Pictures First molt questions

[sgtpepper]

Sgt. Pepper is molting. It seems like it's been going on forever but I I think what I thought was molting was just growing feathers.

My question is does her skin look normal? She just finished playing in the water in this picture. While she is in the water she will lay her head down and let the water run on her neck. Is that "normal"?

 

[Tanya]

I looks normal to me. Birds grow feathers in lines (instead of uniformly all over their skin).

Rhubarb didn't want a bath so bribery scritches were employed.

She let me part her neck feathers to get a picture of her skin between the feather lines (she seems to think that neck feather parting is a kind of stitch and will hold very still for it):
If she were wet you would see something very similar to what are in your pictures, with each feather sticking out of the skin. Dry down gives a fuzzier picture!

(The distance between the lines of feathers will vary for each species!)

 

[sgtpepper]

Thank you!! The photos help!