Dear friends of LisaShea,

In just two short days, my two keets coated the surrounding cage floor with
a carpet of feathers!
I'm concerned about it and watching them, I notice they are preening and scratching their wings and backs with their beaks a lot and then feathers drop to the bottom of the cage. I can't tell if they are pulling them out or if they are rapidly molting.
They are both adults (since their napes are one color and not striped like the young ones.)
What's normal? I've collected a ziploc bag full of feathers and there continues to be more feathers lost around the cage, even a couple large ones from the tail.

thank you

Greetings, Fira!

Birds do tend to moult in the spring and the fall, but I've never had any of my keets just drop all their feathers in two days like that. I would worry that it was some sort of an infestation.

I would suggest taking them in to your vet for a check-up - if nothing else, it's traumatic to the body to lose that many feathers at once (since the body has to now regrow all new ones) so you'll want to make sure they get even better-than-normal nutrition for the next few weeks.

Thank you very much! I will keep enhanced nutrition and possible infestation in mind.

In fact....now that you mention infestation, their cage is positioned next to a plant which has been suffering from mealybugs, and I learned that male mealybugs fly...I haven't seen mealybugs in the cage but I will be cautious. They have not dropped all their feathers at once--they still have plenty of feathers in their bodies, it's just that the carpet was coated with feathers...Oh! maybe the artificial heat from the apartment is irritating them? Or dust maybe.. But you're definitely right, I'll keep these matters in mind.

thanks!

They *could* be too hot and reacting to that, do you have a thermometer? What's the temperature in there?

I know I did say "all their feathers", I over spoke I meant "large volumes" of feathers

Oh I see..huh...well the temperature in here is around....you know I am not sure...I guess I need to get an indoor thermometer! over 70 I think..thanks Lisa!

Thermometers can be really inexpensive - maybe $2 or $3 for a low end one - so it's well worth getting one and keeping it by the cage! If you can afford $8, I'd get one that measures humidity too, since that is also important. Both of those are good to know for human beings too

thanks for the advice Will do.