molting

Question
Hi

Our budgie is about 18 months old and has been losing feathers from his chest gradually over the past few months to point where he is completely bald.  I don't see any new ones coming in.  Is this normal for molting or could it be something else ?

Thanks

Answer
Dear Laurie,
thank you for your question.
That's definitely not normal, the moulting process never leaves a bird bald. It might be that he's plucking the feathers himself, that's a behavioural problems caused by lonliness and/or boredom, it can also have psysical causes. You should see an avian vet with the bird to find out what's wrong, I can't really give much advice other than this. Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease may also cause loss of feathers like this, you can find some more very good inforation on this and other causes for feather loss here:
http://birds-online.de/gesundheit/gesgefieder/gesundheitgefieder_en.htm
These websites list avian websites:
www.birdsnways.com/birds/vets.htm
www.parrotparrot.com/avianvets/
http://aav.org/vet-lookup/
http://www.toolady.com/vetrefer/vetrefer.htm
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer