How bad can a molt get?

[parrotdaddy]

My green-cheek conure has lost many of her green flight feathers on her back and chest, leaving only the grey under feathers. I know she is molting because I see plastic feathers all over her. She is also regrowing her tail and wing feathers. Should I be worried about the large amount of flight feather loss on her body? She eats well, has a constant, healthy weight, and is active if this info helps.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

It sounds like she is doing fine with the molt.

How old is she?
Is this her first molt with you?
Could you post a photo of how she looks now?

 

[antoinette]

Sound like a normal molt to me
Great that she is eating healthy and continuing to be active
Mishka too looses many feathers when molting

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Sometimes you can feed healthier foods to help them grow new feathers. When Rosie goes into molt again I plan to feed Rosie high potency Harrison's pellets.

 

[parrotdaddy]

Thanks for the replies guys! This her first molt with me, she'll turning one year old soon!

 

[parrotdaddy]

It's been a few months now, and my little girl has gotten some of her feathers back, but a lot is still missing. I see small feathers beginning to grow on her chest. Should a conure's first molt take this long?
Thanks!

 

[Pajarita]

No, it shouldn't last more than 6 to 8 weeks but it also shouldn't have happened in April or be so bad so you must be feeding too much protein (GCC eat A LOT of fruit in the wild and not that many seeds) and keeping her to a human light schedule because it's the endocrine system that controls the 'internal clock' that tells them when to molt, when to produce sexual hormones, etc and, in order for the endocrine system to work well, you need to keep them to a solar schedule. All four of mine are molting right now but there are no 'holes' in their plumage or pins all over their body.

 

[MonicaMc]

Are you sure she's not over-grooming herself??? It sounds like feather destructive behavior to me, but would like to see photos of her.

Eclectus and Psittacula (Asian ringnecks) are the two species most notable for having bad molts, to the point that they do have grey spots and they just look a mess. However, after about a month or so, after the feathers have grown back in, these patches of feathers fill out and they look gorgeous again!

Typically, in any other species, it's often a sign of plucking, snipping/clipping, or some form of over-grooming.


ATM, I only have one conure that has a grey patch of feathers where her green ones are missing... however, this is due to an attack by another conure before I got her, and those feathers have not grown out yet. Well, she's gotten one, which resulted in that one feather sticking straight up rather than laying down cause it was right in the middle of the patch... lol

 

[TuliBird]

I was actually wondering about this same thing. My GCC just started molting about a week or so ago, but this week he lost a ton of feathers from his back and wings, and I can see a few down feathers peeking through. Is that a sign of problem?

I'm trying to attach a photo, but I'm new to the forum, so I'm not sure if it will work

It's his first molt as well. Are first molts usually worse than later ones? (I'm a first-time bird owner as well)

That's a weird photo of him, but it was hard to get one of his back without him trying to eat the camera

 

[MonicaMc]

Tuli looks fine! And I like his blue butt!!!!!!


As for how bad molts are, well, it really varies between birds... age makes no difference! My cockatiel flock have exploded in feathers! It's like someone destroyed a feather pillow... and feathers go flying everywhere!

Jayde, RTC, appears to be having a normal molt... and I wish it was a heavy molt!

Charlie, MC on the other hand as lost maybe around 10 feathers? He's hardly lost any compared to the others...