Plucking vs Molting
Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 7:38 am
To help ease some worries, here are some pictures to help you see the difference.
This is molting:
Notice that while some areas can look bad (sometimes a molt can be very heavy!), you can see the new 'pin' feathers coming in. One time when my sister left town and I was looking after Tsume, I glanced into his cage and immediately thought he was sick and dying- he was just molting that heavily!
Plucking looks more like this:
Notice the bald patches on Hane's wing and belly. There may also be bald patches under the wings, on the legs, and on the back but not on the head. Since birds use the beak to pluck out feathers, the head usually looks perfectly normal. Some birds may also pull out tail feathers but will typically leave the long feathers of the wing for flying.
Some parrots will only pluck out the vaned feathers and leave the down feathers behind, resulting in fluffy gray/white patches of feathers. You can still see the distinction between this and molting my determining if there are any pin feathers or not. Absence of pin feathers (new feathers growing in) is more indicative of plucking.
IF your bird is also losing feathers on his head and there are no pin feathers or the pins look deformed in any way, please quarantine and take your bird to a vet and have him checked for disease or malnutrition. Don't freak out, just do it, it could be something as simple as a vitamin deficiency but it is best to be certain!
Hope this helps!
This is molting:
Notice that while some areas can look bad (sometimes a molt can be very heavy!), you can see the new 'pin' feathers coming in. One time when my sister left town and I was looking after Tsume, I glanced into his cage and immediately thought he was sick and dying- he was just molting that heavily!
Plucking looks more like this:
Notice the bald patches on Hane's wing and belly. There may also be bald patches under the wings, on the legs, and on the back but not on the head. Since birds use the beak to pluck out feathers, the head usually looks perfectly normal. Some birds may also pull out tail feathers but will typically leave the long feathers of the wing for flying.
Some parrots will only pluck out the vaned feathers and leave the down feathers behind, resulting in fluffy gray/white patches of feathers. You can still see the distinction between this and molting my determining if there are any pin feathers or not. Absence of pin feathers (new feathers growing in) is more indicative of plucking.
IF your bird is also losing feathers on his head and there are no pin feathers or the pins look deformed in any way, please quarantine and take your bird to a vet and have him checked for disease or malnutrition. Don't freak out, just do it, it could be something as simple as a vitamin deficiency but it is best to be certain!
Hope this helps!