Louie’s 2020 mojo molt fit the year. It was a bad molt this time around and lasted around five months. Since my most popular posts are all about Eclectus Mojo Molts, I figured it was time for an update—and provide a progression photo series so others can see how these can go.
We saw the first hints of it in early August, 2020:
Slowly and steadily, it grew worse.
By December, we had a BALD little man.
Something seemed… off. He was losing feathers, but few were growing back in. I worried about his cholesterol, but hadn’t made any big dietary changes. Something was up.
So, I took him (curbside drop off) to the vet—and my hunch was right. Louie had a calcium deficiency—Mr. Man hadn’t been eating his greens very well lately, so I would need to make some sneaky changes to his diet to make sure he was getting that sweet, sweet calcium.
We started with green peas and the occasional edamame, and I got creative with his favorite foods, blending calcium-rich greens (dandylion greens, chard, all that good stuff) into foods I know he loves, like jalapeños and celery. I then mixed it with Bird Street Bistro’s magic mixes and voila! Problem solved! Let there be new feathers:
Anecdotally, this molt felt like it lasted far longer than former ones. The vet didn’t have a comment one way or another, but once we added the missing nutrient back into his diet, his mojo molt resolved quickly.
By mid/end of January, he was growing in new feathers and generally back to normal:
Moral of the story? While annual eclectus mojo molts may be normal for this species of parrot, if they seem particularly severe or long lasting, it wouldn’t hurt to take your ekkie in for a vitamin and cholesterol panel. Once upon a time, Louie’s main issue was high cholesterol—this time, it was calcium.
I would NOT recommend randomly supplementing random vitamins, as it could be any number of vitamins hindering new feather growth. However, a long and/or severe mojo molt may be a sign that something is off.
A simple dietary fix could help your little man return to his shiny green self!
There you have it. A full progression of an eclectus mojo molt, start to finish!
