Hi I have been breding my budgies successfully for 2-3 years now in large clean conditions.

This year however the chick's feathers are falling out on fledging ???

Any help would be fantastic - one suggestion might have been French Molt?

French moult.

French moult.

French moult.

 

Wow tks for the so quick reply would you know the cure please. Rather hear if from the experts cheers rick

 

French moult.

There isnt a cure for french moult. If you have it going through most people stop breeding for 6-7 months and dont move birds in and out in that time.

Some birds are visibly affected, others arent, some carry it and others dont.

We have lots of info on it here on our forum. Use the search function top right of page and see what pops up for some good reading.

No cure as french moult is caused by a virus. The virus will be present in all your flock as it is endemic in a lot of countries and aviary birds. It usually shows up when you breed in summer, go too many rounds, breed with poor/inadequate nutrition or breed with unfit birds. The virus does not affect adult birds, they are carriers it affects baby and young birds. The earlier they are affected the worse the damage is as the damage is dependant on the strength of the immune system at the time the virus is acquired. Young babies will be killed by it and often are found dead with full crops, however autopsy would reveal internal damage and swollen organs. The older the baby the less chance of dealth although in most if not all cases the virus will ALSO do unseen damage to internal organs and may shorten the life and vitality of the bird affected (when young - adult birds are NOT affected this way if they are infected when adults). If the baby survives it may or may not have delayed or slowed development (due to internal damage to organs and stress on the system). What we typically SEE of this virus is the affect on the developing feathers as the virus travels in the blood and developing feathers are rich in blood. The virus attacks the feather follicles in a similar way to the organs, causing inflammation, swelling and damaging healthy cells. The result is a severely stunted or mutated feather growth and usually there is so much inflammation the feather will fall out. In some cases french moult babies bleed from the feather follicles and are extremely sensitive to touch because of the pain and swelling in the wing. The age at which the baby acquires the disease affects how severely the feather growth is affected. Some will lose feathers all over the body and they may never regrow, most lose flight feathers and tail feathers, only some which regrow and even then they are often oddly shaped and painful to grow because of the damage to the follicle. In some cases only a tail feather is lost, but do not doubt that this bird is now a carrier.

 

Birds do not constantly shed the virus, typically they shed it during times of stress (sold to new aviary, change of feed, moulting, breeding, feeding babies, sickness). Since it is shed when stressed, it is typically passed on to the youngest babies, as the older babies will be putting the stress on the parents with demand feeding. How many birds are affected is random. Some people get a whole nest of affected babies, others only one or two in each nest box. It might affect your first round, but not your second.

 

The virus is in your aviary, there is nothing you can do to get rid of it. It will come with new birds you buy in as well, so the risk of getting babies with french moult is FAR higher when you put down newly purchased birds to breed as they are doubly stressed - first by the move, second by breeding. Management of the virus is simple, do not over crowd (stress) your birds. Ensure your feeding regime is adequate for the needs of the birds, especially when breeding but also during the moult. And of course stay on top of sickness and treat affected birds quickly.

Well done Dean

Well done Dean

 

Yep Nice explanation Dean, I will add one thing, If you have read Binks book , he says to pull out all the flight and tail feathers of Fm birds, Well I tried this but when I was done I sprayed the birds with F10 , they do bleed a bit but it stops after the spray.So far the birds have made a full recovery including tails.

Kaz I was going to vote for Deans Post but the vote thing wouldnt work , Does the function work??

I don't think it does... I've tried voting on some posts and it doesn't allow me either..