Adopted Keet is Losing Feathers while Settling In

User Question
Five weeks ago my mother had a stroke in another state. I brought her parakeet ("Butch") home with me to care for him while she is still in the hospital in rehab. Butch is used to me and likes me, so he seems perfectly happy, and I spoil him with daily care that Mother was unable to give, healthwise.

Mother adores Butch. He has been her only companion for the past year. She keeps him in his cage right beside her all the time and talks to him all day long. Consequently, he can say a lot of stuff--quite well!

My concern is this: Butch is losing a lot of feathers lately--about the last couple of weeks. The fine breast feathers are all over the floor of the cage, and he has bare spots on his chest. There are even occasional wing feathers (the long pretty ones) on the floor. I thought maybe it was a natural time of year for it or something, but after reading your website, I'm afraid it's stress, and you didn't say what could be done for that. Like I said, he seems to be happy--chirps and chatters all the time and watches tv all day! (Ha.) His eyes are clear and bright. He moves about constantly like always. But I'm really getting worried about the fuzz loss. Lord, I don't want the li'l fella to get sick while I'm babysitting!

I'm feeding him regular parakeet seed and fresh water daily, along with the gravel, and I pick and wash tender dandelion greens and give him about 2-3 of those every day. He adores those! He'll start eating them before I even get my hand out of the cage! I read on your site that dandelion greens are okay.

What do you think, Lisa? As I said, he seems to be okay other than that. He'll come give me sugar and everything. The only thing is I don't sit-at-the-kitchen-table-and-talk-to-him-all-day like Mother did. I talk to him throughout the day in passing.

Please help! It's probably nothing, but I'm concerned.

Lisa's Answer
Butch sounds like a real darling! Certainly birds molt occasionally and it could be something like your house being warmer than his previous house, so it "feels" like spring to him. As long as the new feathers then grow back in, I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you are giving him daily doses of attention and he's chirping along with the TV and other noises, it sounds like he's doing pretty well.

I do have to say that parakeets do NOT need gravel and in many cases it can hurt their delicate stomach linings, so I would stop giving the gravel. None of my parakeets have had gravel and they do quite nicely without it. It's *pigeons* that need gravel, because they eat their seeds whole and then have to digest the skins. Parakeets hull their seeds before they eat them.

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