Moulting can
be very severe in kakarikis and even cause them to behave more cautious
than usual.
These abnormal strong feathering
disorders are probably often due to infection by a mite.
These mites live, invisible
from the outside, on the calamus and near the follicle and were first described
in 2011. These mites have so far (with one exception) only been found on
kakarikis.
Please also check: 
Some cases of feathering
disorders, especially in the head and neck, of our own birds, or birds
known to us, were caused by a mite infection.
But this is not always
the case. |
An
extreme example is a red crowned parakeet hen we took home with us from
the asylum.
When we took Fiona in,
her entire head was fairly featherless and even her back was very thin
feathered. (Picture 1 and 2) Picture 3 shows Fiona two months later, fully
feathered again. This year (2009) 2 of our 4 hens moulted very severe,
so severe they too showed bald spots on head and back.
Fiona again moulted severely,
but not as bad as shown in the pictures.
In 2011 Fiona was one of
the few birds with us, that showed no signs of infection with calamus mites
or mites of the Knemidocoptes species. She, while with us, has never shown
signs of feathering disorders again.
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