Is it molting season? Maddox is dropping feathers.

[maddox]

Maddox has recently been dropping feathers at a higher rate than usual and is starting to develop pinfeathers so Im thinking he might be molting?

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Maddox has recently been dropping feathers at a higher rate than usual and is starting to develop pinfeathers so Im thinking he might be molting?

If Maddox has pin feathers and has been losing feathers you can be pretty sure he's molting. I've never noticed a particular season when my birds molt. They live indoors in a climate controlled environment with heat and AC and artificial lighting so I don't know if the season have the same impact. Sometimes it seems like all my budgies decide to molt at the same time and with eight of them it looks like someone had a pillow fight and the pillow lost!

 

[wrench13]

Good point Donna makes. WIth the artificial environment most of our parrots live in (heaters, A/C's, some kind of artificial light and cycles, steady amounts and types of available foods) the normal molting periods go right out the window. You might even say they are in a perpetual state of molt, maybe some seasonal influence but thats difficult to say for certain. A good, solid, balanced diet is essential to good feather development, that makes diet even more important for companion parrots. The needs for healthy feather development have to be present all year round. Just make sure the presence of more then normal amounts of feathers are just from molting and not some precursor to plucking or barbering behavior. Like I always say - "Know Thy Bird!).

 

[texsize]

My Amazons have been molting lots of feathers since spring.
My CAG only a couple of feathers, nothing special