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Plucking or molting?

b6lego

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I've been seeing some feathers at the bottom of my budgies cage and I don't know if they are plucking or molting. Yesterday I saw a flight feather? It had some blackish reddish stuff on the bottom. I found another feather this morning. Picture below. I also see small feathers all around the cage. My budgie Sky has a crease on his chest. Did he pick them? Also I just noticed that the tip of the feather is missing. What did that mean?
 

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Mizzely

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That looks like a molted feather.

With plucking you'll see damage to, or skin on, the shaft of the feather. You'll also see bald patches of skin. The fact that your bird is dropping flights is also a key clue that this is molting.

While birds molt all the time much like we lose hair, a couple times a year they explode into feathers and will often look like pincushions.

Some birds play with feathers after they are shed which will result in extra damage to the feather. But remember the primary reason to molt is to replace old feathers. Old feathers will not look nearly as nice as new feathers!
 

Sparkles99

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The crease is apparently the way parrots are. They've no feathers on their midline. Someone here posted a link about obesity in parrots from a vet & they mentioned this featherless midline thing, with lots of supporting pictures.
 

b6lego

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If the crease on his chest is normal why doesn't my other budgie have it?
 

expressmailtome

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That "crease" is usually a sign of an overweight bird. Do you have a gram scale that you can use?
 

b6lego

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Sadly my birds are almost tame but not quite so I can't take them out yet but probably I will take them out within the next week. They are eating seeds for now but I'm getting some pellets (harrison's brand) next week and going to convert them to those soon. I don't have a scale but my budgie looks thinner than my other budgie which looks a bit bigger than the other and doesn't have a crease. Picture of them below:
 

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