Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 9/19/2006

Question
We have a 2 year old green cheek conure, who has always been healthy. She still sings and talks, eats well and seems normal in every way - except with her feathers recently. She has gray fluffy downfeathers all over her body after she molted, but when her new green feathers come in, it isn't long they come off again. It is like she molts over and over again, like every 3 weeks or so. Last year she didn't do this. the only change in her life has been a new little house-bed (it is a fluffy one. Her old bed was plain cotton). Do you think this could be the cause of her feather shedding problems? She even sheds off the little gray feathers, too, though there are no bare spots on her body. help!

Answer
Hi, Lauryn.  Thanks for posting!

If your conure is losing new feathers, there might be a medical reason.  I recommend you take your conure to an avian vet (not a dog/cat vet, but an exotic animal vet) for a evaluation to rule out medical conditions for this feather loss.  The grey down feathers are normal, but it isn't normal for newly grown feathers to fall out after they emerge.  It's possible for birds to have allergies to certain things, so I don't want to rule out the new bed, but only a bird vet can determine if allergies exist.

Birds hide illness until they can't hide it any longer, so the fact that your conure is acting normal, doesn't mean she can't be ill.  Once a human notices health problems in a bird, the bird is really sick and requires medical attention ASAP (depending on the knowledge of the human).  Your safe bet is to have your bird evaluated by an avian vet just to be on the safe side.

Chrys