Molting

[Kaylea]

Hiya A/all,

I'm not sure this is the place to put this.. are macaw is molting her first molt and when I say molting I mean from top of head to tail...and all over major pin feathers...it's one major molt....now I've been reading and researching. As I have since 5 months before I even got her.... Always reading new things...and even bad stories of thing so I know What to do n not to do.....now I've come across this thing called. Bar line...I'm not really sure of What it is but from What I've read I think my 6 month old macaw has some...now a few tell me that since it's her first molt we can predict at What time the lines were formed .or even why? So this worried me! Am I doing something wrong...?? Or is something wrong with her?

 

[Kaylea]

I'm really hoping you all can help me... ty

 

[Katy]

Im no expert. At. All. But. If you are referring to "stress bars" on feathers they come out because at the time the feather was just in follicle some kind of physical (could be dietary, could be something more extreme) or other health issue, when the feather grows out you will see this discoloration across all the feathers. The stress bar marks in and of themselves do not necessarily signify a health problem today. Dating the event by knowing how long since the last moult may be possible, but I guess I don't see the point.

if you took your baby to the vet for a wellness check and had bloodwork, swabs, etc. done, and it checked out, I wouldn't worry. If you didn't do that, I would do it now.

I'm not sure how long you've had your bird, but if you think it's possible the incident creating the stress bars happened after you got her, I would take her to the vet in that case. It sounds like your research has been thorough, so the diet, etc should be good.

then again I might not even be answering your question. Good luck.

 

[Love My Zons]

One thing that can reduce the itchy feeling that they have which can be uncomfortable is a good shower to moisten the feathers and skin. I have found good showers totally help my guys here when they seem itchy or irritated. Allows for the follicles that are about to come out come out easier. Once everyone dries off I do notice when someone takes off a find a tail feather, or a flight that has come out. Preening should help the new little feathers come in as the old ones fall out.

 

[Kaylea]

Yes ty , I went stress bars! I wrote wrong thing Lol...she's been to not for this tho..the vet...she's 6 months old.. and this is her first molt...she is acting craby so we gave her a bath...she is scratching alot and biting at her pin feathers... Her skin is very dry also

 

[Katy]

Like lovemyzons said above, showers are great. You can even do twice a day. If the vet thoroughly checked her and this seems to be just a hard molt, you can try to wait it out. But she also could be allergic to something. Macaws can die if they are around the dust of cockatoos for example. If it was me, I would probably get her checked out. But just to be clear, the stress bars relate to something that happened months ago. Her distress today is something different.

 

[melissasparrots]

Macaws as a group get stress bars easily when they are still babies and still being hand fed. If the temperature is wrong or anything is slightly off when a very young macaw is first growing their feathers, they may end up with some black or dark colored lines on their feathers. A lot of babies get a few bars when they were pulled from the nest for hand-feeding or when their brooder was changed to a bigger one. If only a few, this is fairly normal for a young macaw. If a lot and especially if there are black or wavy patterned smears of discoloration, then its a sign the bird was really, really stressed. If its old feathers she came to you with that have the bars, that is old news. Its something that happened while those old feathers were growing and probably before you got her assuming you got her fully weaned.

If new feathers are growing in with stress bars and she is fully weaned, then you might want to have a vet check done. Generally the first molt gets rid of a lot of stress bars the bird had as a super young baby and the new feathers grow in clean and smooth. Possible exception being a few ridges or dips in the tail feathers if the sheath was retained for any reason or the feather got bumped while still growing. A lot of macaws will show a line on their tail feathers that was a stressor to that feather, but not to the bird itself. If you're seeing a lot of stress bars on the new body feathers(those little blue feathers that cover the back and top of wings and head) then you might have something to worry about. A picture would be helpful in determining if its just normal baby stress bars, or if its something to be worried about that really is stressing out the bird. Once again, NEW feathers that grow in post weaning should mostly be normal. Old feathers that she first got when going from bald chick to very first feathers ever, might have a few bars on them.

 

[Kaylea]

 

[Kaylea]

Here is a pic of them..she also has some on the ends of her long tail...

 

[melissasparrots]

Assuming those are all old feathers which is what they look like to me, I would say those were stress bars from when she was a baby. Most of those should molt out into normal blue. Her coloring is a little more of a flat blue which can come from stress as a baby too and should molt out. But that could also just be a lighting issue. If the new feathers don't come in bright and glossy blue without bars, then you need a vet check. Maybe some other macaw knowledgeable people will have an opinion.

 

[Kaylea]

Ty very much: ) makes me feel some better