Moulting?

[Drey-Raider 0]

I have a question about moulting after reading a few posts.

 

When do you know the bird is ready to be put down for moult and for how long do you leave them?

 

and do they sit for weeks in the wild?

 

just curious!

[jamesy 0]

some people put there birds down to moult different times but mainly as the weather gets warmer extra sun light and spring is in the air most animals starts to breed and this will trigger the birds to moult, as in the wild there are plenty of young around, for them to feed on,

so a bird of prey can lose a few matching feathers and still catch some easy prey,

but captive birds of prey are fed on plenty of quailty food .

and at this time of year and they are mainly kept at a fat weight so this also triggers the moult to..

 

some display falconers moult there birds in winter with heat lamps and quailty food, as they need to fly there birds in the summer months..

there is more to it, but am just explaning the basic outline of the moult..

am sure someone on here will have a bit more to add.

cheers

steve

[Drey-Raider 0]

Cheers for that, would underfloor heating or just a heat lamp in the Mews help speed things up . Or leave it to mother nature?

[jamesy 0]

best to leave to mother nature,

[SPAR 2]

There are many ways to speed up a moult with false lighting and things like that. I prefer just to bow the birds in the garden everyday and let nature run its course.

[NIGHTSHADOW 3]

I have just put my FHH down to moult today

[Drey-Raider 0]

nice to know there are people in the know out there, thanks

[jamesy 0]

nice to know there are people in the know out there, thanks

 

we all had to start somewhere,

 

[Drey-Raider 0]

The force is strong in you all......................

[gsi2000stokie 5]

best to leave to mother nature,

just my opinion but i disagree. i use heating as soon as the temp drops below 5c. not to help with the moult but to prevent wing tip oedema.especially with hh's

[jamesy 0]

am not saying dont use a form of heat if the temp drops,

but he was asking about moulting,

two different subjects................

[Will H 0]

Talking about whether they sit for weeks in the wild, they dont , in the wild birds of prey moult in a different way when moulting out wing feathers they will moult out symetrically so the very end feather on one wing and the very end feather on the other wing and this helps keep their balance and enables them too keep hunting through the moult. in captivity generally birds of prey just moult out feathers at random and thats to do with the different weights that we keep our birds at, in the wild a bird will be going constantly from fat one day to hunting two days later to fat for a few days depending on what it has managed to catch where falconers tend to keep the birds at a more or less constant weight through out the season and then fatten the bird for moult, this causes the captive bird to moult differently to the wild. hope that gives some information on what you were asking.

Edited March 28, 2008 by Will H