broken tail feathers

[ahatfield]

my ring neck has a broken tail feather. should i pull it out so a new one grows or leave it alone. new with birds. thank you

[darkcloudchild]

It all really depends on how you feel about it. Personally, I HATE to pull tail feathers, but have done it on occassions where I feel it necessary.

Kozmo rarely has broken ones, and when she does, she won't leave it alone, so we pluck hers most the time. Now, she likes to chase Loki around the cage so much, that he gets a little crazy and breaks his. If I were to pull his, he'd never have a tail, so I just leave them.

Just depends on the situation really. Someone else's opinion might differ from mine though.

[Dani03]

Unless the feather poses a problem for the bird or you are showing it...I'd say leave it alone. It's fine unless the bird is agitated by it. It takes a lot out of the birds to grow new feathers. If he is pulling at it and breaks it further then go ahead and try it but if it looks like he's fine then he is. Prinny normally looks tattered as it is because she is so rough when she plays.

Dani and Prinny

[birdman5000]

i agree you could pull it or the bird will probably do it itself

i never pull a feather nless its bleeding i do clip a broken one at the point where it is broke and if the bird wants a new one it will pluck the rest of it and a new won will grow back

[Darlene]

Hi, My IRN (Luna) has broken tail feathers. At first I thought they were lost during molt. But noticed that they were broken off. I noticed when he was preening or grooming, that he would pull the tail feathers to a right angle to groom them. Do the tail feathers break sometimes when they preen them? His tail is takeing a long time to grow back. But I don't want to pull them out. So he has a short tail now. My question is, will he have to molt again to loose the broken tail feathers, so he can grow a new tail? We love him with or without a tail. Luna will be one year old the end of this month. March . He has had one molt so far. Just the fluffy down feathers and a couple of wing feathers, not a heavy molt. Do broken tail feathers continue to grow? This is a subject I need to learn more about.

[IMR4N]

Hmmmm… pulling feathers out???? I don’t know about that I mean it is pretty painful looking... just as pulling hairs out your head and if needs be your "particulars"…. You know how your eyes water after I’m sure there’s do as well an we know how temperamental most if not all IRN’s can get. I mean making direct I contact intimidates them which sometimes leads to hostility towards their owners….so take a step back and think how much resentment pain could cause…. They will grow back in time zazu (my IRNs) was tailless for about 9 months and has just “become a man” : P…

again its totally up to you I mean the other owners don’t have that problem although birdman I have tried pulling a bleeding feather “blood feather” before and I gota say its pretty much impossible to pull it completely (I had a cockerel that’s tail was always bust) and I found pulling them all out made the new growing feathers weak and easy to break. They do tend to shred the ends of the broken feathers to soften the edges.

[birdman5000]

once we were cliping all our tiels wings and one started to bleed we tryied to stop it but it wouldnt, so my uncle yanked it out and i thought he was crazy but thats when it stopped bleeding so id say sometimes pulling it is ok to me

[Dani03]

Birdman, this happened because you broke a blood feather. A blood feather is a new feather that still have the vein running through it, feeding the growing feather. When you break one they bleed all over the place but pulling it stops it.

Dani and Prinny

[Darlene]

Thank you all for the info on broken tail feathers. I took Luna in to the avian vet for a wing & nail trim and well check up today. He showed me what a blood feather looks like and advised not to pull tail feathers if they are broken, becouse they are very deeply rooted and can cause a lot of pain and stress to your parrot. He said he will loose them on his next molt. And told me Luna is starting a molt now. Something I didn't know....The doctor said when you see blood feathers forming, they are new feathers and this happens when they are molting. This will be his second molt. Luna's first molt was at about six monthes old. He is one year old this month ( March) and it is a normal molt, becouse they molt in the spring. I think I see a thin dark line forming on Luna's neck. Don't know if this means he is ringing or not yet. Mabey this next molt will show if or not a ring is forming. Luna weighs 120 grams, the vet said that is a good healthy weight and if his weight drops to 108 grams he is looseing weight and getting under weight. I am trying to convert him to a good brand of organic pellet food. The information I have learned today may be helpful to other IRN owners.

[Neokireina]

Thats great, we really appreciate you sharing everything you learn about your fid