URGENT HELP- Worried about feather loss

[Eric&Rebecca]

Hi,

I'm really worried as Eddie is going through his first molt and he grew new grey tail feathers. They were healthy and normal.

Both of these adult ones have now fallen out and one in his secondary flight feathers which was also adult has fallen out. My boyfriend is home all the time and he says he is not plucking them. Also when they fall out they are not bleeding and are not deformed in any way. They just look like normal feathers that fell out.

He is flying normally and acting completely normal with no signs of illness or change in droppings

Is this normal?! I thought once he had his adult feathers only his baby ones would fall out until his yearly molt. I'm so so worried and have booked an appointment at the avian vet but she can't see him until 4 days time!!!

Please help!

[marie83]

Unfortunately it seems to be a myth thats still floating about that parrots only have one moult a year but the truth is sometimes they will have more than one, sometimes they will be heavy, sometimes they will be light, sometimes months long and sometimes over in a couple of weeks.

For most feathers there is no way of distingushing which feathers were moulted out and when as they dont renew every single feather every single time so personally from what you have said I don't think you need to worry. Unless anything changes in the meantime with your bird before your appointment I think you can relax. I still think its a good idea to keep your appointment because obviously I may have misinterpreted what you wrote and I cannot see your bird but I don't think you have any reason to panic.

Let us know how the appointment goes

[Eric&Rebecca]

Thanks Marie, I've just learnt that a cockatiel will grow their adult feathers in and then grow another set so it seems normal. I will keep the appointment anyway just for my own piece of mind. I would rather spend £100 and know he's healthy than guess if he is or isn't. It just freaked me out because I didn't think that was supposed to happen. Our previous tiel's have never been less than 1-2 years so this is new for us despite having tiel's before.

The feathers are perfectly healthy and they have just fallen out and the rest of his feathers are in very good condition. The vet observed this last time how healthy he was and how good condition they were. He has new ones growing in their place already as pin feathers so I can assume these were 3rd moult feathers and he is now growing his 4th generation feathers.

I found this information on this link...

http://www.justcockatiels.net/molting-periods.html

[marie83]

Birds will always find was to confuse you, even after many many years. I'm still asking questions and getting freaked out by stuff that is entirely normal simply because it hasn't happened before, even within the same species.
Your 'tiel is a really lucky bird to have you.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Thanks

We've kept the feathers in case and we will show to them to the vet when we go. His plumage otherwise is very healthy and he's as bouncy and lively as ever. I think they just fell out normally to be replaced by 4th generation feathers. I didn't realise that this happened between juvenile and adult moults. We gave him a good check over anyway (much to his annoyance) and there wasn't anything else that was really worrying and that's when we saw the big pin feathers in his tail so it's just part of his moult.

Will get him checked anyway but feel a lot better since I found that article and your advice.