feather question..

sheyd · Post by **sheyd** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:06 am

My 18 week old Ringneck has little white pins coming up above his beak and over his head. If I blow on his chest he has large spiky blood feathers hidden underneath his regular feathers. He seems to be loosing a lot of tiny whitish fluffy feathers...now for a dumb question...Is he going through a moult already, or is he just replacing his baby feathers with newer adult feathers?
(His cage is outside-but undercover, out of direct sunlight and wind)

Cheers.

Fah · Post by **Fah** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 1:30 am

What age sorry?

Losing the white fluffy down like feathers happens throughout an IRN's life, and is not limited to any actual season.

Moults in young birds can happen roughly at a year of age, or 1.5-2 years of age. They dont moult all year round like some other species do (esp like budgies, or cockateils).

Some feathers can come through late, and there is always some minor degree of change throughout the young IRN's feathering / times.

julie · Post by **julie** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:06 am

My lot are all moulting something shocking, there is feathers everywhere here. I have found that they like to be scratched a lot more than usual and my boys get sooky too.

Fah · Post by **Fah** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 5:30 am

Yeah.. this is that time of the year

Post by **Lauren** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:41 am

Sounds like your bubs first moult. I am vacuuming twice a day the last couple weeks. My 2 are both stumpy butts now, with spiky heads. lol.

sheyd · Post by **sheyd** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:09 pm

Cheers everyone.

Fah, why do you ask what age exactly? Are you somehow doubting how old he is?
He was definitely born 7th Aug 2008 so that makes him 18 weeks old. My friend bred him and I've been sent pictures of him naked (as well as seen him lol), gaining feathers and finally weaned until we brought him home at 10 weeks old

I will try and upload some pictures...maybe I'm describing it wrong.

Fah · Post by **Fah** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:12 pm

hah doubting.. hardly

Just didnt pay attention to the first few words of the post lol

But now that I know its les than 5 months old it is kinda strange... if its only just a few feathers that are pinning, I would not be worried at all, but if the bird is headed towards a full blown moult.. thats very odd.

sheyd · Post by **sheyd** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:13 pm

leo · Post by **leo** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:13 pm

yea...here in i see alot of bird molting....
including my tango

Fah · Post by **Fah** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:15 pm

woah... two posts right after i edited mine >.<

I am sure its just a few late feathers coming through... cos he is a very young bird to be moulting, its even comon for birds to not moult until 1.5 years of age... doing it at 5 months is quite weird.

My bet is just on a few rogue feathers. (late development feathers)

if you see him going towards a full on moult (very scruffy, loads of new pins etc) take him down to the vet for a hormone check.

sheyd · Post by **sheyd** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:50 pm

Okay, here are the photos from today.

(this is looking a bit better than a few days ago but it's still very noticeable)

(Can't see the blood feathers in this one- it's hard to part the feathers and take a picture at the same time, but you can see the tubular one here)

I do hope it's late feathers coming in..

Fah · Post by **Fah** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:25 am

Well, I would take the bet that its just a late bloomer, those feathers should have all been done and finished by now... would be quite odd to see that pinning etc getting worse.

ryelle · Post by **ryelle** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:23 am

hehehe he is so gorgeous