# Regular moulting?



## banndsand (Dec 5, 2013)

Hello.

I am a little confused about my ringneck dove's behavior lately.

He (still not sure if he or she yet) has recently been moulting, and now is about done (I'd assume, because my room is no longer covered in feathers), but he recently pulled out some of the flight feathers on his left wing, to the point where it almost looks like he has a clipped wing! Is this normal? Now he is sometimes flapping his wings as if to test, and sort of turning around in circles because it is uneven. He is still trying to uncover some feathers around there, but I have noticed he has a habit of plucking out blood feathers on that wing.

It also hangs a bit lower than the other sometimes, but I just assumed it's because his habit of plucking out blood feathers makes it sensitive.

There are no avian veterinarians around here of which I am aware, so he hasn't had any checkups. Should I bring him to a regular vet for a checkup and to see if this feather thing could mean something bad?

Oh and this morning I woke up to him flying frantically around his cage until I finally uncovered it. I intend to cover less of the cage at night from now on, in case it was just because of him missing his landing and making a poor recovery. Not sure if that might be related, as I haven't noticed him actually pulling out the flight feathers, so maybe they just got caught on the cage during the freak-out...

My apologies if this is the wrong section of the forum. I wasn't sure if this counted as an injury or emergency.

Thank you for reading, and sorry for the huge post.

Enclosed are pictures of each wing for comparison.


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## banndsand (Dec 5, 2013)

Nevermind, I finally went to see a general veterinarian and they resolved the issue for me. 

For anyone curious or who might have a bird who is also constantly picking at a certain spot's blood feathers, it turns out he had some stubs from old blood feathers in his wing, which were making him pick at new feathers, and then causing those new ones to mess up, and so on. So we got all the problem stubs and feathers pulled out, and hopefully they will grow in properly this time.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

good to know. a general vet can help pet birds just fine on many occasions, they can do fecal analysis as well. 

keeping the dove's mind active with perhaps a mate can help with some panic or and boredom.


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## banndsand (Dec 5, 2013)

Yeah, I hope to get him/her a mate once I know his/her gender. I don't have money for DNA testing, and based on the estimate they gave me when I got him/her, he/she should be nearing maturity soon, so I'll be on the lookout for mating calls or eggs.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

if you got a hen, two hens can get along fine and be paired with each other.


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## banndsand (Dec 5, 2013)

Oh I didn't even think of that. Guess I'll have to start looking for a ringneck dove in my area after I've moved.


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