Molting or Plucking?

Hi Forum,

Im sure this question has been asked a million times but I would love your feedback as I am a fairly new macaw owner. Recently, I found a patch of empty (bald spot?) on my Illiger's Macaw that I had never seen before. Goozoo is 8 years old and was adopted roughly 4 months ago. He's been aggressive since day one but has slowly been gaining my trust and lets me pet his head now. Interestingly, I just realized a bald spot right on top of his head and I wanted to know if its Molting or Plucking. Sorry if its a dumb question, but I am not too familiar with either concept and any help would be great! Additionally, do all parrots molt through out the year or this happens for specific reasons, i.e stress? Thank you so much and have a great night!

You have a very handsome guy! There's nothing wrong with asking questions. The tiny spot is definitely not plucking. Even serious pluckers can't reach the tops of their heads. It looks like Goozoo just knocked off a few feathers, probably while playing or rubbing his head on his cage or a toy.

Molting is usually a gradual process for parrots in our homes, they molt pretty evenly, old feathers molt out and are replaced constantly. Occasionally a bird will drop a lot of feathers but even then it's hard to tell where the feathers came from. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Allee,

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate your comment and tips.

Actually, serious pluckers *CAN* pluck their own head feathers... granted, I've only seen this in cockatoos.... they use their feet to pluck their head feathers.


I agree though, could have accidentally rubbed those feathers off, and probably nothing to be concerned about as long as the skin appears healthy and the missing feathers grow back.


Plucking is essentially removing the feathers.... however, a better term is actually Feather Destructive Behavior (FDB), since birds can barber, shred and snip their feathers, too!



Molting is kind of like shedding in dogs... they can lose feathers throughout the year, but once or twice a year they lose hundreds of feathers, big ones and little ones and will replace (mostly) old feathers with new feathers. It can take 6 months to 2+ years to molt out all of their feathers and replace with new ones. It varies. Except for a few species/birds, a molting bird should never appear scraggly, unkempt and missing feathers. Some eclectus and ringnecks, when going through a molt, do look like crap! They can have bare patches of skin and look bad! Once the molt is over though, they're beautiful again!

Either case, bathes help a lot! And a healthy diet!