My pigeons feel very vulnerable when they go through their annual moult. Elmo in particular. He’s looking very disheveled and I’m sure he feels that way too. It must be uncomfortable also. They’re preening a lot and pulling out all the old feathers and unsheathing the new ones. To be honest, Elmo is acting in such a way that I can only describe as “I’m feeling ugly. Leave me alone”. He’s very moody towards me and doesn’t want me around him.
Georgie is being a bit nicer to me but she’s now in the later stages of her moult and possibly wanting reassurance from me. I don’t know if birds in the wild feel the same as my pigeons do but I imagine they must also feel vulnerable during a moult. It takes energy and time to grow new feathers, and when they don’t have a full compliment of feathers they may be more vulnerable to predators.
As I’m writing this Elmo is on the sofa falling asleep. I want to go over to give him a kiss to reassure him that he’s loved but I’m not sure he’d be happy about that. Usually when I nod my head to Elmo he’ll respond with a nod and then run to his nest to coo to me. But lately he’s not been responding to me and simply stares. … I guess I’ll just have to wait until he’s feeling pretty again before he’ll let me cuddle him.
The above photos shows the few feathers on Elm’s left wing that he tries to preen but only succeeds in fraying and breaking. This may be because of the angle that he’s not able to reach them properly (since Elmo has coordination and mobility problems).
Piggles has been thru the major moult – wow. Still losing feathers(tiny ones) but i found that the ones she cannot reach – head and neck i have helped a bit.
I very gently use my nails to break (loosen) those ‘straws’ that show sticking out on her head. Never pulling or anything like that. She likes it and closes her eyes – also the same under and around the beak
Perhaps your birds would not mind if you did that?
Hi Ara, we do “preen” the back of our pigeons neck but Elmo doesn’t always allow me to do this to him when he’s feeling insecure. But I know that pigeons love to be preened around the neck where they cannot reach themselves so I’m glad you are doing this with Piggles.