Ask Lafeber

Question:

February 25, 2021

Losing feathers


I am a new bird owner and know that they molt but is it normal for a cockatiel to lose wing feathers


Answer:

Hi Harrison,

Yes, this is normal. Parrots will molt feathers all year – it’s not unusual to find a molted feather here and there. They will go through a heavy molt once or twice a year. When this happens, they lose quite a few feathers at a time, over a period of a few weeks. There should never be any bare spots on the body with no feathers – this is an indication of feather destructive behavior. Because their wing and tail feathers are important for survival in the wild, they will not naturally molt all of them at one time. So one or two molted wing feathers is normal, but if you were to find all of his wing or tail feathers gone, this is another indication of feather destructive behavior. And with Cockatiels, this can also be an indication of “night frights”. Some pet birds – particularly Cockatiels – will have an episode during the night where they get spooked for some reason and begin thrashing around in the cage, which can result in a lot of lost wing and tail feathers.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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