This past week both of my babies have been molting again, there are down feathers all over....and they just had a molting not just a few months ago...

Ok now I'm sweeping my floor like 4 times a day LOL

How about your babies??

Both Macs here are in a heavy molt..... My livingroom looks like a red feather duster.

Lots of baths, extra nutrients, and nice sleep seems to be doing them well.

Poor little pin heads!

Same thing here ladies.
Red ones,Blue ones and green ones are all pins .Not to cranky about it either ,yet.

I would be wondering if it's a soft molt. It's not molting season in the Northern Hemisphere. In a true yearly molt (end of summer) you'd maybe give some extra protein to push out the feathers but if you're giving it now you could be causing it. Or I should say you "are" causing it, no offense.

If you lower the protein (animal AND vegetable and seeds and nuts) and increase the greens and veggies and fruits you'll see it stop. I'd also be raising the humidity. Using distilled water.

Ingrid, we're starting into Molts here also.

Cindy, I respectfully disagree. Macaws living indoors do not go by "natural" molting schedules. I have personally seen macaws on all types of diet, molt all year round. I know you also have theories about photoperiod and I would propose that photoperiod would be more closely linked to molt start times than diet.

There is also still some discussion on which parrot species molt when, and how often..
Here is a good article on parrot molt. Page 19 is where the article starts, page 20 is where the discussion starts about when how and why.
http://www.aav.org/PDF%20Files/ClinForMay06.pdf

Yes it's true you see that. And you hear of all kinds of indoor birds not following nature's schedule. Because of their care, though, not because it's "normal". You have birds molting multiple times of year and in winter and spring, birds going hormonal and even egg laying in winter...and other anomalies because of their environment.

What is most surprising to me is why everyone accepts the theory that just because they live indoors that they wont need to go through nature's cycles. Given the stress of molting and breeding and hormonal behaviors wouldnt it be a good idea to TRY and mimic the natural schedule as much as possible?

I think I'm the only one on here who says birds should not be given animal protein and very little egg and limited vegetable protein, too. So given that so many people are feeding animal proteins it's apparent to me that you will have too much "molting".

I wont be getting into posting a bunch of links but if you keep reading you will see the cause of soft molts and relation to proteins.

How would birds be able to molt during breeding season?

Feathers are made of protein and birds can never molt in the spring because feathers are made of protein and if they were using their extra protein to produce feathers, they would not have any left for producing eggs (yolks are made of almost pure protein, too), and without babies, the species would die. So, obviously, they couldn't possibly molt in the spring even if the so-called experts said they did. Nature didn't make birds that way. They are meant to follow a specific thing each season.

But I'll be glad to read your link and see what they have to say.

Photoperiod is one cause also but mostly it's diet, ime. The list is long and I didnt go into it but other causes can be:

- check for disease first (take the birds to the vet for a complete blood test),

-parasites (check for feather mites -look for holes in the shafts of primaries)

-stress -moving, changes, crowded cages, etc-

-a diet too high in protein -too many seeds and not enough veggies and fruits-

- brusque changes in temperature or exposure to a constant warm draft,

-too many hours of exposure to light

My rescue friends and I NEVER EVER have birds molting out of season. So that's a different group of people that sort of make the case, IMO for environment and following a strict natural daylight schedule keeping the bird doing what nature intends in the "right" seasons.

And btw last year when my Parrotlets were juvies and past the juvie molt, I boarded them. They didn't get their normal veggies for the 4 days. When I picked them up they both had pin feathers. Then after 4 more days they went away. Back on their normal diet.

They also sprouted pin feathers when I gave too many sprouted grains specifically quinoa.

Sometimes it's good to really examine what we're doing and change things around and see if you get a different result. Not just write it off to "normal", IMO.

I dont have a macaw yet, but my grey and green cheek are molting something feirce!

OK sorry that pdf is killing my eyes and way too long for me to go through in alot of detail....but I want to point out a couple of things.

First of all on page 6 it clearly says about nutritional factors. Going to page 7 it clearly says "gives rise to the expression prolonged molt or stuck in a molt".

Which was my point.

Then she reviews the "considerable metabolic cost" to the molting procedure and how it drains them of protein...which is what I was saying about birds not being made up to MOLT and BREED in the spring simultaniously.

Camille, btw you want to read that pdf...it talks about birds clipped wrong young not regrowing properly AND calcium. (although from what you wrote it sounds like Ollie is only missing a few right now).

Birdyland, what I did NOT notice is the theory that captive "in the house" birds arent expected to follow a "normal" or nature's schedule.

It says:

Normal feather growth and replacement is a natural process that may be affected markedly by captivity. Diet temp and humidity will influence feather quality and the molting parrern, the cage or aviary may cause abrasion to the feathers....drastic wing clipping....etc.

So respectfully, it looks like the author agrees with me. I guess it's all in how people want to take info.

Ollie is still missing a few feathers, but we had a vet visit about a month ago and her calcium levels (along with everything else) were perfectly within the normal range.

My vet also told me that birds molt at all different times, and that it's normal.