French Moult

If you are unlucky enough to have encountered French Moult in your Aviary then you have my sympathy . It appears without warning. Shows no mercy and devastates the youngsters you are breeding at that time. French Moult can be very mild with the loss of only one or two feathers or it can be quite severe, but when it strikes the only wise thing to do is to take the breeding boxes away and try again a few months later.

How do we get French Moult. What is the cause and above all what can we do to prevent it. Well these are questions that have been asked many times. They get different answers from different people but at the end of the day the result is the same. There is no real answer to the questions. Some people firmly believe it is carried by moths, others believe it is a virus.

In 1993 I had my first success on the show bench. I bred a opaline cinnamon hen. She was a lovely bird and did quite well for me over the following two years. That year I was hit by French Moult for the first time. For every bird that kept its feathers I had one that lost them. At first I did not realize what was wrong. The first couple of birds lost their flight feathers around about 31 days old. On a visit to the aviary for the morning's check, everything was fine. When checking in the afternoon there were two youngsters minus their flights. Over the next couple of days these two youngsters went on to loose their tail feathers as well. When they were old enough to leave their parents, they were placed in a cage on their own and they went on to feather up fully.

Over the next few week I found that the French Moult effected almost every pair of birds that I had down breeding. The longer I went on breeding the birds the worse the Moult got. Birds did not recover after loosing their feathers. I finished breeding that year with 90 birds bred at least 40 of these birds were French Moulters .

Over the next three years I started to check which family's the French Moult showed itself in. I slowly started to sell these family's off to local pet shops and by 1995 I was down to about 10 Moulters a year. Last year when the first chick showed up in a nest with French Moult I placed eggs from that nest into a healthy nest to see if the French Moult was transmitted from chick to chick in the nest , or was it all ready present in the chick before the egg hatched. I found that when these eggs hatched the chicks did produce French Moult. The chicks that belonged to the nest that hatched at the same time and grew along side these chicks, were quite healthy and showed no sign of the moult.

1993 was a different strain if that is possible. In 1993 it I now believe that the type of French Moult I had in was passed between the birds from nest to nest and might have been an airborne virus, or it may have been carried on my hands as I inspected the nest boxes The type I had in1995 was also a virus but was transmitted from parent to chick from the moment the egg was laid. Thus it was confined to that family of birds. I have also found that, if you have a bird that has French Moult you have more chance of the bird re-growing it's feathers if you keep it quiet and in a smaller cage than usual.

I now take extra care when feeding and cleaning the birds during breeding time. I mist spray around the nest boxes with a Virucidal Disinfectant, such as Virkon S or similar. Before I start to pair the birds up the nest boxes are soaked in a very strong disinfectant to kill any mite that might be there. This breeding season has been the first that I have not had the problem of French Moult. Almost all the effected family's have been sold as pets and I now feel confident that the stud is nearly clear of at least one type of French Moult. At the moment I have a half brother, half sister down breeding together. Both of these birds have French Moult in the family, on the hens side. These bird however have not had French Moult themselves. At present they have two chicks in the nest and one chick fostered in. I wait with trepidation to see if any moult appears from this pair of birds.

If you have and views or comments you would like to add, please Email me and let me know. Your information will be of value.