Talk:Moulting

Temporal Note
I just corrected the word "biannually" to "semi-annually" in reference to dogs shedding their coats. For future reference, please note the following temporal terms:


 * Annual/annually - once a year; or one year only (e.g., plants that flower and die are "annuals")
 * Biennial/biennially or bi-annually - once every two years; or two years only
 * Triennial/triennially or tri-annually - once every three years; or three years only
 * Perennial/perennially - every year without end (e.g., plants that flower annually without dying or re-planting are "perennials")


 * Semi-annual/semi-annually - twice a year, especially once every six months.
 * Quarterly or tri-monthly - four times a year, once every three months
 * Quad-monthly - three times a year, once every four months (but nobody says "quad monthly" - they say either "three times a year" or "every four months").
 * Bi-Monthly - six times a year, once every two months
 * Monthly - twelve times a year, once every month
 * Semi-monthly - twice a month, typically the 1rst and 15th days of the month
 * Demi-semi-monthly - three times a month (but most people say "three times a month"), typically the first, tenth/eleventh and twentieth/twenty-first days of the month)
 * Bi-weekly - every two weeks, totalling 26 times per year (27 in some years).
 * Tri-weekly - every three weeks, totalling 17 times per year (18 in some years)
 * Quad-weekly - every four weeks (which is what people actually say; nobody says "quad-weekly"), totalling 13 times per year (as compared to monthly, which totals 12 times per year)
 * Semi-weekly - twice a week, especially twice during a five-day work/school week (e.g., Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday)
 * Demi-semi-weekly - three times a week (which is what people usually say), especially three times within a six-day work/school week (e.g., Monday, Wednesday and Friday; or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)
 * Biurnal or bi-diurnal (very rare) - every other day (which is what everybody says)
 * Daily - every day —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.244.43.17 (talk) 01:42, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Separation?
Why is molting for insects and arachnids separated, wouldn't it make vastly more sense to just have a 'molting in arthropods' section that also includes crustaceans?

Bird moulting
I think any bird moulting article should include the specific reason(s) why it is necessary for moulting to happen in the first place.

Merger proposal
Moulting and ecdysis mean the same thing. The term ecdysis is not restricted to arthropods but applies to reptiles as well. Hence I propose to merge this article into Ecdysis. AshLin 12:48, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * But aren't there (at least) two different processes? I don't think it makes much sense to merge the moulting of an exoskeleton with the moulting of feathers and fur or with the shedding of reptilian skin. It might be that the articles need to be renamed (e.g. moulting (Ecdysozoa) or ecdysis (Ecdysozoa), moulting (vertebrates) and ecdysis (reptiles)), but the functions and mechanisms are really quite disparate and should not, in my opinion, be treated together. Our articles should be about the biological processes, and not about the ambiguities of the terms used for them. --Stemonitis 14:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Oppose. The terms moult and ecdysis are not interchangeable and articles should be able the specific biological process, not lumping together different processes under the same colloquial name. ----Kugamazog (talk) 20:22, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Removed merger prposal vide arguments above. AshLin (talk) 17:18, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Expand
Deciduous plants shed their leaves, some also shed twigs, and a few shed major branches. The article also should mention deciduous teeth in many animals, notable ones including humans, horses, sharks. --Una Smith (talk) 21:37, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Casting?
In two places this article used "casting" for a dog moulting its fur. I do not understand this usage. I could not find it in my three dictionaries (all three are unabridged, and span 70 years). I could not find it at the AKC web site. I could not find it at the | Marriam-Websters dictionary.

I suspect that this is the usage in some variety of English. The norm for Wikipedia seems to be to accept American English and British English without comment, while marking other varieties. (Often there is a mark for American vs. British.) So if this usage seems normal to you please reinsert it with a variety marking.

Nick Beeson (talk) 11:44, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Is "Moulting" correct spelling?
is it spelled "moulting"? or "molting"? just can't find it spelled the way the author uses it. Computingdrummer (talk) 02:39, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Moult is the British spelling; molt is the American spelling. Moulting/molting is the process of moult/molt.  Does that help?  If not, ask again, and I'll try to expand my answer... MeegsC | Talk 02:47, 30 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks, that does answer my question! Computingdrummer (talk) 06:47, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

Molting is correct. Moulting is archaic.


 * Incorrect. HCA (talk) 21:05, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Shouldn't the entire article use one spelling or the other? (75.118.85.187 (talk) 07:22, 21 June 2016 (UTC))
 * Yes, it should. The article was started in British English, so that should be the spelling used throughout. MeegsC (talk) 09:19, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

Disproportionate emphasis on dogs?
The list of dog breeds that shed little seems a somewhat out of place and unbalanced in this article about molting in general, especially given the explicitly un-verified nature of the alleged research. It does a disservice to the reader to provide a list but then say "it may or may not be true".

Secondly, the phenomenon of shedding in mammals as a whole should be discussed first, then dogs. --Animalparty-- (talk) 19:15, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps this list can be placed as it's own article List of dog breeds that do not moult ...or something like that, and just a link to it in this article?__DrChrissy (talk) 19:31, 6 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I just found out that article already exists: List of dog breeds with little to no shedding, but it has the same problems: no verifiable sources. --Animalparty-- (talk) 20:06, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
 * My tendency would be to remove the list from Moulting and put a WP link to it. This keeps the Moulting article tidier (no list), removes the over-emphasis on dogs, and is verifiable.  It shift the onus of verifiability to editors of the list site, but that exists already.  Would be happy to hear what others think about this.__DrChrissy (talk) 15:10, 7 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Already done ! --Animalparty-- (talk) 15:23, 7 November 2013 (UTC)