Stark Concern About Plucking

Over the last couple of days I have been finding an increasing amount of feathers at the bottom of my Scarlet's cage, she is super sweet and mischevious. However, when I pet her it does appear that feathers are shedding more with normal petting. When looking at her chest, legs, back, and head there are several patches of feathers missing. I have NEVER seen her pluck a single feather. Attached are some pictures for your opinion. Thank you so much for your help, obviously I am very very concerned but trying to remain calm. Sincerely appreciate you guys and your experience.

If you live in the Mid to Great White North where the weather has been all over the place regarding temperature, it is more likely you are seeing a heavy molt.

Commonly, plucking starts in a fairly small area and not the wide distribution of the entire chest that you are seeing.

I wish I could say that this is the case, but we live in a warm weather state and she is just 7 months. Prior to Covid19 she had a complete checkup with bloodwork which was fine. Nothing has changed and she seems very happy. None of the feathers show any blood and I dampened her down feather with alcohol and her skin looked completely okay with no signs of trauma. Vey concerned and my avian vet has been notified and I am waiting for a response. So stressful.

Aww, it is stressful!
I have a plucker, and I never see her pluck.si they can be sneaky.
Good luck, keep us posted.

Laurasea said:

Aww, it is stressful!
I have a plucker, and I never see her pluck.si they can be sneaky.
Good luck, keep us posted.

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Thank you so much for the well wishes. So does this resemble plucking to you or resemble a similar pattern to your when your bird started plucking?

BirdieDad said:

I wish I could say that this is the case, but we live in a warm weather state and she is just 7 months. Prior to Covid19 she had a complete checkup with bloodwork which was fine. Nothing has changed and she seems very happy. None of the feathers show any blood and I dampened her down feather with alcohol and her skin looked completely okay with no signs of trauma. Vey concerned and my avian vet has been notified and I am waiting for a response. So stressful.

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Never use alcohol as a general cleaning /coating tool. It is rarely used as it off-sets oxygen, limiting its availability for the air sacks (lungs).

The age and a very general location would have been helpful. My only change is from a general heavy molt is to a first molt of a baby Parrot. Your Vet should be with you soon.

SailBoat said:

The age and a very general location would have been helpful. My only change is from a general heavy molt is to a first molt of a baby Parrot. Your Vet should be with you soon.

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Thank you. I will refrain from using alcohol in the future, the AVN instructed me to use alcohol and look at the skin quality along with the presence of pin feathers. I saw no skin trauma nor many pin feathers to report. Still awaiting a report from the office. The general location is mostly as you see in the pictures, along the neck, chest, legs, and a hint on the wing tips. Additionally, her preening has increased by 20 fold in the last week or so but I do not see any feathers clipped or fall when she preens. There are numerous pin feather along the top of her hear, which she weirdly comes to me and indicates she wants me preen. Appreciate your response this morning.

I'm thinking heavy/first molt, but obviously, I'm not there to see day to day activities. Question... How frequently is she bathing? Lack of bathing can sometimes be irritating to the skin and make her itchy, especially during a molt. The alcohol you were using is very drying, also making potentially itchy skin, as well as the above mentioned breathing issue. Just the thought of fumes from the alcohol is a huge red flag to me. I tend to take the overly safe approach: "if I can smell it, it may be harmful to my birds." I always start with that assumption, and decide from there.

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I'd say molt too since it sounds like you lose a bunch just petting/handling her. I have two conures that look like they stumbled across a pack of rabid animals multiple times when they have a heavy molt. If you start noticing lots of pin feathers (not even necessarily in the spot they have missing ones) thats usually a good indication. Most birds preen the feathers behind/on the head for other birds since its a difficult spot. A lot of birds will want their human to do it for them since its a natural behavior for them.

riddick07 said:

I'd say molt too since it sounds like you lose a bunch just petting/handling her. I have two conures that look like they stumbled across a pack of rabid animals multiple times when they have a heavy molt. If you start noticing lots of pin feathers (not even necessarily in the spot they have missing ones) thats usually a good indication. Most birds preen the feathers behind/on the head for other birds since its a difficult spot. A lot of birds will want their human to do it for them since its a natural behavior for them.

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Yes, this is one of the many examples of my bird training me...it was quite amusing. She approached my scratching her head and I thought she wanted head scratches. However after a couple of scratches she would lightly touch me with her beak and remove my hand with foot... then repeat the scratching the motion. I looked at her head and realized there were a lot of pin feathers. Then I got it and she was happy. She is also a touch more rowdy and moody, but just the a touch.

Parrots should not look patchy when they molt. If you see this you are not meeting nutritional needs. During molt mist parrots need a bump in protein. Feathers are made almost a 100% of protein, it takes a lot if energy to molt. I thi k feathers account for 25% of your birds body weight. You never see a patchy parrot in the wild, not do I see patchy north America birds when they molt. I had patchy molting birds a couple if years ago. Then I did a bunch of research, increased protein at molt time. Every molt since, my birds look great, never patchy.
I have bunch on molting in the Ornithology thread, tho I can rember the page.

Macaws need more nuts in their diet than most other species.