# First Molt



## Island (Feb 23, 2016)

Ok, Cloud is now having his first molt, poor baby very itchy with lots of pin feathers mostly on his head. Of course he is getting head and neck scratches from me multiple times a day.

He was being a such a good boy eating his veggies and greens daily. But last 1 week, all he wants to do is play and not eating anything else other than seeds. He stopped eating veggies, egg food and greens at a time he needed the most; when he is molting  I do not know how to convince him eat his healthy foods again. He lately came up with this game of running towards my hand and starts talking and flying away or flying on my hand and chirping and so on. But he rather taps on the food and talks to it happily when I offer it to him rather than eating it. Any suggestions?


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## aluz (Jul 24, 2011)

If your Cloud is not keen on eating his fresh foods when having out of cage time, you can have them available when he is in the cage. 
What's most important is to have these foods available to him on a daily basis (egg food for only the duration of the moult). 
If Cloud has bonded more closely to you and pays attention when you talk and interact with him, you can use this to your advantage and to make him more curious towards his veggies and egg food by pretending that you are eating them and saying how yummy they are. This may sound a bit silly, but does work.

Good luck!


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## Island (Feb 23, 2016)

Yes, I agree it does not sound silly at all.  I talk to him as if he is a human baby (indeed he is a baby) and use lots of expression and tell him how yummy it is and I eat myself showing him lol and this was working initially, he was eating. But now all he wants is to play with me rather than eating.... He either flies away and comes back when I am not holding the food, or he jumps on me and starts playing with my blouse etc. Early on when I put the veggies in his cage, he just went and eat the seeds. So that is why I started hand feeding him, now neither one works...


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## aluz (Jul 24, 2011)

I have a lovebird on a strict and controled diet where I have to give certain amounts of different foods to eat. He also loves to play and include me on his playtime and what I do with my bird is spending some time with him actually playing (short sessions of 10 - 15 minutes playing) and then place him back to the cage or the "feeding station" when having out of cage time and I will hand feed him the special food.
This works very well because he is happy for the time spent playing and he would then gladly eat the food I have to offer.
I will often have to take a few short breaks on his feeding and incorporate the play time to make him eat everything that is required. 
Some days are more difficult than others, but I always manage to feed him well.


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## Therm (Aug 2, 2015)

I'm glad to hear that Cloud is getting though his moult okay, with the addition of lots of head scratches of course!


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## Island (Feb 23, 2016)

I was expecting him to sleep more (may be he is doing this when I am at work), but he became way more playful than before. He just wants to play and chirp all the time. He looks very happy, so that is good that he is not miserable from the molt. But yeah definitely he only takes couple bites or none last couple days compared to he used to eat all his veggies before the molt started. I put some greens to his cage when I went home for my lunch break. See what happens if he eats it when I am not there. Thank you for the advice Aluz  Definitely, he just wants to play with me every time he sees me now, he is like a 2 year old. I have to follow him with the food in my hand, but he manages to run away from it (either runs, he looks quite funny when he is doing this, like a lil chicken) or flies away until he sees that I put the food away. Or he learned to speak some words, so he bobs his head to the food and talks to it rather than eating it (looks a lil crazy talking to the food) when he is perching on my finger.


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

I'm glad Cloud is getting through his first moult with a cheerful smile on his face and is doing well 

I hope he continues to do well


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## Island (Feb 23, 2016)

figured that Cloud wants to play if he sees me in the room rather than eating... he also started following me every time I go to a different room (I close the doors for the rooms not safe for him to fly in), basically he flies wherever I go and literally on the couch on the bed and eventually on me and plays non-stop  but over the weekend I made him some egg food and broccoli and moved away from the room so he cannot see me, I caught him eating it. Success! but if I walk in he stops everything and just wants to hop around and play  he even came up with this flying low game (so he is flying up down or on on the bed or couch) and landing on my hand or on me and chirping over and over...


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## shanebudgie (Feb 5, 2016)

lol cloud loves you.you're apart of his flock now.glad he's eating the egg food.lol they're like a shadow.they'll follow you anywhere once they get tamed.I can't go out the room without Gracie chirping for me.blessings my friend and thanks for all the updates.


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