stress molt?

[rae]

I woke up this morning to an explosion of feathers at the bottom of Basal's cage. He's already been through his molt recently and has no pinnies. Could this be a stress molt from being boarded and coming back after four nights? I caught him up, which he is good with for a few seconds at least, and checked him over and three small feathers just came out when doing that. He hasn't been scratching a lot or rubbing a lot. He's acted his normal timid self and is eating and drinking normally.

I did give him his mirror today since he was having a good time chatting to the other birds at the store, but I'll be taking it out tonight and maybe offering it again tomorrow. He doesn't get territorial with it but I don't want him dependent on it either.


I don't think he is plucking necessarily because it's a variety of all his feathers. He even lost a longer wing feather.


Any advice is appreciated.

[rio13]

Could he have had a night fright? If he got scared he could have knocked some feathers out which explains why you saw a whole pile in the morning!

[starlingqueen]

It could be a stress moult but keep an eye on him in case he has picked something up from the other birds he shared the room with when he was looked after.

[rae]

I'm going to watch him for a few days and if they continue to just come out like that I'll take him to the vet. I'm hoping it's just stress. I actually collected the feathers and have them in a small sandwich bag. He gave a little fluff shake and two came out.
I didn't notice the other birds at the store having a bunch of feathers at the bottom of their cage. Not that something couldn't be wrong, but everyone seemed well.

If it was just a night fright could they just come out like that?

[rio13]

I don't imagine that the night fright would make him shake out feathers after the fact. But, day to day Rio shakes out fluffs all the time, molt or no molt, so it's possible that's normal and it only looks like a lot because of the pile you found in the morning.

[Hezz]

It is more likely that this is simply from a change in temperature. He was just taking his jacket off, is all.

[rae]

There were fewer feathers than yesterday this morning. I gave him vitamins yesterday and today, but I'll be going back to three times a week now. I'm not sure if that could help him but he hadn't had vitamins since last week before we left.

[Marianne Marlow]

How is Basal now?

[rae]

Only a couple of feathers this morning. His energy level has been normal and he even touched a toy last night *gasp*. I'm guessing it was just stress and probably a temp difference. We do keep our place a little warmer than others after living in a place without air conditioning for so long.

[fluffball]

Interesting post rae because I had a similar experience with little Ted a few days ago - lots and lots of downy feathers and wing feathers (and a tail feather) appeared at the bottom of the cage. This happened two days in a row, but it's slowed down considerably now, so I just put it down to normal first moult. I'm guessing it's not Basal's first moult... Hopefully, the feather loss will stop soon.

[OP]

My flock are moulting as well, all three of them. Feathers all over the place. All the feathers drop to the bottom of the cage through the grid into the tray. The trouble is when one of them falls to the bottom and flaps there is a cloud of feathers comes out of the cage. The Vision cage was quite god at keeping the feathers inside I must admit. Even when I clean them out every day the buds seem to drop the most at night. It will stop soon, don't worry, until the next time.