Will these blood feathers EVER stop?!! ;s

[Kaskoo]

For the hird time this week, kaskoo fell and brook a blood feather! I took him to the vet today, a few hours before the 3rd feather bleed, and he gave me two types of medicines that i should put in his water for 10 days each...

Anyways.. he isnt plucking them, its just that his feathers are just beginning to grow back, so he can only fly a little and then he crashes..I've tried to hold his feet as he flaps..but that only gave me a VERY bloody bite :angry: The only thing that half worked was that i would support his belly with my hand..but he doesnt like that too much..he thinks i mean climb up..

soo..a few questions :dry:

how long will it take for his feathers to fullly grow back?..we cut them last September..

can i prevent this bleeding?

and...:blush: does your bird eat at night? like after hes been put to bed and covered and everything...

because kaskoo has a midnight snack at around 4 in the morning:P

thank you!!:cheer:

:kiss:

[Dave007]

""he gave me two types of medicines that i should put in his water for 10 days each...""""""

What was the medicine for. Does the bird have another medical condition? Internal medication isn't given to lessen bleeding in any flight feathers. If he does have a medical problem , that's the problem that should be taken care of first.

"""how long will it take for his feathers to fully grow back?..""""

More than likely they'll grow back but not at the same time. Flight feathers never molt out at the same time nor do they grow back at the same time. The same thing applies to tail feathers. If he keeps falling and breaking feathers you'll need to put some throw rugs around the area that he usually lands on. More than likely, the clipping was too severe if your bird keeps falling. The shorter the clip, the longer it takes them to grow back. It might take a year or more or less until all of the feathers are grown out and perfectly even. It all depends on the bird's present feather situation. A proper clip will allow a bird to fly a little distance and glide to the floor.

"""does your bird eat at night? like after hes been put to bed and covered and everything...

because kaskoo has a midnight snack at around 4 in the morning"""

Birds eat whenever they're hungry. It could be anytime of the day or night, covered or uncovered. There's nothing harmful when a bird does that. The only way to prevent that is to remove anything that can be eaten but since there's no harm, it really isn't neccesary. The same thing applies to toys. With some birds, they'll decide to bang around some toys in the middle of the night. Again, no harm done.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/15 20:45

[mas]

I know how stressful broken blood feathers can be! (Have a read through my previous posts). What we do is keep Zahzu on our laps, and have foam and big cushions on the floor when she is outside the cage, and I've put a couple of big fluffy towels in the bottom of her cage to prevent injury if she falls. It's been since March that we are waiting for our problem to resolve ;-)

Her right wing has grown back beautifully, however her left wing has barely any long feathers!

Patience patience patience!

 

Also, if she breaks a blood feather, only remove it if the bleeding does not stop after a few minutes (30 minutes some sources say); after having removed several blood feathers that were bleeding, we have found that more often than not they stop bleeding on their own and Zahzu sorts it out on her own (including pulling out the 'root' of the damaged feather once it has dried up!).

 

Best of luck,

Sameera

[Kaskoo]

thank you.. The feathers bleed for about a minute or less.. and then they stop.. kaskoo's play stand is close to the stair case in my house.. I never actually thought it would be important since his wings are clipped, also behind him to the left a bit is my bedroom door, yesterday as i left my room, (i think kaskoo was preening or drifting off) he heard me and jumped off his cage.. and hit the first step..and he kept slipping off the stairs..he fell about 10 steps, i was running after him trying to catch him, and when i did i gave him a good long hug..;p and i checked his wing and feathers..and he WASNT bleeding! :ohmy:

of course i totalllly changed his play stand spot.. i have to admit it was my fault..:unsure: {Feel-bad-0002006A}

[mas]

Falling is the most frightening thing - and it can happen to flighted birds also (see post 'Worst Situation Ever' - it made my stomach turn and it should be a warning to all of us).

Also, please don't leave Kaskoo alone for even a minute unsupervised, especially since he can't fly. I'm speaking from experience too! I've made plenty of mistakes, but I just don't take risks anymore.

The worst fall Zahzu had was a few weeks ago - my phone rang and I went against my gut feeling to go answer it (it was in another room) and when I came back Zahzu had fallen (probably tried to follow me) from the top of her cage - she had split her keel (broken skin around keel bone area) and had broken 2 blood feathers which were bleeding all over the floor. It was terrible. We had to remove the 2 broken feathers, and because she wasn't held for long enough for me to apply pressure, she continued to bleed - so we had to towel her AGAIN to catch her to apply pressure required to stop the bleeding.

 

You are really lucky you haven't had to remove blood feathers - at one stage we went to the vet 3 times in a week and a half to get feathers removed; thereafter I decided we are going to have to do it ourselves because the stress of vet visits resulted in Zahzu starting to pluck - she's stopped now thankfully!

 

Just be patient, follow your guy, and be super cautious - try getting some old cushions to put on the floor where Kaskoo might fall - that has saved us a lot of broken feathers!

 

Main thing is he's happy and healthy

 

-Sameera

[Kaskoo]

Thats very good advice He wasnt alone though.. my sister was in the same room.. he was just frightend that i appeared from no where.. so now before i leave my room i stomp my feet and knock on my door so that he knows im coming.. I will try putting some pillows.. The vet kaskoo went to was a very nice lady that kept treating him and whistling and playing so kaskoo doesnt usually stress to visit to the vet.. I was worried someone would say take him to the vet, since he fell yesterday and was at the vet on Monday!

[judygram]

Sometimes they will spook for no apparent reason, my sun conure especially will do this but a sudden noise or movement can make them do what comes naturally, try to fly away from it.

 

Some greys will stress out from visits to the vet and some take it in stride.