Molting?

[ArowanaLover]

Nigel's feathers have been looking less sleek than usual and he is having large amounts of quills coming in, especially around the neck.

 

[Wolf]

A little early but it could be the first stages of molting.

 

[mythic55]

Pin feathers indicate 'new growth'. That could be from a Moult, or traumatic event. I do find that when moulting- the head/neck area is the first to refresh itself.
Moulting is stressful, it is important to provide good nutrition, protein is important and amino acids.

 

[CeciliaZ]

My tiels are starting to molt

 

[sunnysmom]

Sunny started yesterday. I normally add a little brewers yeast to his food every other day when he's molting.

 

[ArowanaLover]

He has had no traumatic event (that i know of) and seems very happy. He is (and always has) been on pellet food, so that and a cuttlebone shell (along with some seeds and fresh fruits) should take care of his food needs.

 

[mythic55]

He has had no traumatic event (that i know of) and seems very happy. He is (and always has) been on pellet food, so that and a cuttlebone shell (along with some seeds and fresh fruits) should take care of his food needs.

That is not exactly true. If you are satisfied with the diet, that is good, but your birds system may think something else.

EDIT: Ill elaborate a bit: They require increased amino acids (protein building blocks), Protein and essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids are usually destroyed by the manufacturing of the pellets (or even by air in the bag, or light). Many of the pellets are void of the aminos and have extremely small amount of protein- and during a molt they would normally consume a considerable amount of insects, therefore it is reasonable to increase the protein to reduce stress on the body (otherwise they can pull the energy and nutrition of other places in their body, or feathers will not come in properly- which is more than just asthetic- without the proper feathers colors it can make them less able to control their temperature, issues flying, etc).

That is why I would suggest adding a egg food/soft food which is also high in calcium. (I posted a new recipe for it on this site that is extremely palatable in the breeder section of this site.

(cuddlebone is actually not as good of a source of calcium as people think)

 

[mythic55]

If you are still not convinced to feed a whole protein like egg, here is the egg food I have been working on:
(I posted in the enrichment court- not breeders section- sorry)
Increase in proteins and aminos (recipe for soft food) | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

And if you are truly opposed, then try to feed quoinoa, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens and kale (high in EFA's)

 

[Wolf]

I try to rely on vegetable proteins for my birds, but I do resort to a little bit of egg during breeding and molting season. I also agree that essential amino acids, those which their body can't manufacture but need, are very often in short supply in most of the commercial diets as are probiotics. While pellets are convenient to use they are, in my opinion, not the best source of nutrition for my birds. A lot of people think that nutrition is as easy as order this pellet and seed mix and toss them the occasional veggie or piece of fruit and that is all there is to it, but nothing could be further from the truth.