6 month old plucker?

[crazy4fids]

I am really freaking out here....I got home from work and grabbed the babies to take a shower. Both of the babies really LOVE being in the shower. After Shrek got all wet, I noticed a bald spot on his chest!
I thought maybe his feathers were just parting weird.

When we were done, I put them back out on the play tower in the living room and got dressed. Then I went to check their cages. Their day cage was fine. But the bottom of their sleeping cage has got fluffy white down feather all over it. I counted at least 30 fluffy down feathers. I didn't notice it this morning. It was still kind of dark when I got up and moved them out to their day cages and fed them.

It happened some time between 8pm last night and this morning. We put them all in their sleeping cages in the bird room about 8pm and give them their seed mix. About 8:30-9pm we go say good night, shut off the light and close the door. The are all quiet till I get them up at 7am.

I guess my first line of action will be to split them up so I can tell if Shrek is pulling them himself, or if Fiona is helping. I am glad that we went with two smaller cages instead of one extra large one. Tomorrow I will call the vet (they were just there last month and got a clean bill) and have him run some tests.

The birds already eat better than I do and I haven't introduced anything new into their diet in the past week and 1/2.

Fiona is definitely the more outgoing one of the two. Is it possible she I stressing him out and he is plucking? He is way to young to be doing this .

He has come out his shell quite a bit this week. He was doing so well. In the past month, he would just sit in the corner of his cage and watch the activity going on around him. Now he comes out and joins the girls on the parrot tower, plays with toys, preens himself after a shower and will even step up for me. He will even venture over to Benita's cage and socialize with her.

I am just sick to my stomache

 

[Anne & Gang]

I think your idea of putting him in a separate cage is a good idea..to see if she is indeed, plucking him. Also eliminate any health issues by getting a wellness check.

 

[Milo]

Birds do have a featherless tract on their chest near their keel bone. Also, your boy may be old enough to be starting his first big molt. Personally I wouldn't freak out too much, have you looked at the feathers to see if they were plucked? Sometimes feather loss can seem quite dramatic Of course a vet check isn't a bad idea, but like I said, ekkies do go through a pretty dramatic molt when they're young.

Also, if you haven't seen them yet, look up pictures of an eclectus "mojo" molt. (that's not an actual scientific term, but a nickname given to a particularly heavy molt) I think it will be helpful to see how dramatic molts can be and still be perfectly normal

 

[Momto3boys]

First thing I thought of was the male Ekkie's big molt.

Definitely look up mojo molt!

 

[sodakat]

He is exactly the right age for his first head and neck molt, and possibly chest molt. Don't freak. Perfectly normal. He will continue molting his smaller feathers until about 12 or 13 months and sometime after that will start on his large feathers.

Also, many youngsters sleep with their beak straight down in their chest feathers instead of behind their back.

N O R M A L

 

[crazy4fids]

That makes me feel so much better! Do you think I should still take him to the vet?
When they have to be in cages, I am going to put them in separate cages from now on. It is just way easier to track who is eating what, who's poop looks like what and who is dropping feathers. I will keep Shrek and Fiona's cages next to each other so they can still be buds.

 

[Milo]

If it helps, my boy Rosco is going through a super heavy molt right now, he's had a health check and is in perfect health. Here are a couple pics, his head is particularly bad right now:

 

[crazy4fids]

If it helps, my boy Rosco is going through a super heavy molt right now, he's had a health check and is in perfect health. Here are a couple pics, his head is particularly bad right now:

Well, that helps a little. Shrek has just been so quite and shy, that I worry about him. We have four birds and three dogs living here. It has been kind of crazy the last month. We got new furniture and I have been setting up new cages and moving cages and moving furniture......

 

[Milo]

Remember that male ekkies in particular tend to sit and observe their surroundings, with all the changes he may just be thinking things out

 

[crazy4fids]

he is just so completely different than our first boy we had 15 years ago! Fiona is more like our boy Tarzan that we had.

 

[Chantilly Lace]

When they are dry you shouldn't usually see a really bald spot, but when wet their feathers can clump together and they get little bald spots. I have seen 25+ floofys after they preen when molting.

 

[crazy4fids]

When they are dry you shouldn't usually see a really bald spot, but when wet their feathers can clump together and they get little bald spots. I have seen 25+ floofys after they preen when molting.

If you put two postage stamps together on his breast to the right of his keel, that would be the size of his bald spot. You can only see it when he is wet. You can't even tell it is there when he is dry.

Since I have separated them at night, and removed all the feathers from the bottom of their bird cage and the surrounding area......I have not seen an unusual amount of feathers that would indicate anything abnormal.
I guess the other thing that just came to mind is, if they are both shedding down feathers, the enormous quantity of feathers in the cage they shared could have been from both of them and I just assumed that it was all from him because I saw his bald spot!
He seems to be fine this morning. Eating his breakfast, playing with toys, eating more.... Love that little green guy!

 

[Milo]

he is just so completely different than our first boy we had 15 years ago! Fiona is more like our boy Tarzan that we had.

It's amazing how our kiddos can be so different in spite of being the same species! Wyatt, the green man I lost just a few months ago, was the exact opposite of Rosco. Never touched toys, always very gentle, etc. Rosco is like a green tornado! They're both awesome, just different I can see why that alarmed you then, to see such a difference in personality