# Just molting or something worse?



## vanja (Dec 27, 2010)

So I've had my dove for several months now and for the most part I've been figuring out what is normal for her and what is not. The thing is about a month after I got her a noticed a few feathers around her cage. It wasn't much so I didn't think much of it. Now I swear I could fill a flowers pot full of feathers. I've been looking up molting and it says that birds do that during the warm months. I'm in FL. Could she be confused?  When I was reading about blood feathers it said the you should be able to see a bulb at the end of the feather when it is pulled. I didn't see any bulb on these feathers. So does that mean these weren't pulled prematurely? Her face is still looking ok, but her wings, tail feathers and chest are looking kind of sad.  She was puffed up once and I noticed a small, 3/4 dime size, bald spot. She had enough feathers to fly when I let her out so that's still ok.

Comments?


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

How old is your dove? By their first moult they can loose quite a few feathers and gey bald at some spots after that it gets less.
I live also in Fl and my birds moult at different times a few times a year.
What do you feed your dove, does she get enough natural sunlight? 
Also it would not be exluded she has feather mites. You can purchase scalex for that from any pet sore and spray her feathers, but be careful not to spray it on any bald spots. Actually I would recommend you moisten a cotton ball with scalex and apply it strictly on the feathers.

Reti


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## vanja (Dec 27, 2010)

I got her when she was 6 months so she is probably about 9/10 months now. She has a sun lamp that I turn on every day and she sometimes sits by the window. She eats a dove mix by kaytee.


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

Sounds good. Does she get grit?
I would try the scalex for just in case.
Can you post a pic of her?

Reti


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## vanja (Dec 27, 2010)

Ok so I got the image. She was moving a bit so it's a little blurry (and side ways, I'm not sure how to fix that). She does get grit.


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

She looks pretty good to me. I was expecting a bald bird LOL.
In a couple of weeks she should look normal again. Still it won't hurt to try the scalex.
Beautiful dove you have there.

Reti


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## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

Sounds like molting. I wont over worry about it. They do shed their body feathers and flight feathers. Some molt so bad they look like they got hit by a tornado.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Don't worry about it. She looks much better than Edmund did when I got him (he was in the middle of molting and he had been fighting with other cocks--and losing those fights...) 

Just make sure she gets good nutrition and she'll have plenty of new feathers in no time.


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## Siobhan (Dec 21, 2010)

My Maggie (who could be your bird's twin!) molted in the middle of winter and the MESS! We joked that we could make a bundle selling her feathers to stuff a mattress, she lost so many. Offer regular baths and sit tight; it'll end soon.


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## vanja (Dec 27, 2010)

I had been giving her baths and at first she was ok with with and now she crawls up my hand. Ok that's not so much true, it depends on her mood, if she allows me to give her one then she gets one. She stands perfectly still on my and and I have to move her around.  

Most of the time the water just rolls right off her so I didn't think it was really doing anything. A few weeks ago I decided to take her in the shower with me( I took a quick one, not washing my hair) and that did wet her feather. She seamed fine with it. It was when I took her out that I noticed some of her feathers were red near the skin and she was shivering. She didn't like being wrapped in a towel so I opened the window (it's screened) while she dried. She continued to shiver for some time.

I know baths are suppose to be good for molting birds but I just felt so bad when she was shivering. I'm buying a bird leash so I can take her outside so I'm hoping that will help; she can dry in the sun.
Did your bird shiver after bathing during the molt?


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

The last time our parakeet got all wet when it was too cold and she was all shivery, I just dried her off by gently stroking her with a soft dish towel (no loops in it--just plain cotton.) It got her dry fairly quickly.

When my doves bathe they usually do it for themselves and don't get super wet--so I've never needed to get them dry. 

I would be wary of getting her wet if it makes her that cold (due to air temp.) I would also be wary of the draft from the window getting her while wet.

It might be best to let her bathe herself in a pan of room temp water on the floor--that way she can decide how wet she wants to be.


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## Siobhan (Dec 21, 2010)

I don't "give" Maggie a bath. I give her a dish of water (or put a little water in the bathroom sink) and she does it herself. She loves baths, so all I have to do is dodge the splashing. And then she flaps her wings to dry herself off. I've never seen her shiver. I give her lukewarm water and make sure it's warm in the room. No draft or open windows unless it's really hot.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Ok, good. I've never had problems with my birds shivering as a result of that kind of bathing except for the one time when the parakeet decided for herself to take a dip in the water dish in late winter. 

Would she let you dry her off, or is she fussy like my doves about being petted too much?


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## vanja (Dec 27, 2010)

I put a bowl of water in the cage once but she just sat perched on the edge of it. The only other thing she did was poop in it. 

It's been around 90 degrees here so it was pretty warm when I opened the window.


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## Siobhan (Dec 21, 2010)

Maggie also loves being petted and spends most of her out of cage time sitting in my lap preening me or being petted. She pulls her head in so her neck disappears and turns into Pigeon Blob and just soaks up petting, or she lets me stroke the ruff around her neck and closes her eyes. She dries herself with the wing-flapping so I don't have to, but my guess is she wouldn't like a towel, because she doesn't like paper towels. When I get a paper towel to pick up poopies, she pecks at it. I don't dry any of my birds after a bath; they preen and shake off the excess water and just air dry. My Quaker Clyde likes for me to pet him dry and do the preening for him, but he's a spoiled diva. LOL


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

Siobhan said:


> My Maggie (who could be your bird's twin!) molted in the middle of winter and the MESS! We joked that we could make a bundle selling her feathers to stuff a mattress, she lost so many. Offer regular baths and sit tight; it'll end soon.


Maggie is a pigeon.. this bird is a dove, I did notice that my indoor doves molted more than my pigeons do.. the pigeons seem to have times of the year(late summer/fall) they do the big molt.. same with doves ..just seemed like it took longer..the big molt was very obviouse.. feathers everywhere, even after you just clean them up... you have not seen nothing yet..lol.. your dove looks good.. they do tend to loose feathers all the time just not as many as during a molt.


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## Oars (Jun 6, 2006)

My bird was losing a lot of feathers. Then I got her a good vitamin supplement that I mix with calcium syrup and feed that to her everyday. Now she only loses a few feathers after laying eggs but nevers gets bald in the neck any more.

As for giving baths, I give her a warm bath every couple of weeks with human shampoo and rinse it off really well under running warm water. When you give her a bath this way you have to be extremely careful to hold her so as not to hurt her, and especially, not to press on her abdomen if she's about to lay eggs.

Then I wrap her in a big towel that has been warmed for 30 or 40 seconds in the microwave oven. I place her in the towel on my lap and gently blow-dry her as she sits on the towel.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

vanja said:


> I put a bowl of water in the cage once but she just sat perched on the edge of it. The only other thing she did was poop in it.
> 
> It's been around 90 degrees here so it was pretty warm when I opened the window.


Maybe you should experiment with different temperatures of water for her bathing bowl. Edmund likes his bath to be room temperature, but the babies like it a little warmer. (Not super hot, mind you, but comfy temperature--like a slightly heated swimming pool). They can be pretty individual in their bathing preferences.


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