Molting and plucking feathers

[KimberlyAnn]

My friend (Who lives out of state) has a male parrotlet who is molting. I was appalled when my friend told me that her bird had plucked all the colored feathers on his chest in just a few nights and she thought this was normal.

She went as far to say that something might be wrong with Emmi because she has not pulled her feathers out at all. Only a few have come out just by chance while preening, most come out when Emmi is running around playing (To which she has to stop and pick up her fallen feather and take it with her. Oops! You dropped something Emmi! Lol) but she has no bare spots. I only see a few down feathers in some spots sometimes, but they get covered up by other feathers and most times I don't see the down feathers at all. She's totally not losing a lot of feathers, but she is for sure growing a ton in! I'd say she's losing about 3-5 feathers a day if I had to guess. I'm sure a lot more are going to fall out soon! Every day it seems like ten more pin feathers came in...as if she was not a fluff ball already. Lol

My friend went to vet tech school and although I love her to death, she thinks the plucking is ok while molting because of her schooling. She said that her bird is just getting ready for the new feather growth and that's why he's taking out his own feathers and he's bare. From what I read, they don't pluck everything out when molting, right? Her bird just lost his mate a few months ago.

What can I tell her? I feel bad for her bird if this is more then just plucking.