Feather Plucking?

[mas]

Hi guys,

 

Need some advice reagarding our 7month old baby. She had a really bad wing clipping job done by a bird sitter when she was about 4months old, after that we took her to her vet who fixed up her wing as best he could. The "bad" clip was of just one wing. Now, after several months I'm noticing she is pulling out the bits of feather from one of her long wing feathers - the bits that are attached to the quill are removed from only one side of the quill of one feather. On the good clipped wing, she has pulled out some of the bits of feather, but not as much as the poorly clipped wing. The last few days we have noticed that the poorly clipped wing is also irritating her as she brushes it up against the side of her cage.

 

She gets lots of attention, has lots of toys which are regularly rotated in her cage, she gets plenty of attention as I'm not working at the moment. Only thing is she does not really bath properly - she doesn't get SOAKING wet when she baths.

 

Advice and tips will be really valuable.

 

We are really trying hard to keep her happy and make her life pleasurable, and it seems she's a happy baby!

 

Thanks guys,

Sameera

[danmcq]

Hello Mas,

 

I am sorry to hear such a botched Wing clip was performed.

 

Many people clip birds flight feathers at, or slightly below, the level of the upper-wing coverts. To add insult to injury, most to not have precise and sharp scissors to leave a nice clean cut.

 

With this method, the birds will be constantly "Preening" the exposed ends of the shafts. After a while, the shafts will become splintered from the constant grooming. The sharp, splintered ends will begin to irritate their body and bother them psychologically. They are never satisfied with the ends of the shaft. How could they be? They can't groom the cut feather into a natural state.

 

The only advice I can think of for you, at this time. Would be to start misting him with Aloe Juice so that he is "Soaked". This will help with the irritation and his skin will become more supple.

 

There is a great thread you can search for on Aloe that covers this.

 

Good luck to you and your Grey. The good news, is he will Molt this out over the next 6 Months or so and have natural and complete feathers replacing them. :-)<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2008/04/20 20:51

[mas]

Thank you so much for such a speedy reply!

Zahzu hates to be misted, however she will have to put up with it I suppose!

I'm thinking I'll take her to the vet anyway, just to see if the vet is able to do any further fixing up of those exposed ends.

Thanks again!

Sameera

[mas]

An after though: is it ok to fill a dish with aloe juice for her to bath in?

I just tried misting her with water and she was growling and flailing about her cage - I feel its a bit mean of me to force her to get misted when she happily will take a bath in a dish (but as I said she's not getting soaked).

Poor baby I feel so sorry for her, I'm sure she could tell I was feeling bad about misting her - she asked "how are you?" hehe. She's busy preening herself now.

[danmcq]

How are you - LOL!! Like "did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning" or What?? :-)

 

I see no reason that it would not provide the same effect. If she readily jumps in and takes a bath on her own. Most won't.

 

If she will allow you, maybe you could dip your fingers in while she busy bathing and then dip and gently rub the Aloe Juice into her neck and upper areas between the wings etc.

 

My Wife does this sometimes when Dayo is cuddling just to sooth that neck area he has new pins coming around and they are SCRATCHY. B)

[mas]

Heheh - I think it was more like "I think you need to go to bed now and leave me alone!" - its night time here in Sunny South Africa... another funny thing (not at all related to this topic) - the other night she was sitting on my husband's knee and I was playing with her, and she announced "I want a scratch, cuckoo"...i often call her my cuckoo as a pet name - she hasn't been taught that it's a label or anything, but anyway - i think my new name is cuckoo! hehe

Back on topic: I will try rubbing some aloe gel in the area as well as the aloe juice.

Thanks so much for your advice again!