Am I the only one who freaks out when the fids go through a moult?

So, Einstein is in the tail end of a light moult while Bonnie and Clyde are moulting quite heavily.

At first I see the extra amount of feathers at the bottom of the cage. And the first thought that goes through my mind is "They're plucking because they're sick". Of course logic sets in, and I tell myself that I've seen this happen before.

Then, there's the pin feathers. I start to think, "growths all over their faces". But, I take a closer look and see they are just pin feathers.

Clyde always has the worst of it, because Bonnie loves to be preened but hates to preen.

Anyways, am I the only over reactor?

Well Scotty just exploded this week in a rain of feathers and I do have the "oh no, he's unhappy and he's plucking" momentary panic. Once I realize it's a molt, I settle down, though!

i went up to my grandma and started crying thinking marty was plucking and it was all my fault because i started going back to school and that he had to go to the vet.. turns out he was just molting lol xD its not my fault! it was the first molt he went through while living with me

Gads, you're not the only one!

Though, Bucky's first moult was AFTER he started plucking... he was completely bald under his wings for quite a while before he started moulting... then he starting moulting and I couldn't decide if it was a moult or if his plucking had all of a sudden gotten WAY worse!

Fortunately, I figured out that it was a moult because he has an "ouch" cry that he does whenever he pulls a feather out, and if he were "ouching" with each of the feathers that I was seeing at the time, I'd have gone insane!!

Now... it's MONTHS later and he's STILL moulting. It wont end! Both he and JJ are STILL shedding and growing, shedding and growing... it's enough to make a girl pull her hair out!

Scooter was in a perennial state of molt when I first got him. Putting the full-spectrum lights on a timer seemed to help, but it took over a year for him to settle out of it.

Martyr almost done hrs just molting on his head now

zazanomore wrote:

Anyways, am I the only over reactor?

Nah, I'm the same. My apartment looks like chicken farm with all the feathers on the floor. I keep the nicest feathers.
Chico is the worst with molting, weeweeing like no other of my birds. I guess, that's 'Tiel thing

Most of our guys are molting. Like Margaret, there are tufts of chicken feather all over the house.

Budgies are the worst when it comes to those little fluff feathers!

They're so tiny and get EVERYWHERE. I swear it's the feather apocalypse.

I also like to save they're nice feathers. Einstein's feathers for the most part look the same, grey and sometimes white. The budgies always have neat looking feathers. Plenty of colour.

i keep martys feathers to! they have so much color on them! i thought i was wierd cuz i kept my fids feathers

Yoshi went through an ugly stage a few months ago where he molted his face and head, but I think he's finally started a for-real molt and I'm SO excited!! He's only lost chest and puffy feathers so far, but I definitely plan on keeping and nice wing and/or tail feathers that come out And I can't wait for him to have real wings!!

Bonnie and Clyde both have a lot of pin feathers on their face right now...I just want to grab them and fix it! But of course, I don't think they would enjoy it too much

LyzGrace wrote:

Yoshi went through an ugly stage a few months ago where he molted his face and head, but I think he's finally started a for-real molt and I'm SO excited!! He's only lost chest and puffy feathers so far, but I definitely plan on keeping and nice wing and/or tail feathers that come out And I can't wait for him to have real wings!!

I can't wait for JJ to have real wings tooooo!!! From what I understand though, it wont be until next year sometime before she has a full moult again. I'm sure I'm probably crazy (and the older she gets, the more I'm sure I'm crazy), but I can hardly wait for her to be able to really FLY!!

when marty molted and got his real wings he took the opritunity to fly and bite my grandma so... their clipped.. again Marty lets me help him with his pin feathers when im scratching his head! i think its cute cuz then he trys to preen my fingers!

zazanomore wrote:

Bonnie and Clyde both have a lot of pin feathers on their face right now...I just want to grab them and fix it! But of course, I don't think they would enjoy it too much

I knowww, I felt so bad when his face was covered in pins. I could tell he was uncomfortable and wanted to help crunch them for him, but they were so tiny on his face, I was afraid I'd pull on them!

VickiNumbers wrote:

I can't wait for JJ to have real wings tooooo!!! From what I understand though, it wont be until next year sometime before she has a full moult again. I'm sure I'm probably crazy (and the older she gets, the more I'm sure I'm crazy), but I can hardly wait for her to be able to really FLY!!

Me neither!! He's already tried quite a few times and makes decent distance since he's got a pretty light clip, but I can tell he's dying to actually get lift. Nate's school has a covered and fenced in tennis court I plan on taking him to. Sooooo excited

when you take yoshi to the tennis court take pictures of him flying around!

LyzGrace wrote:

zazanomore wrote:

Bonnie and Clyde both have a lot of pin feathers on their face right now...I just want to grab them and fix it! But of course, I don't think they would enjoy it too much

I knowww, I felt so bad when his face was covered in pins. I could tell he was uncomfortable and wanted to help crunch them for him, but they were so tiny on his face, I was afraid I'd pull on them!

I don't know about the budgies, but I'm sure Yoshi would have been fine with it. When the feathers are at that white/dusty stage, I doubt you'd hurt him. I've helped JJ with feathers on her cheeks and around her eyes, and those are some teensy little feathers! What I ended up doing was just **GENTLY** scratching them or rubbing them with the end of my finger. She never complained unless I accidentally hit another feather that was close to the one I was rubbing, and even then I was usually being so gentle that it was just a little squeak to let me know what I'd done.

VickiNumbers wrote:

I don't know about the budgies, but I'm sure Yoshi would have been fine with it. When the feathers are at that white/dusty stage, I doubt you'd hurt him. I've helped JJ with feathers on her cheeks and around her eyes, and those are some teensy little feathers! What I ended up doing was just **GENTLY** scratching them or rubbing them with the end of my finger. She never complained unless I accidentally hit another feather that was close to the one I was rubbing, and even then I was usually being so gentle that it was just a little squeak to let me know what I'd done.

I tried once or twice, but didn't push it. Somewhere I'd read that you could use a soft-headed toothbrush to break the shaft, but he was NOT interested in that, lol.

Well , i'm the master preener, just ask Jake. She'll squawk when i get a tender one but she remains fluffed up ,head down and waits for me to continue. If they're mostly too tender she'll not allow me to preen,other wise she begs for it ,usually by preening me.It's a dead give away when she fluffs up, bends over and grabs the perch and says "come ere". If they're bad ,like they are now, she enjoys the 2 handed preen, her favorite method, the more fingers the better.

Our GCCs love to have their pin feathers preened out, my poor Tiel Mali begs for it but it always hurts too much, you barely touch her and she squeals and then puts her head down for more. I never manage to get anything tho cause it hurts her too much.

With JJ, I found that the little bitty dental brushes that are made to go between teeth are great for helping with those teeny feathers around her eyes, between her eyes and beak, and on her face. She also LOVED getting scratched with that brush, would fluff up and sit still forever.

I keep all our feathers (apart from ones that get pood all over), most of them are sitting in a jar in our cupboard, but I used atleast one from each bird, grouped them together (Prince and Tim, Tiels, GCCs) and strung them on some hessian rope type string and it hangs from my rear view mirror in my car with some beads

Bryan's mom made the most beautiful bathroom mirror with feathers from her B&G and CAG. I will ask her for a picture, but it is really stunning.

I wanted to do some jewelry using feathers, but I found that they fade over time and that it's quite hard to embed them in resin without winding up with something that looks like a wet bird instead of a beautifully preserved feather. Anyone here solved either problem?

It started around Christmas, but now they're all going crazy with molting. I think, I'm gonna sleep with vacuum soon:)