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How Long for Trimmed Feathers to Molt?

Nostromo

Walking the driveway
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7/25/18
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151
Hello everyone!

I have a mostly flighted 10 year old Pionus. She's a real sweetheart, and she flights pretty competently from place to place in the house - cage to kitchen, perch to table, bedroom to living room, etc. She doesn't really fly for fun but she went from never having flown in her previous home, always being clipped, to learning to fly and land fairly skillfully the past two years.

Now my question! We stopped clipping two years ago. Took a good nine months before she did more than tiny flop flap hops. Then another year before where we are today, and she's a decent flyer. Well, imagine my surprise today when she molted a trimmed flight feather! That thing is over two years old. Is that typical? How long til I can be assured she's got her whole set of flight feathers? Will her flying keep improving?
 

Mark & Da Boyz

Rollerblading along the road
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Anywhere from 6 months for say a Tiel or budgie to over a year for bigger birds, Cheddar took a year to molt out his clipped flights...now he thinks he'd the "Green Baron" and zips all over the place.
 

Nostromo

Walking the driveway
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That's what I figured - a year. But it's been two!! How strange.
 

Mark & Da Boyz

Rollerblading along the road
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It can depend on the health and condition of the bird, Piper, my rescue Tiel was in such poor condition when I first got him that is was close to two years before he could molt. It really hurt to see him so ragged for so long but he'd been so poorly cared for and malnourished that he simply didn't have the resources to grow all those feathers. BUT once he got to the point he had the energy he did so and looked so much better. And he kept it up twice a year long feathers and then contour feathers later. Of course with 3 Tiels, a Parrotlet then a Kakariki and GCC the place started to look like "a pipe bomb had gone off in a pillow factory" most of the time.
 

Nostromo

Walking the driveway
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Messages
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Hmm, interesting @Mark & Da Boyz. Our bird is actually in really good condition - she's seen an avian vet a couple times who say she looks great. And her feathers are always beautiful except during her molts when she looks a little fluffy. I guess this feather was just a lingerer! Like a baby tooth that won't fall out.
 
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