Ask Lafeber

Is 4 months too early for a cockatiel’s first molt?

Hello, my cockatiel Mango will turn 4 months old this week. Over the past week she has been losing a lot of feathers and has pin feathers coming in on the back of her neck and around her keel. She also lost several crest feathers and has a bald spot at the base of her crest underneath. She seems to be constantly preening, but I don’t think she is plucking, at least I hope not. The weather did just warm up two weeks ago. Could she be going through her first molt early, or is this a sign of stress? Is a cockatiels first molt bigger than future molts? How do I know if she is losing too many feathers?
The biggest stressor I could think of is that she doesn’t seem to sleep very much because she hates being alone. I cover her cage for 10-12 hours but I hear her moving around and she always gets so stressed when I cover it.

Hi,

She may be a bit older than you were told, but they can molt at any age. The warmer weather can definitely trigger a molt. And they do lose and grow new feathers throughout the year. This may be her adult molt, but if she is a female, you won’t see much difference. Molts can be heavy sometimes and light other times. She might get cranky during this time because of growing new feathers. Everything you describe sounds normal as far as the molt goes.

For sleeping, they do stir at night. They are a prey species like all parrots. But some cockatiels can suffer from what is often called night frights. She may not like having her entire cage covered because then she can’t watch for predators. You might try covering part of the cage. A night light is also recommended for Cockatiels. As for cage placement, it should not be next to a door where people can enter the room unseen. This can really startle a bird. They like to see who is in the room and who is coming near their cage rather than have someone enter a room and be right next to the cage without warning.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda