Can you Tell Me Why My Macaw is Suddenly Shedding?
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Can you Tell Me Why My Macaw is Suddenly Shedding?

Last Updated on by Mitch Rezman

Richard NA H. writes,

Good Morning,

I loved your answer on which 3 nuts are good, WOW

My question is this, is this the time of the year where Macaws shed? My macaw the last 2 days has plucked out all of these small feathers. I am worried. HELP!!!!

Dear Richard

Thank you for liking the blog post on nuts.

Just an FYI. Birds don’t shed like fur-covered animals. instead they “molt” their feathers.

Feathered factoid: When one feather molts on one side of the bird the same feather molts on the other side.

Birds molt all year round so they don’t lose too many feathers at once.

Molting can become heavier due to varying issues like being overheated, stress, and poor health.

Feather loss can also result due to their picking them out themselves or by another bird that shares the cage or play area.

We recently helped a long-time customer who reported her bird losing many feathers on its body and through emails determined that due to their moving the bird closer to the window, he was being stressed out by the proximity to outside animals and once the cage was moved back to another location, the feathers started to grow back once the bird was more relaxed and left them alone.

Can you give us any more details about this feather loss?

  • Have you moved the bird’s cage or stand lately?
  • Made any changes to their area or your home?
  • Has his diet changed?
  • Have any new animals or people in the area?

Please send pictures of your bird, with your answer so we can explore this further

Thank you

Catherine Tobsing

Customer Advocate, Windy City Parrot

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Catherine Tobsing
Catherine Tobsing

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