Sometimes my cockatiel Is loosing a feather and she screeches like she is in agony when she moves the wrong way. Does anyone know, is it suppose to hurt them so frequently when they lose feathers.
Before I was a bird owner, I just thought they fell out, almost like a nail breaks off and it didnt hurt them. ↓
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| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:18 AM |
What You Can Do to Help a Pet Bird Through Molt
Molting is a very stressful time in a bird's life.
* The number one thing a pet bird owner can do is provide the
bird with the best possible nutritional diet and a wide variety
of acceptable foods for the species within that diet.
* Feathers are made up of primarily proteins. 2 essential
amino acids ( Lysine and Methionine) are especially important
during the molt. These two amino acids also tend to be in short
supply in most birds diets.
Consider a supplement during this time, check out the nice selection
of molting aids at PetsMart ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:20 AM |
| Macaws and parrots molt in earnest after they raise their young. Even though parrots constantly preen their feathers, the feathers don't last much over a year without getting frazzled from wear and tear and grooming. Much like some people bite their fingernails to overcome stress, over-grooming is a common way that parrots cope with boredom, stressed or poor nutrition. If a macaw, for example, is off feed for even a half day during the time a feather is forming in its follicle - you will see a "stress bar" - a little line across the feather as if it had been scored or cut with a scissors at that point. The presence or absence of stress bars are a good indication of the bird's general health but although its quite difficult to hand-raise parrots without a few stress bars occurring especially on macaw tail feathers. The next set of feathers usually come in unblemished. It’s a bad sign in mature birds – a reason to visit an avian veterinarian. To an untrained eye, incomplete molt or feather picking can be confused with a much more serious problem – psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD). The most unusual molts I have witnessed are the climax molt of the penguins I have cared for. Mine used to go off into a corner of the exhibit, look quite depressed and forlorn, go off their feed, swell up enormously with fluid (subcutaneous oedema) and then, within a period of two days, completely replace their feathers! I had to cut off all their wing bands before their molts because they got tight enough to impede circulation due to the natural swelling. The reason penguins have the most dramatic of all bird molts, is that they would freeze if they stayed naked any longer than a day or two in the sub-an arctic cold. Parrots aren't nearly that dramatic. They loose a feather here and a feather there. ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:24 AM |
So they molt? There is a time in the year they lose all their feathers?
I thought they continually lost them and grew them back ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:26 AM |
Frequency of molt can also be affected by age, seasonal changes,
hours of daylight and breeding activity.
Birds kept in captivity may not follow the same pattern when
molting as they would in their natural habitat. These birds may
molt at any time of the year, again there is a good bit of variation
between species and other factors. ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:28 AM |
| During molting feathers, even the tail feathers, fall out but the feathers do grow back. This is essential for a bird's survival. Feathers get ratty over time, losing some of their insulative and protective qualities. A bird's answer to this is to generate new feathers. ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:30 AM |
| Finally, bird need regular baths to keep their feathers at their best. I mist my birds daily with plain water and often offer a bath dish in the cage. ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:36 AM |
Are you suppose to bath them so frequently? It doesnt rain in outside every day, so wild birds wouldnt be getting a daily bath.
I only bath my girl when I see her trying to have a bath in her drinking water. Which is once a week. I do it with mist sprayer. ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:38 AM |
| You don't have to do it every day, but in the wild they bathe in any standing water they find. ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:49 AM |
| I wouldnt want my little birdy bum to catch a cold ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 8:05 AM |
| I can tell when she wants a bath because she dunks her head in her bath water. If you spray her when she doesnt want a bath she moves away from the spray. But if she does want a bath, she goes crazy and does her little birdy bum dance ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 1:10 PM |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 8th, 2006 7:42 PM |
| hiddy what is the deal? We can start a new topic , and everyone would rather fight than talk about pets!! crazy ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 9th, 2006 7:25 AM |
| Talk about pets and fight when necessary.....lol ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 9th, 2006 7:28 AM |
Today my little birdy bum lost that feather that was annoying her,
shes much happier now : ) ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 9th, 2006 5:29 PM |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 14th, 2006 9:48 AM |
My birdy bum has been residing near the glass sliding door in our lounge room. She comes out of the cage twice a day, for an hour or two in the morning, and at night. If Im doing housework, I leave the cage door open and she climbs out and sits on top of her cage.
Lately, one thing has changed, Ive moved the cage to another corner of the room and she wont shut up. She sqwarks and sqwarks....do they let you know when they dont like being moved? ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 14th, 2006 11:33 PM |
| Can she see a reflection of herself in any thing? ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 15th, 2006 8:13 AM |
| She has settled down now. It seemed to only happen yesterday. I was worried there for a while that she wasnt going to able to be moved around as Id kept her in the same spot for so long. ↑ |
| Name: LovesBananas | Date: Nov 15th, 2006 1:54 PM |
| No one cares about your stupid bird you moron. ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 15th, 2006 7:45 PM |
| Why don't you keep your rude remarks to yourself!!! This is what the pet fourm is for!!!!! Stay out of here if you don't like it!!!!!!!!!!!!! GROWN FOLKS ONLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ↑ |
| Name: LovesBananas | Date: Nov 15th, 2006 8:47 PM |
Hiddy is the worst offender of all. She has been causing problems on here for a while and now she has spread to other forums and is doing the same thing. Is she a single mom? NOPE. Is she a stay at home mom? NOPE. She has been in due date, is she expecting? NOPE.
She has been a huge bitch to everybody, I don't know why all of a sudden we are supposed to care that her bird is acting strangely. Maybe it's because the bird hates her. ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 15th, 2006 11:00 PM |
| I can post where ever I want. ↑ |
| Name: LovesBananas | Date: Nov 15th, 2006 11:22 PM |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 15th, 2006 11:37 PM |
| never said you couldnt moron. Whereas YOU implied, I couldnt ↑ |
| Name: Hiddy | Date: Nov 16th, 2006 1:10 AM |
| anyway, back to my birdy bum. Last night, she fell asleep with her beak up my nostril. ↑ |
| Name: T-rabbit | Date: Nov 16th, 2006 5:19 PM |
| lol that is some companion to pick bugers: ) ↑ |
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