# Dude pulled ALL his new flight feathers out last night !!!



## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!!

i DIDNT say good night to the birds last night and wasnt with them all day as i had to go do my first aid course. so i really only seen the birds that morning for 10 mins. the rest of the day my partner an my son were in and out of the house and did spend time with the birds. but i ALWAYS say good night to them and turn their night light on but last night i went to my mums and slept there and DIDNT do the goodnight thing. (the night like has a sensor to come on when it is dark and i knew it was still plugged in from the night before so i didnt bother going home again....

WELL........... when went home in the morning i noticed ALOT of feathers on the cage floor in Dude cage.... i didnt think much of it as he is molting his flight feathers and getting new oens. but when i looked closer they were ALL full of blood. so i grabbed dude and had a look where they came from.
he has pulled ALL the new blood flight feathers off one wing. some were fully grown through others were still in the sheaths (sp?) there was 6 all up !!!
and i know it only happened yesterday or last night as i was playing with him the day before and thinking to myself that he will fly soon because theres almost enough feathers on each wing coming through or have come through to make whole wings again...

DO you think not doing the usual routine has caused him to stress out waiting or something for me and done the whole anxious pulling feathers??? or what would be the cause to pull out all the feathers in one wing even the new pin feathers?!?!?!?!
when i squeezed the end of each feather fresh blood still wet came out, so we DEFF know they are fresh!

now he has to wait a LONG time again before he can fly and i may aswell cut all his new feathers on the other wing so they are symmetrical again !?

BIRDS STRESS ME OUT ! ! ! ! LOL

ohh and he did a CLEAN pull so no blood loss or bleeding (THANK GOD he atleast did that right!)


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It's very likely that it was a night fright rather than intentional plucking. Flapping wildly in the cage is a great way to knock out flight feathers, and cockatiels are less susceptible to psychological plucking than a lot of other species.

Don't clip the other wing unless you're worried that he'll get hurt trying to fly. Replacement feathers will start growing immediately on the damaged wing and if nothing else happens he'll be fully fledged there in a month. Meanwhile it could be many months before he molts out any scissor-clipped wing feathers.


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## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

Oh okay I won't clip the other wing if that's the case.

There's not bloody anywhere. And they not broken. Maybe it was a night fright but they have a BRIGHT night light. You can see where your going . Oh well. Hope they grow back fast so he can FLY for the first time. I've had him since 6 weeks . He would have only just fledged and not even properly learnt to fly before someone chopped his wing. So i`m waiting to see if he CAN fly .


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

I don't think he pulled them out. Many years ago I was always puzzeled when I would find some of my birds with ALL the wing flights gone, when they had them the day before. I had asked my vet and he said that with an extreme fright they will *drop* (spontaineous molt) the flight feathers, rather than flap and get the attention of whatever spooked them.


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## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

Oh gee that seams extreme... whatever scared him must have done a good job then !


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

I've had one of my cockies drop all their tail feathers at once, it's an ability they use to get away from preditors I'm told.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> I had asked my vet and he said that with an extreme fright they will drop (spontaineous molt) the flight feathers, rather than flap and get the attention of whatever spooked them.


That's interesting! I knew birds could drop their tail feathers but I didn't know they could do it with their wing feathers too.

I wonder how that evolved? I can see the point of dropping tail feathers - when an animal is chasing a bird the tail is closest to the mouth and likely to get grabbed, and being able to leave the predator with a mouthfull of tailfeathers and nothing else is a good survival tool. But dropping the flight feathers would seem like a disadvantage overall. It might help the bird escape from a predator that grabbed the wing, but how is it going to survive during the month it takes for the feathers to grow back?


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

It takes about a month for the tail to grow back to full length.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

That's interesting! I knew birds could drop their tail feathers but I didn't know they could do it with their wing feathers too.
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Years ago when I had my breeding cages outside we had preditors come in the yard. The tiels reacted differently depending upon what the preditor was. I would sit out at night and watch. If it was a possum they would flap their wings, all in unison to scare the possum away. If it was a raccoon they would try to stay totally still not to attract attention. I watched one bird start to flap, like it would at the possums, and the flights just dropped from the spread wings. It was weird to see, and the bird just stopped and stayed still.

Since they were in a cage there was no need for the wing flights. With reaccons the wings were a hazard and an agressive **** could grab a wing or fot and try to pull them thru the wire.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

It sounds like a bad night fright to me as well. Usually the blood feathers will just fall out but if they break and don't stop bleeding, you have to take them out or have a vet do it.
Spike bent a few tail feathers the other day when Storm tried to get him  I checked him over for blood but he was fine, so I set him on my desk door so he could fix his tail feathers. A few minutes later I felt something funny hit my arm, it was a blood feather with a ton of blood in it. I guess Iam lucky that Spike knows how to pull out his own blood feathers in case of emergency.


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