Molting Question

[Lorylove]

I've searched all over the net and can't seem to find a direct answer for this.
I think Darby is going through his first molt. He is 5 1/2 months old now, so is this possibly his first molt?
I'm not seeing any wing or tail feathers, just small ones, and his head is covered in pinnies. Is this a normal age to go through a first molt, or should he see a vet? Please keep in mind that he is a lory, so I'm not sure if it is different for all species or not. Thanks for any input

 

[Brooke]

Sheldon, my IRN, is just finishing his first molt and he is 7 months old. His sibling at the store went through his/her first molt around 5-6 months old, it really depends on the bird.
If Darby's head is full of pinnies, I would say he is going through a molt, just look out for the bottom of the cage to be covered in feathers

 

[Mizzely]

Jingo had a small molt at about 6 months old, but didn't lose wing or tail feathers till about a year old He's also now got a head full of fin feathers again at 17 months

 

[Coco's Momma]

A molt - perfectly normal. No two birds molt alike or even at the same time, even if the same species. And each time a bird molts, it is never the same. Never the same length of time or even pattern necessarily. Usually Coco's molts start and ends with billows of fluff feathers. I know a molt is starting when it looks like manna has rained down from Heaven in the bird room. Some molts are mainly back and chest feathers and very few wing and tail, or vice versa. Not every feather is molted during every molt. Virtually every time there is a molt, I can't imagine how she isn't naked given the number of feathers around! Little Darby is so precious, and he is growing up!

 

[Lorylove]

Little Darby is so precious, and he is growing up!

Thank you! I him!


Thanks everyone
Good to know its normal for it to happen this early. For some reason I thought molts didn't happen until they were at least a year old, but I guess you learn something new every day

 

[JAM]

Hi Bridgette, you have a lovely lory there, the place where we got our lories from has a pair of duskies who are only a few weeks old and I keep telling myself NO, we have enough lories!!! LOL

All of our lories went through a first molt at around 4 months old, not so much the tail feathers but certainly had heaps of pins on their heads and they all lost their fluffiness but their colours intensified with the molt. The mustard/dilute scaly had a really hard time and refused to be touched, I tried ensuring she was misted or bathed at least once a day to try to assist as apparently this can help soften the pins, but she is still disliking a lot of touching possibly due to the pain from the molt. I had her checked out by our avian vet as we were worried it was something more than just a hard molting session......fortunately all tests came back negative as well as the dreaded PBFD test which was fantastic news, just seems to be "growing pains".
As Robin says, seems to vary from bird to bird, but this sounds normal. Our little ones are growing up indeed!

Darby is gorgeous by the way.

M

 

[Lorylove]

Thanks so much for the replies! Duskies are so gorgeous, they were my second choice He's not really showing any signs that the molt is painful, and his mood hasn't changed at all. He just isn't too into me trying to preen the pin feathers, understandably. I've been letting him bath in a dish of warm water, and he loves it! He's not really sure of what to do yet, so he just stands in the dish and flaps . He'll get there. Cograts on the negative PBFD test, I can't even imagine how hard that would be to find out.

 

[VictoriaVague]

I never get over how gorgeous Darby is. Such a stunning little guy!

Titus started molting at about 5 months and is still going. Mostly little head a chest feathers. He dropped his first tail feather the other day.