Young or old parakeet?

When parakeets are young they have a full head of stripes going from their foreheads to the back of their heads. In what age do these parakeets approximatly loose the stipes and develop a solid color on their heads???

 

Usually parakeets loose their barring when they go through their first molt (around 4-6 months) and will develop a cap of solid color. Except with albino's and lutino's what don't have any barring on their head.

 

Thanx for the feedback!

Do you happen to know why my parakeet flys against the ceiling?

 

Since you parakeet is new it could just be that it's scared.

When I first brought Kiwi home he acidentally got away and ended up flying around the kitchen for about 10 minutes near the ceiling and then perching on the ceiling fan. Now that he's hand tamed and his flight feathers have grown back in he'll fly around but no where near the ceiling

 

Your bird will not lose its head barring until its adult molt is complete, you will notice it will lose feathers from the head and neck more than anywhere else during its molt.

A molt can last anywhere from 1month to several months giving your bird a bird bath or shallow dish of water in the cage will help with the molt as they get very itchy and aggitated during the molt, You may also find he/she will become very quiet during the molt this is normal.

Birds fly at a height when out in the wild, They know if they stay high then they stand less of a chance of being caught.

Once he/she gets used to you and becomes tame it will be fine.
Wing clipping is a good way to hand tame birds but this should only be done by an experienced person as clipping the wings incorrectly could result in the bird seriously injuring itself.

Mike