Skin irritation?

[Flyredbird]

I have a 2 week-old African gosling who has been picking a patch of down on his back for a few days straight. I've read that geese don't really get mites very easy, and he's in a clean cage inside my home so he wouldn't really be exposed to them unless he picked them up on our walkabouts outside. Is it possible that the feather tracts are coming in, so the spot is itchy? He has a lot of dandruff coming off the area also. Eats well, sleeps, gets enough water and is very talkative; the only problem is him always picking at it when I put him in his cage to rest. There appears to be some brown sheath-like flakes at the base of the feathers/skin there also. Anyone know what the problem is or how to fix it?

 

[The goose girl]

Don't worry.

At two weeks his new feathers and down are starting to set in. He's just cleansing them and removing the sheathes - they flake off as the feather matures. The sheath dust looks a lot like dandruff.

I'm sure the growing feathers cause itching - my goose is particularly fond of me scratching her neck and her head when she's molting. Sometimes my clothes is almost white from "dandruff" when I put her back down on the ground.