What are the signs that a parakeet is barely started or about to start molting??

usually on the head and neck region you will see lil pin feathers...and they preen more and a lot of fluffies more than usual start to fall..if the bird is approx 7mos old it could be going into whats is known as a "major" moult where besides that wing flights will fall and so will tail feathers...major moults start at the head and face,,,then neck and travel slowly down thru the birds body till it gets what we all call lovingly a "stumpy butt"

Dear SexyAndi -

Here are some photos of my birds moulting -

http://www.lisashea.com/petinfo/wingclaw/wing/moulting.html

They tend to get cranky and very itchy as the feathers are falling out and coming in

o ya she's definatly molting haha she has those lil pin fethers all over her head and is scratching on everything all the time! and the feathers are starting to be the ones from her neck so i'm guessing its starting to move down?

If she likes to take baths, bathing helps a lot with the itchiness and helps soften those pin feathers. So you might want to offer baths daily, be it tub baths, nice wet greens to roll in on the cage top if she comes out, on the cage floor, or even clipped to the side of cage near a perch she likes to hang out on.
Even a misting will help..room temp water, and always mist from above like rain.
Once those bigger feathers(flight/wing feathers) start to drop you'll know she's in a major molt and you should increase the protein in her diet. Feathers are comprised of 90% protein.Increasing protein in her diet will help her to complete her molt quicker, be less stressful, and produce healthy feathers.

So wut do i feed her that has more protein??

some hull less hemp has a good source of protein Andi...like this

www.ebay.com/itm/Hemp-Seed-Hulled-Herb-O...=item5646452576

take about 13 TABLESPOONS of your reg bird mix and to that add about 4 TABLESPOONS of the hull less hemp to it ...that should last about three weeks and you dont want to feed for longer than that...because too much protein for extended times in not good ...

good luck...you will wonder where all those feathers are coming from and they look so cute when they get a stumpy butt till those tail feathers come in... giggle

Dear SexyAndi -

Can you post a photo of the keet? Then we can see where she is in the molting process!

heres tha link for the pic. shes already shed about 4 flight feathers!

http://s1129.photobucket.com/albums/m516...11611165105.jpg

and wen they get a "stumpy butt"! haha:) cn they not fly or how does that work?