Thank you to everybody who answered our Issue 2 Survey on French Moulters, here are the results:

FRENCH MOULTERS

WHAT IS A FRENCH MOULTER?
Birds effected with French Moult can vary in degree of damage, most being affected in their primary and secondary flight and tail feathers (as shown in the picture below), the recovery factor in governed by the degree of damage.   Most damage is caused to the quill of the feather, (the part of the feather that enters the bird).

SURVEY RESULTS ARE UNDER PICTURE

THE RESULTS

We had 25 replies to this survey, and out of these there where 2644 Budgerigars breed, and 158 of these were French Moulters, this meant that:

FOR EVERY 100 BIRDS BREAD, 6.4% WILL BE FRENCH MOULTERS

Here are some of the comments we received from this survey:  

[1] French moulters appear at the end of the breeding season and I believe are linked to a combination of factors including the following:
- The higher temperature (Australia)
- Stress from Birds at the end of the second round
- Longer daylight hours - not as much rest.

[2] No french moult in ten years or more, my father and my son have not had any in years, or ever in my son's case, don't think it is a problem like it was when we had it every year, maybe a genetic lack of resistance, as all my birds came from lines that had it but, none that showed it were used for breeding, only birds with no f.moult were used ,so year after year there was less and less, then there was none!!!

[3] The number of French Moulters I breed in a year seams to be dependent on a couple of things:

A) whether or not I've brought in a large number of new birds (such as buying out someone else stud), at which I experience a large amount of french moult, around 75%.

B) How long has it been since an attack.  It appears my stud's resistance goes up and down, that is to say I can expect an attack every four years, at which point about 75% are affected.

This year I've had no french moult, but the last two years were bad, the first of the two being my time, and last due to the aquistion of a stud.

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