# Cockatiel Breaking Tail Feathers



## NGM (Jun 2, 2014)

My 4 month old bird has broken all of her tail feathers. She goes into mad flaps in the cage occasionally and over the few weeks we have had her has gradually snapped all of her tail feathers, now only 1 is still hanging there, making her look very strange.

Of course I am aware that she will moult in a few months but my concern is that she will damage the new ones when they start and would like some advice on trying to stop the daft flapping!

Sadly due to family bereavement and illness I have been unable to spend any meaningful time training her so I presume having her tamed would stop this behaviour?


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

Taming her may calm down the flapping but the thing is, babies are just clumsy. My male was a very tame baby but that didn't prevent him from having a duck butt for the first 6-7 months of his life. The new feathers will probably be damaged as well, but once she gets older and less clumsy her tail will grow back to its full glory 

Maybe you could find the source of all the flapping? If it's mainly at night a night light can help things. If she's just easily frightened you could put her cage in a low-traffic area?


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## NGM (Jun 2, 2014)

Thanks, the cage is already in a quiet part of the room, she doesn't seem to get scared by anything, she just launches into daft flaps and has caught the tail in perches etc. I have rearranged the perches and food dishes but a little to late!!

The flaps may be due to her coming from an aviary where of courser there was much more room to fly around. 

On a side note, when would be a good time to introduce our much older (16 year old) bird to the youngster? She is a bit grumpy at times, maybe it may be better keeping them seperate? SHe is not used to being in a smaller cage and it would be better having them both together but not if it will cause any problems.


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## dianne (Nov 27, 2013)

My Silver kept breaking his tail feathers when he was a young thing. He is now six months old and is growing them back successfully. So, there is hope! They do get less clumsy.


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## Ftest (May 18, 2013)

Olive was the same way. She is very tame, but kept breaking hers off. She is a bit older now is getting her flight feathers in and has more tail feathers now than ever before. Just give it time.
I know it does look aweful though doesn't it?


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## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Joey broke all of his, and as described by Fredandiris above, he has a duck butt. He's 9 months old now and I am hoping he won't have a duck butt forever. I keep showing him pics of gorgeous tails and telling him, "Look what you could have!" So far he doesn't seem impressed by any of them. :yawn::zzz::thumbd:


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## Tequilagirl (Mar 4, 2013)

Took Tequila a whole year to not look stupid. Towards the end he had 2 and a half tail feathers, luckily he grew them all out not long ago... Not pulling the broken feathers for that long was a true exercise in patience.


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