Chewing feathers?
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Chewing feathers?
Charlie Parker is almost a year old and we're dealing with his first big moulting with lots of pin feather scratching from both of us and frequent baths (once a day from me with the spray bottle, and sometimes three or four swims in his water dish. ) I'm wondering if anyone else's bird chews his feathers. He doesn't try to eat them, but if he finds one on the cage, on me, or even a down fluff floating through the air he grabs at them, catches them in his beak, then chews a while and spits them out. Is this just normal play or could there be any biological reason?
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- Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:51 pm
Ruffle often does the same. He'll preen a loose bit of down out of his feathers or catch some out of the air and then play with it for a while. Roll it up into a little ball, nearly spit it out, chew it a little more, hide it in his beak, nearly spit it out, etc. Especially around bed time. When I try to take it out of there, doing what I think is a favor to him, he gets very angry! It's his and I figure he knows what he's doing so I just chuckle and let him play with it.
It's like birdy chewing gum!
It's like birdy chewing gum!
Yep, my 2 love to 'catch' each others down, well they mostly get angry at them. But if I pick up a fallen wing or tail feather, they both fight over who gets to 'preen' it first. I love how they twirl them around in their beaks hehe. Exactly like birdy chewing gum!
"Jibby aka Gilbert" Indian Ringneck 13 years "Charlie" Rex Rabbit 1 year
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- Posts: 111
- Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:51 pm