A few questions about feathers / molting

[PeekABoo_Too]

Do conures molt differently than cockatiels? My tiel hasn't had a major molt, occasional down-feather molts, otherwise it's a feather here and a feather there, kind of an ongoing sort of thing. My conure however - she's getting way more feathers than she seems to be losing! I find a few small feathers on the cage floor, but jeez she's got pins ALL OVER, I can't really touch her at all right now because she's so prickly and irritable. My 'tiel never grew in feathers all at once like this. Both of them were around 5 months old (so I was told - no bands) when I got them if that gives any clue.

Also, the texture of my conure's feathers are *way* different than my cockatiel's feathers, is that normal, too? The conure's are stiffer/courser to the touch whereas the cockatiel's are just unbelievably soft...

[Monica]

Cockatiels are dust birds... where-as conures are oily birds. Most parrots are oily birds, as they have an oil gland that is used to help protect their feathers. Since greys, toos, and tiels do not have the oil gland, they produce powder down. The powder down acts just like the oil gland, in repelling water. This is why they feel so soft.

There are other birds who don't posess the oil gland, such as amazons, (can appear dusty but they aren't dust birds like the three mentioned above), hyacinths, lears and spix macaws, however I'm not exactly sure how they keep clean in the wild.

As for molting, all I can say is that birds tend to molt differently...

[PeekABoo_Too]

Okay. Thanks Monica =)

[Sweet FX]

Being I never really felt/scrathched a lot of birds I do not nknow about the feel. But Tiki loves his neck scratched by anyone without nails. He fluffs up and you can feel all of his pins. I am can of afraid of the molitng stage, but we should be fine.

[ROYJOY]

speaking of oily, i gave my new p'let a shower, and the water just ran off for about a half minute before his feathers got wet.