Friday, December 23, 2011

The Ugly Molt continued...

The one good aspect of the Ugly Molt, is that it happens fast.  The typical molt can take 12-16 weeks.  And the Ugly Molt or fast molt can take a mire fraction of that, 4-6 weeks.

Coco started her molt about 10 days ago and look at her progress:

Ouch.  Look at those pin feathers.  That just can't feel good.
But the top ones have already started to open up.
Hopefully, it won't be too long before she doesn't have to sleep
with her bare butt out in the cold at night.

She lost almost all her wing feathers at once.  She just has the one row left and you can see how ragged they are.
Look at all those brand new wing feathers just pushing out from their keratin wrappers.


Oh, and her head and neck.  It's like she lost every feather there all at once.  She won't hold still for a second.
It's like she knows I'm trying to take her picture.  But you can see all the new feathers coming in and the
progress from last week.  (See last week's blog for comparison photos.)

2 comments:

  1. Hey Flock Mistress,
    I know what you mean. I feel so sorry for the girls when they are going thru such a state. They bounce back once their feathered out again. How are the chicks doing? They must be fun and sort of a worry too.
    I enjoy your blog and I hope you have a great holiday. Best wishes!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Maryann. I'll post more photos next weekend and we'll see her progress.

    ReplyDelete