you ****ing feather, you think you're gonna slip through MY beak? Oh, no, I got you m*********er. Get back here, I'm preening, you b****!"

Seriously, that is how it looks when she preens! She's all puffed up so she can preen, but her crest is raised and she'll sort of yank the feathers through her beak. Not actually yanking them out, but pulling them through as fast as she can and sort of twisting them around as though she hates their guts and wishes they would all die. (Or fall out, LOL.) Then the second she's yanked it through her beak, she'll jerk her head back and yank the same feather through again with that angry sort of look to her. She looks especially angry when dealing with her flight feathers and tail feathers, like they are doing her a serious disservice by existing. She's not damaging them or anything, though I have to be honest they often look a little MORE ragged after she preens than they did when she started. And it's not boredom or anything, because she does plenty of other stuff throughout the day, destroying all kinds of things. But when she settles down to preen, she doesn't do it as nicely as she used to! I am wondering if maybe the itchiness of molting is making her feel like she needs to be more aggressive or thorough in her preening or something?

Like I said, I have only had conures, Quakers, and budgies before, so it's possible that they did this, too, during molts but I just couldn't see it as clearly since they weren't as big. It's just been adding to my worries, including how she seems to be super itchy under her wings and how she sometimes seems to be overpreening and preening in a way that it looks like she's trying to eat her wing (without making any feathers fall out but seriously twisting them around big time and gnawing away beneath). Yeah, so anyway, maybe I'm just worrying too much, but if there's anything I can do other than regular bathing (I am already giving her spray baths every day) to help her through this molt, I definitely want to do it.

This is Lucille's first major moult right? Young RB2's are very busy birds and get quickly irritated and this is possibly what is wrong? Have you any preening toys in her cage? Please don't give this behaviour any credit, ignore it! Instead of spraying her swap with a good drenching in the shower now and again, may help?

The youngster I look after I think used to get quite irritated with them but has calmed down. When they are in full preening flow they are quite vigorous especially with long wing and tail feathers, can hear Plum's feathers snap back when he reaches the end. Lucille may find the sensation of some of her feathers coming loose a bit strange for the first time, even Plum seems a bit irritated now and again. As long as she is not plucking then all OK.

Thank you so much--that makes me feel a lot better! I was getting worried because she was being so hardcore about it. Lucille will hate it, but I will try to get her in the shower with me (without her flying off the second the water falls!) I actually do have some preening toys, which she tends to quite enjoy. Likely the attitude with the preening of her own feathers is simply a sign of the molt escalating. I know that new pin feathers are erupting on her head on a daily basis, and I think it's driving her nuts. Either that or simply confusing her, as you said. Glad to know it's not abnormal behavior!

Plumsmum, always my savior!

See if she will let you gently break those head pins, Plum keeps pushing his head at me to get me to do it for him now. Take it slowly and careful to start with, see if she likes it?

Have you a shower perch? A shower should help loads, you can see if she likes it to be air dried or left to drip? You are welcome BTW, LOL.