Feather dropping opinions needed

[macbrush]

My grey Spencer has dropped quite a few feathers recently, mostly small ones, but once or twice in a few days a flight one or tail feather. I checked him through, he looked alright, not visibly feather plucking, at least to my eyes. I have taken a few pics of feather he dropped. Can you guys give me some opinions whether it looks like normal molting? I worry that it might be the beginning of something bad. Guess that's owner's feather plucking phobic.

Thanks





These are most of the feather that I was able to pick up which he dropped in the last 30 days.

[pennyandrocky]

hi, i have a plucker/chewer. she came to us with a bald chest. that doesn't look too bad for 30 days check for bald spots he may just be molting,mya's plucking/chewing has gone down 90%since gaining flight. alot of different things cause this diet,bordum,not enough sunlight.

[macbrush]

Thanks for the reply. At least, by the look of the feathers, Spencer didn't just yanked them out.

[GlassOnion]

Have you been socializing him much lately? It doesn't look like plucking to me, but as a baby, your grey needs to be socialized very well.. They tend to grow up phobic and it's diffidicult to fix, unless you show all sorts of new people and situations at an early age.

[macbrush]

Thanks for the reply. He's already 2.5 years old when I got him in December, 2011. I didn't have a chance to socialize him to many people since I broke my ankle on 1/1. But then since I am temporary disabled, I am with him all day, I train and play with him whenever I could since I came back from hospital about 10 days ago.

Now I am a bit worried, since he dropped over 20 of his chest feathers today, 10+ more since I posted pictures in the first post, which is only a few hours. And quite a few downy as well. But he still looks fine, no part of him look bald at all.

[pennyandrocky]

ok that's alot! is he pulling them or are they falling out? what does he eat, how much sun does he get? what kind of toys? i would make a call to his vet.

[macbrush]

I really hope he's not plucking, due to my physical condition, and him being still so new to my home, it would be next to impossible to bring him to a vet without calling a SWAT team over. He was on Zupreen FruitBlend when I got him, but switched him to Harrison High Potency already. I still mix about 20% Zupreen in the bowl, however he doesn't touch those anymore. He gets about 2 hours of sunlight from the window (which he loves to watch) a day, but there was no sun in last fortnight or more.

[Michael]

Why do you think this is anything other than molting?

[macbrush]

Thanks for the reply Mike, Spencer seems normal enough, and he spent a lot of time grooming his feathers, never seen him actually pull a feather out and there is no sign of chewing as well, only seen a downy stuck in his mouth a couple of times. I am worrying just because he is suddenly dropping more feathers than usual.

Also due to my physical condition, the training and socialization in last 2 weeks had been somewhat limited, I have to stick with training him tricks that can be done inside the cage, and when I let him out, i confine him in the small room where his cage is, with me since it would be difficult for me to follow him around. Not to mention that my brother and dad took care of Spencer, they fed him and change water, play with him a little bit every day while I was in hospital. Also considering he's just been with us for about 1 month. So there are quite a bit of changes of his routines, which also make me worry.

[Michael]

Are the primaries falling out symmetrically? For example if #3 primary on one side and #3 primary on other side are both out and not others, that is definitely a molt. If it's very random, could be plucking. Another reason I think this is a heavy molt is because you said the bird has been well fed and not much movement. When I go away on vacation and leave instructions to freefeed my parrots, I usually come back to see them actively molting. Their bodies make use of this heightened nutrition to grow new feathers.