upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Browsing through the boards, reading posts and checking out some of the pics, I'm glad to see that my babies are not the only ones that break thier feathers or have a scraggily looking butt due to the broken tail feathers. Thought I was a bad mom *whew*. I did read that on one of the post that someone is pulling them out when they break. Is that something that is recommended?

When Misi and Mandi break one, it had never bled (yet, thank god) and I usually clip it off with a pair of nice sharp scissors. They don't like the scissors comming at them, but they are obviously in no pain from clipping the part of the feather that is hanging off. In my mind it would be more painfull to pluck the thing out and it gives me the willies thinking about doing it (and I'm a nurse! LOL)

It used to be quite popular to pull a broken blood feather so it would not cause the bird to bleed to death. That idea has changed in the last decade. Vets now recommend use of baking powder and pressure from finger tips to stop the bleeding and and prefer to leave the feather in place. Within 3 days, the blood in the feather shaft receeds enough to make it improbable the break will resume bleeding. Clipping as you've done causes no harm, particularly if the break left the feather tip hanging at an angle, but it isn't necessary if you prefer to let nature take its course.

Paca

Lisa,

I've had loads of trouble with two of my kids breaking growing flight and tail feathers. I've had to pull some, the vet pulled some, and while it can be done if the feather is bleeding, each time you pull a feather it does damage the follicle. At some point, the feather might regrow in improperly, so as Paca suggests, best to just let nature take care of it. In my case, the feathers have continued to bleed, or have caused them so much pain they had to be pulled. It is not difficult at all, but I was reluctant to pull a broken blood feather until I had the vet show me what was necessary. I've given up on Chibi ever having any feathers, short of isolating him to a cage no bigger than he is, but that wouldn't be good either, so now I'm just trying to prevent him from breaking any growing feathers.

Sam

Luna broke almost all of her tail feathers when she was a youngster - under 8 months. When she molted and her new feathers grew in she did much better.

I think it has to do with learning how to move with half of the length behind them. It's a long tail they have to learn to move with - climbing, flying, landing, turning.

Thankfully she never broke a blood feather so I haven't had to pull one, I just clipped the end that's dangling and leave the rest of it - if it's 2 inces or 4, doesn't matter and it will give some support to the remaining feathers.