Moulting?

[Deleted]

My budgie Munchy has been losing around a feather a day. This morning there were two in the bottom of his cage and later a tail feather came out and another is looking ready to be shed. So basically I was just wondering if he was starting his first moult and how I can tell if he is.

I started trying him on some egg food today, and hopefully he ate some of that rather than just unearthing the seeds that were in there to tempt him. He's not too keen on trying new things yet.

[Ryan.W]

does he eat veg??. You could try mixing in some grated carrot/broccoli with the eggfood and add a little water to make it moist this might temp him . it does certainly sound like he's moulting .

[Hezz]

Only a feather a day? Wait until the bottom of the cage is covered in tiny feathers! Seriously, though, don't be surprised if you get to a stage where you are wondering how on earth a budgie can lose so many feathers and not be bald. Also sometimes they will pull at a feather and pull it out when they are moulting. It must feel as though it shouldn't be there.

[Deleted]

I'd put carrot and broccoli with it, but he shows no interest in veg either.

I know Hezz. He sheds quite a few downy ones, I was just wondering if this was a sign that he was starting his moult.

He lost that other tail feather this morning whilst panicking when I put some newspaper in. A spot of blood then appeared on the paper shortly after and there is a tiny spot on his tail where the feather was. I've heard of blood feathers, and the tail feather doesn't seem abnormally fragile, so is this normal for tail feathers? It doesn't seem to be bleeding anymore.

[barrieshutt]

He will be starting to moult into his adult feather at approx 3 months of age

[Deleted]

Problem is that I don't know exactly how old he is. He has grown more feathers on each wing since I took the first photos of him, though, so I'm hoping that's a sign that his flights will come in soon

[Hezz]

It is good he is getting flight feathers. It would be great to see a flying Munchy. If the bleeding had stopped on his tail feather, I wouldn't worry too much. You did say he looked like losing that feather - it may have just come out a bit prematurely.

Don't know what else you can try to get him eating the egg food, except keep trying.

[barrieshutt]

pictures are needed Ira