I have a cage full of the scruffiest moulting budgies at the moment. They all look bedraggled and are busily preening and hurling feathers out all over the place. Everyday I vac a big pile of cast off feathers up, even the dog has feathers on her from sniffing around the cage. They all have lots of pin feathers and the couples are preening each other madly around the head. It looks quite enjoyable, except that I don't think I could twist my head upside down to have someone else scratch my chin!

 

My questions are: How long does a moult last for? How many times are year? Do all budgies everywhere moult around the same seasonal time or is it a community thing where mine moult at a certain time and some one elses at another time? Do I need to give them any kind of supplment during moult.

 

I'm just curious to learn more about my darling birds.

Usually they molt twice a year

 

and it has a lot to do with the temp. of where they are living Usually budgies who live in a house all the time seem to molt more than budgies who live out side year around

 

some seem to be in a constant molt - when there's many budgies living in the same space but its not really that every one is molting constantly its just that they molt at different times so it seems they're all molting at once - I have over 30 budgies so i can feel your pain of Sweeping feathers up constantly (not to mention all the other birds i have but I sweep up budgie feathers the most with the ringneck doves coming in 2nd lol)

 

there is never a single day at any time of the year that I don't sweep up a Huge Pile of feathers and sometimes I sweep a huge pile up 2 or 3 times a day I can sweep the birds room floor clean right before I put them to bed at 9pm and get a huge pile (4-5 big dust pans full) go back in at 6am and do it all over again So in that short time period they've made another huge mess for me to sweep up

 

the length of time they molt really depends on the bird Some only last a couple weeks some lasts a few months

 

I don't give mine anything when molting except offer extra showers with their spray bottles or baths with dishes filled with clean plain water

Hi Moglet. From what I have noticed, mine all have a moult (small feathers) around Nov/Dec and now they have pretty much finished their pin feathers, I find that they tend to have one moult where they lose little downy feathers and then another moult where they lose flight feathers and tail feathers. That has been this last one. During this last moult they also lose small feathers but there seems to be a moult where they will lose some of their "long" feathers and one where they don't.

 

Don't know whether they all do this but mine seem to. You are in Brissie, so imagine you may be similar to what mine do.

 

Cheers