Keep your bird warm during a molt. Although your bird won't go naked, she may have some thin spots on her body. If you can't keep her room especially warm, you can use heating pads and even heated perches in her cage. Also be sure to give your bird plenty of quiet time to keep her from getting too stressed out. Now is not a good time to take her on vacation or to visit a friend, go to the vet (unless medically necessary), or show her off to visitors to your home. Let her have quiet time and do what you can to make her feel secure.
Make sure your bird is getting enough rest. All birds should be getting at least 9-12 hours of sleep a night, including during a molt. You may need to cover her cage and darken the room earlier than she's used to.
Provide your bird with extra humidity during a molt. Extra bathing and perhaps a humidifier in the room will help her feel more comfortable.
Pin feathers are the new feathers coming in. They poke through with a blood supply attached, which feeds the feather and helps it grow. If this blood feather happens to break, it will bleed. Most feathers, however, will not bleed because they are too small to break. The only feathers you need to worry about bleeding are the larger flight feathers that grow in along the wing. More on that later.
Help your bird preen. Your bird will take care of her new feathers on her own, but she may need some help to preen the new feathers that grow on her neck and head. If she allows you, gently scratch her neck to find the new feathers. Unless there is a white part to the feather, it is not ready to be preened. You can gently pinch the white part of the new feather between two fingers to loosen the keratin sheath. If the feather is not ready (the blood supply is still present), this will hurt and your bird may give you a little nip, so take care not to preen feathers that aren't ready. After the blood supply retracts the feather is ready to be preened, and to have the keratin sheath gently removed.
Your bird will be able to fly after a molt. If your bird's feathers are normally clipped, take extra care during molting to ensure she doesn't get into trouble. It only takes a few extra feathers to grow in for her to be able to fly. Keep a close eye on her flight feathers.
Toenails
In the wild, birds don't need their toenails trimmed, because they spend so much time on a variety of surfaces that help to smooth them down. In captivity, we need to make sure we're using a variety of perches to promote foot and nail health.
Concrete perches can help to dull sharp nails. Don't use sandpaper perch covers, since they can be very irritating to the bird's feet. Place concrete perches in an area of the cage where the bird spends a moderate amount of time, such as near the food dishes, or near a favorite toy. Don't make the concrete perch the highest perch in the cage, since birds generally sleep at the highest point, and concrete can get uncomfortable to sleep on.
Some birds need their nails trimmed. If you notice that your bird's nails are getting too sharp or too long, you should take her to the vet for a nail trim. If you're interested, your vet can then show you how to trim your bird's nails at home.
Beak Care
Most birds will never need to have their beak cared for. They generally do a good job of cleaning their beaks after eating by wiping it against a perch. Watch to make sure your bird is not using a concrete perch as her wiping perch. A concrete perch could cause ridges in her beak because it's so rough.
On rare occasions, some birds will need to have their beaks professionally trimmed. Never attempt to trim a bird's beak on your own. You could seriously injure your bird! Leave this to an avian vet.
Grooming Issues
Feathers
Most birds don't need extra help with grooming. Exotic birds actually spend quite a bit of time making sure that their feathers are all neatly groomed. Parrots will preen (or groom) their feathers every day, multiple times a day. In fact, preening is contagious! If you have more than one bird, you'll notice that as soon as one of them starts to preen, the others follow suit. It's also a very social activity. Birds who are bonded will preen each other. Your bird will also probably ask you to preen her by lowering her head. She wants you to preen her neck and head, areas where she just can't reach.
Molting
Birds naturally molt out their feathers about once a year. Molting is similar to shedding in dogs and cats. Old feathers fall out so that new, healthy feathers can grow in. Birds will not molt all of their feathers out at the same time, so even though you may see a lot of feathers falling out, rest assured that your bird will not end up bald! Birds tend to follow the same molting schedule, so if you have more than one bird, they may all molt around the same time.
During a molt, your bird may seem a bit more agitated than normal. This is because as new feathers grow in, their skin can feel itchy and even a little painful. Think of it as teething in children; feathers are pushing through the skin all over the body. These new feathers are called "pin feathers" and appear as small white feathers (seen on a Hahn's Macaw, right). You may want to supplement your bird's diet a bit with some extra vitamins, minerals and protein. Some people choose to feed a commercial "egg food" during this time, made for breeding birds. Check with your vet before supplementing your bird's diet for any reason.
