molting question

[GorgASS]

willis turned one in jan. and he's been molting for a while. he's pretty much done now except for the bigger feathers. right now, he's missing 4 wing feathers, 2 on each side, and another 1 or 2 are loose. 3 of the wing feathers that have molted out just came out no problem, but the other one ended up kind of sticking straight out from his body, then when he flew, it broke off. there was no blood ever, but a little bit of the shaft(?) is still on/in him. it doesn't seem to bother him at all, i'm just wondering if i should take him to the vet to get it pulled out, or if it will eventually fall out on it's own. i called his vet this am, and they said if it's not bothering him just to keep an eye on him and if it's still there in a week or so to bring him in, but is this normal? for feathers to kind of break off instead of coming all the way out?

 

also, how fast do the wing feathers molt out? like i said, willis is missing 4 right now, with more on their way out, and he doesn't seem to want to fly lately. he IS able to fly, it's almost as if he's not too confident with his skills right now (which i think is understandable giving his missing feathers). i'm just wondering if this is what usually happens. it was my understanding that they molt one at a time, but i'm not sure where i heard that or if it's even right.

 

this is his first molt, and he was just to the vet for a full work up maybe a month and a half ago (all tests were normal). thank you all in advance!

[danmcq]

The molting process you describe is normal.

 

Your Grey will either pull that broken feather out or it will drop out on it's own sense it is already loose from your description. Our birds are the Gurus of feather care. :-)

 

The primaries that already molted out, are already growing back in as this is being answered.

 

It took my Grey about 2 years for the complete molt cycling of all primaries. Each bird is different and it also depends on if a primary becomes damaged. If it does, it will molt out in short order and be replaced with a new feather.

[Dave007]

The one that broke off---leave it alone. That feather is now officially dead and the rest of it will come out when the blood supply at the base of the feather dries out.

How fast do they fall out? --Most of the time that's a question that can't be answered because most of the time the flight, covert and tail feathers come out whenever they die which is all year long. There's no specific time.

Why is he missing 4 right now? Just a coincidence. Probably won't happen again but maybe it will happen again. The most importantant thing here is that new blood feathers will be coming out and pushing the dried up dead feathers out.

"""he doesn't seem to want to fly lately. """

A bird flaps it's wings and sees that normal lift off is affected because certain feathers aren't there at the present so he doesn't fly. Nothing unusual about that and he'll fly soon enough. It has nothing to do with confidence. It has to do with ability.

"""""just wondering if i should take him to the vet to get it pulled out"""""

No, it's a waste of money.

As far as behavior-----when a bird goes through 1x to 2x a year normal body molt, many get cranky, bitchy and short tempered and nippy. Some don't wanna be touched. That's normal too.

So relax, have a brew and watch some TV.

[GorgASS]

thank you both so much!

[judygram]

That Dave will tell you point blank the honest truth, thanks Dave.

[Xtreme575]

Dave, once again you post with honesty, humour, and great wisdom! GorgASS, thanks for posting this, I'm experiencing my baby's first molt as well, it's an interesting process for sure. Dan, how long did it take for Dayo to be able to fly again?