Moult

[Chris&Akilah]

When can I expect Akilah to start moulting? She plays hard is is starting to look pretty raggedy, two tail feathers have broken off recently

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Broken or fallen out? I gather it can vary quite a bit from bird to bird and location to location. Scooter moults at the drop of a hat and Scotty has yet to do more than shed one or two feathers at a time. With Scooter, I find shed feathers in the bottom of the cage, in his water dish, on the floor... and even more noticible are the itchy pin feathers on his head and neck. The small down feathers are harder to recognize than the big flights, tail feathers and coverts, but there are a lot of them.

Do you have a full-spectrum light? Increasing or decreasing the period can affect molting.

If she's looking "ratty" she may be moulting more than you realize, or she may want more frequent baths to help encourage preening.

[Chris&Akilah]

They were broken, sticking out at a funny angle. I'm not sure how exactly they broke. Other than that, I havn't found any feathers apart from the occasional down floating around. I guess it must be because I don't have full spec lighting yet, and I do need to bath her more often. I've tried various dishes but she just sits on the edge and sips it. She will sit there quietly and let me mist her but I don't think she enjoys it, ditto with the shower, she doesn't fluff up and get into it. How warm does the water need to be anyway? I worry about her getting chilled so have only offered warm water but could that be why she doesnt like it?

I'm not one to "shop around" so could someone please tell me the absolute best lighting system to use for a bird? That's what I'll get (besides the sun )

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I'm happy with the AvianSun bulb. You can put it in a regular fixture, you don't need their special lamp. Has to be replaced about every 6 months -- it will still look the same, but the UV output goes down. Or get her out into sunlight a little every day.

The first time Scooter started losing feathers, I thought he had broken one. He had gotten startled and fluttered down to the floor and there was one of his tail feathers sticking out at a funny angle. I didn't know what to do... but a few minutes later it came right out -- it was really ready to drop but hadn't yet. A broken feather would be bent mid-shaft, if the feather is basically whole when it comes out, it is probably a normally dropped feather.