# Tail Biting



## Nokota (Jan 27, 2013)

Was looking for behavior section to post this, but I cannot find one. If you are an administrator and you find this, please move it for me. Thank you.

Vivi has been breaking his tail feathers, one by one, for almost as long as I have had him. I've been clipping off the broken, floppy sections lest they get caught on something, but I hadn't discovered the cause. His cage is huge and very well laid out. I did remove one perch that was close to and ran parallel to the cage wall for fear he was getting his tail caught while on it, but the broken feathers did not stop.

Two days ago I found the answer. I watched him preen himself (on my knee, no less) and to my surprise he actually bit down on his tail feather and broke it in his beak! He's been doing this himself! I've heard of feather plucking, but never feather breaking. Vivi is only four months old. Last night I discovered two more broken feathers and, with the recognition that he only had one left anyways, I cut the whole dang tail just to even it off. He's completely lost the ability to fly properly already anyways and the flopping, spiraling broken feathers were doing him absolutely no good.

Vivi spends most of the majority of his days with me outside of his cage, he has an extremely healthy home-cooked diet, made once a month and frozen into ice cubes for twice daily serving. He has a huge play gym, a small collapsible transportable play gym, and several collapsible perches as well as three times more toys than both my dogs put together, and my pet budgie, who is much better friends with him than he is with me! I cannot see that he is bored or malnourished or anything of the sort, so what could be causing this? Vivi is only four months old. Right now he is bawling to be let out of his cage, but I have a bad cold and I don't want to risk him catching anything from me, slim may the odds be.


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## Bird Junky (Jul 24, 2012)

Hi After reading your post the only thing that could be a possibility
is your feeding regime. I would slowly change his diet to a more 
normal one of. A Cockatiel seed mix, served dry, soaked or sprouted.
A wide variety of fruit & veg along with cuttle, iodine block fresh & 
plain water. Casting no aspersions on your cooking, It just might be
a little rich for his blood.....B J


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

bird junky, many bird owners feed a cooked portion of the diet with little issue, i do not believe diet is to play fully in this one. i am assuming Nokota feeds seeds and pellets along with the diet as well. 


4 months is young, there is a chance he just does not know how to preen properly. also, possible being young, his feathers are more brittle than mature feathers, so in time this may stop. it is weird, i've never heard of it myself.


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## flippityjib (Dec 13, 2012)

We don't have any tail feathers at our house (except the budgies)  Even the dog has no tail... I think at 4 months tiels are just very clumsy and don't care all that much about their tails. Kona started to grow a nice tail feather, but the other day decided he would make a long jump from up high and broke it. So back to no tail feathers. 
Are you sure, other than that one time, that Vivi is the one breaking them off? They do like to mess with them, maybe it was a coincidence?


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