Cosmo is moulting.

 

A bit of history.....

He is about 6-9 months old, and started having his first moult in December or January. During that time he lost a lot of feathers - first down, then his chest and wing normal small feathers... then he started regrowing his clipped wings and lost a tail feather.

 

For the last month or so, he has stopped moulting the smaller type of feather, but I knew he was regrowing his tail feathers during that time. He also doesn't seem to have finished his moult, because only about half of his wings grew back (maybe 2 long feathers on each wing still haven't come back), plus he still is patchy in parts of his chest and wings - they are not all darkly marked like adult feathers. So I assumed his moult had slowed down but wasn't finished.

 

Over the last week, Cosmo has been moulting again.

 

I know we can't know for certain, but I am just hoping it is his first moult continuing again, and not for another reason like stress or illness.

 

Here are some other factors that may contribute:

 

- No changes in diet or cage

- About 2-3 weeks ago, my friend who has lots of parrots came over and we decided to take that opportunity to get her help clipping his wings

- Over summer, there were only two of us in the house... but three weeks ago my sister in law came to stay, and one week ago, my mother in law came to stay.. so now we have gone from 2 to 4 people in the house. Things are a bit noisier and lights stay on a bit later with them around.

- My husband and I are in the process of moving house, so pieces of our furniture are leaving, and we've had a lot going on and not our usual routine.

- When Cosmo was having his first moult, he stopped letting me give him head scratches. He started again for a while, and just yesterday I noticed that he has lots of prickles under his neck again.

 

Given all the evidence, do you think that he is moulting because of stress, or because his first moult wasn't over yet anyway?

 

(The diarrhoea cleared up-- was just one or two softer poos and he hasn't shown any other signs of sickness, that was almost a week ago now. I don't think it was anything but I'm still keeping an eye on him).

 

Thanks

Edited March 13, 200916 yr by krosp

Is it possible he has mites? Feather mites create irritation, excess preening, stress and moulting.

I speak for my inside bird and have heard a lot of people say the same thing that they seem to be clean of a molt for a couple months and then then are back at molting again, I believe it has a lot to do with the artifical hearing and cooling in our homes.

Cool.... Liv I don't think he could have mites but I might as well spray him for it again thanks.

Elly -- hmm good to hear that others have had on-off moulting birds. I don't think that we have any artificial heating or cooling near him (there is just one ceiling fan at the total opposite side of the room and that's it), but the natural weather has fluctuated quite a bit lately.

 

He's been unusually friendly and affectionate today and very talkative... probably a good sign