Feathers with coating

Question
Hi Maggie,
My little 2 year old conure parrot has developed a strange waxy like coating
on his feathers-ones behnd the neck inparticular. I've tried everything from
daily showers in warm water to applying oil in the hope of softening them up.
Some are quite hard-almost cone like with little tips at the end and some
quite soft with mutant feathers inside. Any solutions?
Louise....

Answer
It sounds like you are describing "pin feathers" (the white coating that covers new feathers when they are developing and first coming in during a bird's molt). Do NOT put oil on your bird to try and quicken the molting process!!  Oil could be dangerous to your bird if injested (when the bird grooms the feathers you have put oil on). In fact, don't ever put any kind of substance on your birds feathers (besides regular, plain water for bathing).

The white coating covering the developing feathers is there to protect the incoming feathers while they are developing. When the feathers are ready, the white coating will come off. If your bird likes to have his head scratched, you can try gently pinching the ends/tips of the pin feathers to help loosen them up. Also, bathing the bird frequently helps too. Usually birds will help preen themselves, and each other during this process. However, a single bird cannot reach the pin feathers on his head (that is why you usually only see pin feathers here).

I hope this helps. Here is some more information on molting:

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww20e.htm

http://www.cockatiels.org/articles/care/molting.html

-Maggie