# Feathers falling out?? (not moulting)



## Vulpini (Mar 31, 2011)

My 4 year old male cockatiel is having issues with his feathers. We have found blood twice on/in the cage, and have made sure there is nothing he could catch his feathers on. Today however while he was having a fly around the living room he lost 3 flight feathers and was bleeding. The bleeding stopped almost immediately without needing our care, but we're still really worried about what could cause him to lose feathers mid-flight. He did not hit anything, and landed on top of the cage after losing, looking a bit sore and stressed, but not panicked or anything. 

We will be taking him to a vet later this week, but cannot get him in earlier, as the only vet with bird experience only comes in later in the week. Until then we will be keeping him under close watch and calm. I would just really like to know if anyone has experienced this kind of issue before.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

He would of had a night fright something scared him and started to fly about in the cage and knocked out some feathers, he may of knocked some then when he was flying it must of come out. Night frights are horrible


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

tsuka knocks blood feathers out like that...


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## Vulpini (Mar 31, 2011)

We're pretty certain he hasn't had a night fright at least for the last week, probably longer. I sleep very light and have woken up anytime there's been one. There were very few feathers and no long feathers at the bottom of the cage or near it from over night. I'm not saying that I know this isn't a night fright, just seems unlikely given the circumstances.

Also, more info I have been reminded of, but don't know if it's actually related. When we got this bird we also had another from the breeder. From finding out more about what to look for and from the birds themselves I now know he was not a good breeder, and we will never be going back. Anyway, the other bird we had gotten from him had often lost feathers, occasionally bleeding for seemingly no reason. This other bird often suffered night frights, the poor darl, and we always just assumed this was the cause of the lose of feathers. Is there any genetic issues that could potentially cause random loss of feathers resulting in bleeding?


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

It could be stress and that he is plucking


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

i think you are on to something there vulpini. tsuka loses wing feathers sometimes like that too.... are the ends of these feathers "pinched" looking? or any abnormality at all? tsuka was badly bred and from a bad home... they also smoked very heavy around him. did the breeder smoke?


the small feathers at the bottom of the cage would be from molting


let me get some examples of the weird feathers... if they look the same, well there's not much you can do about it.

























look at the bottom of the quills. theyre shorter and thicker and they are shaped funny. and they bleed when they fall out. these are tsuka's and theyre always from one wing with tsuka. it might be a bad breeding thing, it might be a past environmental hazard (smoking)... dont know


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## Vulpini (Mar 31, 2011)

I doubt stress is a factor, as he is still feeding and still whistles often. He also used to be a lot more stressed when his mate passed away end of last year and didn't take to plucking. He has a new mate (who may be turning out to be a male) and has been fine ever since.

As for the feathers, I'm still not great with telling the difference. I only managed to save one feather from the incident (step-father threw out the others when cleaning). I tried to take a photo but the quality wasn't good enough for anyone to be able to notice. Any chance you could get a comparison photo between a healthy feather and one that you are pointing out?


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

yes i can 

will post it in a second


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

bad feather on the right, good on the right


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## Vulpini (Mar 31, 2011)

Thank you very much, but I think this is probably different, though I only managed to keep one feather, so I'm not sure of the rest. The one I have is definitely shaped like the good feather. The only thing that really looks off about it is about .5cm of dried blood inside, but otherwise looks normal.

Also, just so you all know, the vet trip had to be put off, as my step-dad has been injured and being a truck driver, doesn't get paid when not working. We are living off a childcare worker's pay for a little bit. If something goes really wrong he'll go to a vet instantly, even if we have to use credit card, but since he's been fine after each time this has happened, we assume he'll be fine a little longer. I'll definitely be getting him there still when we can afford it.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

ok if theres blood in the tip of the quill, it sounds like it was a blood feather that was ALMOST done growing. tsuka knocks them out from time to time too. i dont think its anything to worry about. just make sure any bleeding stops


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## Dekey (Apr 21, 2011)

Last year , in the breeding season my boy pulled heaps of feathers out but once the season was over he was back to normal , except this he started up again only for a week when I introduced a female to him


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