Broken tail...and preening.

[JDS5607]

Okay, this has been a problem for a little while, but it's starting to worry us.

 

Sully has always been a rather.. clutzy bird, and as a result, many of his feathers on his tail are bent or broken(and hanging on by a thread). He doesn't preen very often, on any part of his body, and I'm worried that eventually his tail will be completely gone. He has 3 broken feathers on his tail now, and Probably 6 or 7 left total. It's really upsetting because I feel like there is nothing I can do for him

 

Here's a picture of his tail, and also his cage. I'm wondering if I have stuff too close together or what... He falls off his boing A LOT, and when he lands on the floor, his tail gets stick under him and he bends his feathers that way too

 

Any ideas? Also, any ideas on how to get him to preen more? Even when I give him his shower, he just dries, he will not preen... It's strange because I know greys are usually very picky about their feathers.

Thank you

 

Sully's Back:

 

 

 

And please don't mind the empty bowls! I took this before breakfast this morning (which is why he looks so confused as to why his bowls are STILL empty lol.

[Dave007]

I looked at his tail feathers and I really don't see anything unusual in that tail. Basically, it's not looking good because the feathers are dying and will eventually fall out and be placed by others. The reason they're dying is because the feathers' blood supply is drying up. Sometimes only 1 or 2 or 3 feathers fall out. Other times, it's only one at a time. Other times, it's all of them within a few days. All of this has to do with coinsidence. The same thing happens to flight feathers. I'm gonna assume that this is your first grey. At times you'll see things that may seem drastic but they aren't. No parrot stays fully feathered all the time. They fall out and the bird looks ragged. The only time you should really get worried is when you see a parrot attack brand new feathers that aren't fully grown out and pull them so they never grow. That's called plucking. When they bite at them, it's called chewing. An example of chewing is the couple of feathers on it's back. Those are the end of the feathers that have an upside down V shape. Many parrots do that and it's usually temporary. It's a different story when parrots do this constantly.

You can soak down your bird with water and they'll preen themselves but the dying blood beathers probably won't come off until they're totally dead but if they do fall out when preening it's because the feathers happen to be dead at that time which is also a coinsecdence.

Edited April 17, 2011 by Dave007

[Morana]

I am somewhat more interested in something else.. How is that your bird is falling down so often? Are his wings clipped? Does he falls down when out of the cage as much as when he is in it? Does he has balance problem?

[JDS5607]

He falls so much because he gets going so fast in his cage jumping from toy to toy- he falls mostly in his cage. He really doesn't just fall- as much as it is slipping.. His wings are clipped- but he never really falls outside of his cage. I got the chance to check out his tail yesterday... He is missing a lot of tail feather. He only has about 6 now

[Morana]

Well, if it is any consolation,...Zak had recent vet visits and it was nightmare getting him out of the carrier when we got to the vet so he lost (banging his tail around much) all his tail feathers except one!! He looked awful. A bold butt. The good part was that he was molting and new pins came out very soon and, once again, he has a nice looking red butt! :-) So do not panic;-)

[Dave007]

Well, if it is any consolation,...Zak had recent vet visits and it was nightmare getting him out of the carrier when we got to the vet so he lost (banging his tail around much) all his tail feathers except one!! He looked awful. A bold butt. The good part was that he was molting and new pins came out very soon and, once again, he has a nice looking red butt! :-) So do not panic;-)

 

In case you don't know----everytime you put your bird in a carrier, the tail goes in first. A bird won't thrash arond when he can see out of the carrier. The bird will also come out easier when the bird is at a vet.

[Zoom]

Oh that's interesting about the tail going in first. I didn't know that. Thanks!