IndianRingNeck.com

Hi i got a irn last week and i have noticed that he likes to clean his feathers alot and he seems to scratch alot. I also notice that there are small feathers at the bottom of its cage good he be sick or molting. How do you know when there molting never seen a bird during molting.I have also noticed it is not very vocal i ahve not really heard a sound from him except once i heard him make a reall quite cherp sound so quite you could parley hear it i had to turn tv off to hear it. Also i have been trying aome fresh fruit every day and he wont touch it then when he does he picks it up and dropes it he wont try to hlod with feet yet to eat just drops it and then wont touch it.

How old is the bird?

Sounds like a normal molt.

Type 'molt' into the search engine above. I doubt its anything to worry about.

You know they are in a molt because the look like hell and usually have spinny places initally. Not right away but soon on.

The bird was probably on an all seed or pellet diet (death waiting to happen). Converting your bird to fresh foods is hard. Converting from seeds to pellets is even hard but it must be done.

Sadly, my ringneck, being the hard-head that he is, wouldnt convert. Mean as it sounds, I had to resort to 'eat it or starve'. He ate it and the problem was solved. Took three days though for him to give in so I gave him a nibble here and there but kept him hungry. Dani, too, had to go the tough love route with prinny.

Sounds like a typical moult...some birds moult all year round and some drop their feathers in a matter of weeks. Take Mik's advice and look moulting up in our search engine

Dani

I never type moulting right, like uhm EVER.