Down feathers

[chimaysmommy]

Within the last week I've noticed that there is quite a few more down feathers coming off of Chimay when he preens himself. He's no more aggressive or frequent with the preening than he has been in the past, but it seems the volume of down that he loses is going up. He'll be 6 months old in a week....am I seeing signs of an upcoming molt or something? I had always heard that greys don't have their first big molt until about 1 year of age, so I figured he was too young but wanted to pose the question anyway...

[casper]

I wouldnt worry.

 

My three always lose lots of down feathers.

 

Not sure if its an early sign of a first molt or not. Two of mine had their first molt at about 11 months and the baby is a year old and is just going through his first.

 

I remember reading an older post though where one of the members had a younger grey go through theirs quite early so I suppose it is possible.

 

The feathers get everywhere though dont they?

Keep us posted wont you:)

[chimaysmommy]

Will do...It was actually kind of cute yesterday. He was sitting on my belly preening away after a good Aloe juice bath. After a solid few minutes of preening he fluffed up and shook his whole body and out came a mushroom cloud of fluff. As it floated down around him he was very surprised and freaked out a little bit...The only thing I could think of was Chicken Little! Ha ha! "The sky is falling!!!!"

[casper]

Chicken Little, Ive not heard of that one in a long time lol.

 

Mine are big scaredy cats if a downy feather comes off!

You would think they have never seen one before:laugh:

 

They are so funny:)<br><br>Post edited by: casper, at: 2009/05/21 22:28

[chimaysmommy]

I especially loves it when he's rubbing his head all over his back, and comes up with a big fluffy down feather stuck to his head. He gets so confused as to where the heck it came from and how to make it go away!

[Char]

I always have down feathers. They are a fact of life. I wouldn't worry.

[Dave007]

Char

You always have them? I'm very sorry about your condition. Keep your chin up. Tomorrow may be the day that things will be looking up for you. You've got a strong family because they're abl;e to comfort you when you have a particularly bad molt. At least your whole predicament has created an even better bond with your bird. It's a good thing that you except your problem as a simple fact of life. Good luck.

 

By the way, Barnum and Bailey has a job opening you may be interested in.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/05/22 03:57

[judygram]

Feathers, feathers everywhere, the kids know when they come to the house that they are going to see some feathers, fact of life when living with birds.

 

Chimay may be going thru an early molt but not to worry.

[skeeterhawk1960]

Chimaysmommy, It`s been the same with Harley for the last week.

[daveyj]

when i had Racing Pigeons the sign of down feathers was a good thing it meant they were fit & healthy i supose its the same for all birds ???????

[JillyBeanz]

Harvey's nearly six months too - he's always rubbing his "baby feathers" about. I was worried too and searched the forums and find this post totally reassuring. More dusting and hoovering on the cards methinks!

[chimaysmommy]

Yeah our hand-vacuum is a life saver! Ha ha!

[JillyBeanz]

Ha! Yeah - definitely the hand held hoover. It must be high on the list of priorities when buying a parrot - large cage, lots of toys, good diet - and a hand held hoover! It's early and already mine has been used twice!!