Feathers falling out?

My 5-6 months old Sun Conure, has started losing those fluff feathers. Especially on her chest. She's not plucking and didn't seem to be over grooming the area. It's mostly the tiny feathers that are color tipped but have all that fluff at the base, and some just white fluff. The pin/barb at the end is clear and no damage to the feather itself. She just came into full feather about a month-a months and a half ago. Every time she flaps about 3 of the fuzzies fly.

She did see the vet do to minor weezing when she would get round up and was put on Doxycycline, Omega 3 booster, and a product called Bird Builder, since she is still insistent on 1 formula feed a day, though she does eat normal food.

The vet came to the conclusion either I was lied to about her age or she's a slow developer. She's active, sweet as pie, drinking and eating normal, eyes and nose clear. The vet said other than the bit of sound in her lung field she's healthy. Is this feather thing normal? My GCC doesn't do that.

My JoJo is also loosing several small feathers. She is also covered in pin feathers on her neck.

All birds will molt annually. This could be the start of the cycle for your Sun.

This is her. I'm guessing she's not 16 weeks. She weighs in at about 83grams at the vets. Here she had been fed about 20 minutes before.

Just a molt.

Seems like all of mine are dropping feathers right now too...

Is it normal to molt at such a young age? I thought they did that at the 1 year mark?

And THANK YOU Flboy, dhraiden, and Birdman666 for your help

I guess some can start a bit young. Griffin my Ruppell's parrot (poicephalus) started his first molt at about 5-6 months old too, which surprised me. He's going through his second one now (a year later).

I noticed that with Griffin, Raven, and Mink, during a molt, they will go on and off. On for a couple or few weeks, then off for a couple or few weeks, then so on until the molt finishes around the body. Robin seems to molt more lightly, but here and there throughout the year.

Edit: I just saw under your pics that you say you don't think your bird is 16 weeks old. Above, you said 5-6 months old. Which is it? lol ...and 83 grams seems very small even for 4 months.

RavensGryf said:

I guess some can start a bit young. Griffin my Ruppell's parrot (poicephalus) started his first molt at about 5-6 months old too, which surprised me. He's going through his second one now (a year later).

I noticed that with Griffin, Raven, and Mink, during a molt, they will go on and off. On for a couple or few weeks, then off for a couple or few weeks, then so on until the molt finishes around the body. Robin seems to molt more lightly, but here and there throughout the year.

Edit: I just saw under your pics that you say you don't think your bird is 16 weeks old. Above, you said 5-6 months old. Which is it? lol ...and 83 grams seems very small even for 4 months.

Click to expand...

I was told she was hatched late April. Which would make her about 4 months give or take a week, wow I'm off here.... I keep thinking its later than it is :/ I'm sorry. It is a bit concerning that one of the people I know online has a Sun Conure who is about the same age but seems bigger and the feathers are all in and pristine looking, with all that baby fluff underneath. My girls head/nevk and back are fluffy but her wings, chest and tail are kind of Shabby looking. The vet seems to think she's behind So he gave me something called Bird Builder fire her water. According to the girl who hand raised her she did have an issue emptying her crop a bit at about 2.5 months so they added Apple Cider Viniger to her formula.

She's eating normal foods in her bowl and only takes about a 35cc syringe of formula a day, I tried bumping her up to see if she's gain weight but she refused more than that 1 feeding a day. She also doesn't know how to... Well, how to bird. She acts more like a human than a bird. She wasn't around other birds other than to see them from a distance and was kept alone most of her life so she's not sure how to bathe in a bath bowl, she doesn't preen like my other Conure does, and other than blueberries she won't touch anything but her pellet mix. She uses a very light beak, almost as if she's unsure of how much pressure she needs.

Honestly she should not have been sent home to me and I asked for her to be fully weaned and fledged before I took her. As the other 2 from her hatch already went home and she was taking forever I think they pawned her off on me. They showed me how to mix the formula, and feed her, but she is still on one a day formula and they clipped her wings before she was fledged. Needless to say I won't be getting another from this lady. But it was either take her out leave her, and she's way to sweet and was bonded to me.

What did the vet say at the exam? All tests are normal?
Just curious, why is she still eating some formula? I got Gilbert in September and he hatched in July and he was completely on food for a bit before I brought him home.
Is she not eating enough on her own? My vet had me temporarily switch my sun conure to the high potency pellet (she was slightly underweight with low blood protein, even though she was eating.) My sun was also very fussy with food other than pellets (she would eat any brand of pellet with no fuss but was VERY fussy with regular food. I had to manipulate colors and textures to get her to eat.)

Looks like a molt. Buddy looks rough like your baby when he molts. Here's a shot of him where it looks like he has a hole in his head. It. Looked like this for a few weeks. Earlier this year he did his major molt and was looking rough. The second picture shows how rough he looked and yes people were asking. Third picture is of him after his molt.

ruffledfeathers said:

What did the vet say at the exam? All tests are normal?
Just curious, why is she still eating some formula? I got Gilbert in September and he hatched in July and he was completely on food for a bit before I brought him home.
Is she not eating enough on her own? My vet had me temporarily switch my sun conure to the high potency pellet (she was slightly underweight with low blood protein, even though she was eating.) My sun was also very fussy with food other than pellets (she would eat any brand of pellet with no fuss but was VERY fussy with regular food. I had to manipulate colors and textures to get her to eat.)

Click to expand...

Everything came back normal. Negative for PBFD too. She's eating normal food. Lafebers pellets and a seed mix. She's on Higgen inTune High Energy formula, as that is what the breeder gave me and what she had been on. I even mash up the pellets in baby food and she gobbles it down. She just munches through the day as desired and gets her formula around 3pm.

As far as why she's still on it, she took forever to get to once a day apparently. She will still get loud, Bob her head, and flap her wings, when her crop is empty. She's a destructive chewer too. Chews on everything. But the vet said the beak looks good. Not sure or deformed. Her chest feathers finally all came in so nice and now she's losing them, and so far I don't see shafts for new ones. Just the colored feather with white puff at the end. The one side of her chest and down her belly has a bald spot hidden under the feathers above. And her wing and tail feathers, and she beats her wings like a mad thing in the cage, seem tattered and dull.

That's cute. She is probably perfectly healthy and just having a messy molting phase. The feeding sounds like a little emotional comfort feeding that she still enjoys.

On a side note, the vet did place her on Doxycycline twice a day for two weeks, with an Omega 3 supplement as well.

ruffledfeathers said:

That's cute. She is probably perfectly healthy and just having a messy molting phase. The feeding sounds like a little emotional comfort feeding that she still enjoys.

Click to expand...

Thank you, RuffledFeathers! I just get so paranoid. She's my baby. She only wants 1 feeding a day so that's not bad, but she drives into her mush like no ones business haha.

Is there a way to begin breaking her of that emotional feeding? Anything I can give to help her gain weight?

Does she eat dinner with you? Maybe the social element of eating together will be fun for her to eat more and different foods. Gilbert will never say no to whole wheat pasta and veggies.
Other people may have some good ideas. I have never had to feed any of my birds formula (only time I ever hand fed a baby, it was someone else's and I was just helping.)

That's so young to be going through a molt, but if everything tested negative, then that's good. Hopefully this is just a little rough start, and things will turn out to be fine. She sure is a cutie.

I hate when breeders push them right out the door just for their convenience .

Here's a photo of my big red "oversized conure" and you can see she's got the same sort of messy feathers right now...



Dropped a big tail feather last night too...

LOL, She looks so deshevilled. She's beautiful, even molting.