Birdkeepers often complain about the moulting season because of all the feathers in their aviaries – but spare a thought for the birds - the moult is a very demanding time!

The lost and replaced feathers, during a moult, account for a whopping 25% of the total protein mass of the bird. That is the bird looses and needs to replace a quarter of the total amount of protein in its body.

Feathers and their sheaths are composed of greater than 90% protein, in particular proteins called keratins. Feather protein is different from other body and egg proteins and requires different proportions of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). The bird must find foods with these amino acids and then absorb and deposit them as the special feather protein Keratin. This process is not very efficient and so the bird will often struggle to find sufficient nutrient to form the perfect feather.

There is also a large energy cost for the bird when it is producing new feathers. The demand for energy to process the protein needed means the birds must eat more food during the moult to be able to sustain new feather growth. To put it in perspective, for a bird to grow new feathers is two and a half times as energy costly as egg production!

The factors controlling the moult are not completely understood, but are complicated. Age, season, day length, hormone levels and breeding cycles are all involved in the timing of the moult. The most important thing is to supply your bird’s nutritional requirements during the moult so they develop the best feathering possible.

To provide the increased protein needed for feather production you should try and increase the sulphur containing amino acids such as methionine and cystine. These are found in animal meat and in MOULTING AID. Meat can be fed to most birds in small quantities and is a good dietary supplement. MOULTING AID contains a range of vitamins and minerals as well as amino acids to allow normal feather production.

Although most birds go through the moult uneventfully there are some things that go wrong and leave the bird with very poor feathering.

• Diseases – Beak and Feather Disease (Circovirus) and Polyoma Virus are the most common viral diseases that cause poor feather production. Chronic Psittacosis, chronic parasite burdens and bacterial gut infections may cause feathers to be of poor standard.
• Poor nutrition – as we have seen, the requirements of feather production are very high and low quality seed will not grow high quality feathers.
• Chemicals – some commonly used chemicals are known to damage growing feathers. The best known is a pigeon wormer called Mebendazole. This chemical will create curled and deformed feathers if given during the moult.
• Stress – “stress lines” on feathers are commonly seen in young hand reared birds. They occur because the bird has been subjected to something that has upset the rapid production of growing pin feathers and left the shaft weakened and showing a dark line across it. Most of these will moult out at the first juvenile moult but you need to understand that they are caused by something that has really upset the bird’s metabolism.

What do you need to do so that the birds can have the best feathering possible?

Firstly get rid of the common things – Psittacosis, Worms, Coccidia, Megabacteria etc.

Secondly make sure none of your birds are carriers of PBFD or Polyoma virus.

Then try and provide adequate nutrition during the moult by supplementing the seed diet or converting to a pellet diet (Breeder diets can be used during the moult to boost nutrient levels).

When hand rearing babies you need to be ever vigilant that your rearing system is not causing stress to the baby.

If you have done all the above and are still having problems with feather quality you need to talk to your avian vet.