tail feathers falling out

[david55]

I brought Annie home a month ago, and now I am bringing her to my shop during the day. She was hatched on the 11th of June 08, she's always cleaning herself, but now I've noticed that her tail feathers are on the floor, 3 or 4, she still has some. Is this normal?

[Dave007]

Right now, that's a hard question to answer. Some greys will lose 1 or 2 tail feathers periodically but there's no particular time when that happens. The cause of that is that the feathers are dead and new ones are coming in. Other greys will lose 3,4, sometimes 5 all at once and the reason is exactly the same as above. The next time this happens, you might see just one feather. It all has to do with coincidence. The same thing happens with wing feathers. Sometimes just one falls out,sometimes 3 or 4.

Right now, you need to watch him and see if he's intentionally trying to pull those feathers out or chewing them. Sometimes a big change in environment can cause a bird to lose feathers. If your bird isn't a plucker, you should see new growth within a few weeks. For now, just watch what how's doing because dealing with a plucker is totally different than dealing with a bird that's just lost feathers because it was time for them to fall out.

[Tycos_mom]

sometimes if the feathers are dammage in some way they will pull them out when they are preening. I would keep an close eye on her to make sure she is not pulling them out on purpose. If she is pulling them out on purpose it could be a sign that something is wrong like stress, How long have you been taking her with you to the shop mabie this is stressfull to her. when she is there is there allot of people that she doesn't know comeing up and talking to her if so this is very stressful for Greya its fine that you take her with you she should be exposed to new things but she needs to be kept out of the main traffic some place where she can still see whats going on but where she can't be interacted with directly from strangers. She also needs to be placed in a spot where she can retreat so if she wants to have a nap she can without feeling like she has to have one eye opened all the time. I don't know what kind of shop you have mabie if you could go into more detail. It would be easier to help you with this question. Because at her age it is not normal for her to lose feathers.

[casper]

Where and when did you find the feathers David? Was Annie at the shop or at home? Did you find them in the morning or throughout the day?

Did you notice if the ends had been chewed at all?

 

Its a difficult one to answer, the others have given good advice, my greys when they have been younger have lost them through rough play in their cages as well, but its hard to say for sure.

 

Caroline.

[david55]

I own a jewelry store, I have her in the back of the store, people don't see her from the front, they have to come to the back of the store and look over a showcase. She seems to like it at the store, she does most of her talking there.

[Luvparrots]

David can you provide any pictures of the feathers and Annie so maybe the more experienced members can have a visual to go by?

 

What kind of shop do you have and where is Annie's cage with respect to the flow of customer traffic? Any info you can provide will help.

 

Most of all be calm; you sound like you really care for Annie's wellbeing and that works wonders for our greys.

[shannon]

My African Gray as well is losing tail feathers, and it bothers me. It looks bad but that is the least of my worries. I am mainly concerned as to why. He has always been a fairly fragile birds-- little things stress him like when I forget to close my closet door all the way or when I leave a tennis shoe or anything on the floor. This is pretty baffling in that for the last 2-3 weeks he has been losing his red tail feathers pretty radidly. He is down to only one long one and some small ones. I looked real close and it did look like he is growing some baby ones, but what bothers me even more is that I am even finding the baby ones on the floor. I have never heard of this being an area that a bird picks on to pluck. Could this be the case? I don't notice him pulling them and I try to pay attention. Or does it happen that every once in a while they can lose all their tail feather just by clumsiness or something else. I have two cockatiels as well and one of them about every year loses all of his tail feathers, they just go away one by one until there are none and then he/she grows them all back long and beautiful. Same with a friend of mine that has a Quaker, only the Quaker's feathers rarely ever all come back before they are gone again. I just haven't had this issue. Mine is a 7-year-old Gray that gets lots of love and attention. Any ideas?

[Char]

My 14 mo old Grey only has 5 tail feathers left. I She has not plucked them but broken them off. She is rough on them when she preens and climbing around on the cage she splays them on the bars of the cage and damages them that way too. In fact the way they are rubbed around and through the cage bars I am surpised she has any intact. She also chewed on them a little earlier on but not much and I don't see her doing that anymore.

 

She has not damaged any in a long time though and the first one I noticed was when I moved her cage. Hope this helps a little.

 

I makes a difference if the feathers you are finding are whole with the shaft intact or if they are broken.

 

Let us know.<br><br>Post edited by: Char, at: 2009/02/03 15:02

[ranaz]

What if you can show pictures of the fallen of feathers, to have the experts opinions if they have fallen on their own or were plucked. Honestly i look at the feathers that fall off Kookie's tal from time to time and I cant tell if they are dead feathers falling in their own or if he pulls them.

[lovethatgrey]

Pictures will help to tell alot.

[Char]

Did you guys notice you are asking for pics from a really old thread?