is it possible for a grey to lose a whole bunch of feathers in one go?

Darci

New member
Jun 12, 2014
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Alberta, Canada
Parrots
Shadow - Six year old Congo African Grey
I have a five year old grey, I bought her in August. I went away for a few days and I had a friend care for her while I was gone. She appears to be just dropping feathers. She has one wing feather that she's always over preened but doesn't seem to be plucking from what I can see, and I have been watching. I'd say she lost 6 or so feathers in four days, two big ones last night (a small wing and a red tail feather) and another wing one today. They seem to be the same sizes and shapes, as if they are falling out in pairs. I didn't have her covered while I was gone, could this trigger a molt? A little more sunshine?

She has (and has always had) lots of toys as well as bags and boxes to forage from and my friend said she went through her foraging supplies. She doesn't appear to be using the toys though, and hasn't been using them as much lately though she has her spurts. But I figured maybe this is the kind of things where things ebb and flow, so I just started to try and make them in different patterns to recapture her attention.
 

Dinosrawr

New member
Aug 15, 2013
1,587
8
Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Parrots
Avery, a GCC born on March 5th, 2013 & Shiko, a blue IRN born on February 25th, 2014
My conure and IRN look like they've been smacked with a fly swatter some days after molting. Avery's cage was mottled with feathers the other day, actually - there were primary flight feathers, a tail feather, a lots of down and body feathers littered here and there. Shiko loses a lot of down and has lost a few flight feathers here and there.

As long as the feathers don't like barbered, and have a dead and quite old looking quill, I'd say it's safe to assume it's just a heavy molt.
 

RavensGryf

Supporting Member
Jan 19, 2014
14,233
190
College Station, Texas
Parrots
Red Bellied Parrot /
Ruppell's Parrot /
Bronze Winged Pionus /
English Budgie
Sounds like a normal pattern to me. I noticed from the larger feathers, they seem to go symmetrically in pairs within a couple days or so of the other.

I was almost embarrassed to post the last couple pics of Raven with how scraggly he's looking during his molt. He was looking so bad I was afraid people would think something was wrong with him or I don't take care of my birds, he looked that bad lol! Getting better, but still scruffy. It's his first big juvenile into adult color molt and it goes on then off for a week or two, then repeats and probably will until it's complete.

Sounds like your bird just may have been due for her regular molt, and now it's starting :) The not covering for a few days wouldn't change anything. Get the vacuum ready ;)
 

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