# Feathers Falling Out..



## KTyne (Apr 16, 2011)

So this morning I discovered that one of my Budgies, Lemon, had broken a blood feather during the night (one of his flights). The feather was on the bottom of the cage and had a bloody tip; he's fine, thank goodness!
Later on, a few minutes ago, I was in the bird's room again and I noticed two feathers laying on the floor of Hermes' cage! I think I had a little heart attack; two birds in one night, I thought?!!

Well thankfully both of the feathers on Hermes' cage floor weren't blood feathers. They were just two of his tail feathers that had been knocked out. I'm wondering if either Lemon or Hermes had a night fright which triggered the other bird. The feathers Hermes lost were right under his sleeping perch so that makes sense. Last night I forgot to turn on their night light. :blush:

Here are some pictures of Hermes' feathers he lost.









The one feather is wet because I cleaned poo off of it, lol.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

you learn to hate nightfrights.... mine had one 2 nights ago and tsuka lost a few flights


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## KTyne (Apr 16, 2011)

Yeah, no kidding! I'm just afraid that I'm going to wake up one morning to see blood everywhere when he's started molting and has a night fright and breaks an actual blood feather. O_O


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## crinklepot (Nov 18, 2010)

I must be very lucky....I've had Polly for nearly 10 months now and I'm sure she's yet to have a night fright! They sound horrible, poor Hermes and Lemon


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## KTyne (Apr 16, 2011)

They are scary! I'm so glad Lemon was/is ok, his feet looked a bit more pale than Siren's this morning (I was probably seeing things though). I didn't see any blood anywhere in the cage though, or on him.


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## Rsisvixen (Nov 4, 2009)

Hmm, actually to clear up a point.
The feather the budgie lost was probably due to a night fright or catching on something, pulling the feather out-thus the blood on the tip. This is not a blood feather.
The feathers Hermes lost-due to no blood was probably a moulted feather, or a feather that was about to moult that got knocked out-going on for 5 months now so he will be starting his first moult.

Blood Feather: A blood feather is a new feather that is growing in, the new feather grows in a sealed wax sheath with a constant blood supply, as the feather emerges from the sheath the blood moves back down until the feather is complete and the sheath is preened off.

This is why breaking a blood feather is dangerous, if a fully developed feather breaks there is no blood or if it is pulled out of the follicle the follicle will seal and there will be minimal or no bleeding.
If a blood feather is broken, the bird will bleed heavily. In case of a blood feather breaking-the whole feather should be pulled to get the follicle to seal.

Hopefully this was helpful


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## KTyne (Apr 16, 2011)

Thanks for the info. 
I'm not sure if Hermes' feathers were from molting or not. He bangs his tail feathers a lot so I wouldn't be surprised if they were knocked out.
Lemon (Budgie) has been going through his first molt for a few weeks now so I wouldn't be surprised if it WAS a blood feather that was almost finished growing/developing. The fact that I saw no blood on him though I'm thinking that maybe he did just pull the feather out; thing is, the end was broken, not rounded.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

no knocked out feathers dont always bleed and ive had blood feathers get knocked out with blood at the ends. tsuka has nightfright after nightfright. you name the feather and how it looked hes knocked it out lol

tsuka lost 3 flight feathers the other night from knocking them out and they looked like hermes' feathers with no blood on the end


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## KTyne (Apr 16, 2011)

Hermes has a tendency to bang his tail feathers around a lot, one was already cracked in the middle but I just left it (one of the ones I found on the bottom of his cage today). I wasn't surprised he finally lost a couple!
Here are some photos I took of Lemon's feather he lost. The end isn't rounded, it's actually broken.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

yeah thats the end stages of a blood feather. it was almost grown


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## KTyne (Apr 16, 2011)

That's what I thought. Poor Lemon, now he has to start to re-grow his feather all over again! He's having a rough molt, he looks really scruffy right now and has a lot of pinnies on his head.


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