Budgie's tail is gone! It just disappeared! Photo included. Please advise.

[miba55]

Hello. I have a female budgie and she is 7 or 8 months old. Today I left the house for three hours. Before leaving, there was nothing wrong with her. I just came back 15 minutes ago and her tail is completely gone! There is nothing left!

She doesn't seem distressed or in pain. She is flying, chirping, active and energetic. Her breathing is fine. Her droppings are fine. No poop stuck to her vent. No bald spots on her body. There is no bleeding. She has been losing feathers for a few weeks during preening and I have been finding little dropped feathers in her cage and around her favorite perching spots. She has a few pin feathers on her cheeks.

There are no other animals in the house that can attack her. She has a pretty big cage. No sharp spots/toys in her cage.

Please advise. Is this normal?

 

[Birdbabe]

Something may have scared her from outside and she dropped her tail..she sure is cute.

 

[miba55]

Something may have scared her from outside and she dropped her tail..she sure is cute.

So this is okay? Her tail will grow back?

 

[Birdbabe]

So this is okay? Her tail will grow back?

It should,,,will take a couple months .

 

[Garet]

It's definitely something that will come back, but it does take a while. When I picked up Ciri in October, she had one tailfeather. Just before she passed away earlier this month, she had three that grew in completely and the rest were half-way there. Just be patient with your girl and give her lots of calcium and minerals.

 

[saroj12]

Are the tail feathers in the cage?

 

[miba55]

Are the tail feathers in the cage?

They aren't. Apparently my roommate let her out of the cage to let her fly a little. She went into the kitchen for 15 minutes and when she came back the tail feathers were gone. We haven't been able to find them. Could have been swept up under something, I guess.

 

[saroj12]

They aren't. Apparently my roommate let her out of the cage to let her fly a little. She went into the kitchen for 15 minutes and when she came back the tail feathers were gone. We haven't been able to find them. Could have been swept up under something, I guess.

thats very suspicious that you can't find the tail feathers. hmmmm

 

[Begone]

Apparently my roommate let her out of the cage to let her fly a little. She went into the kitchen for 15 minutes and when she came back the tail feathers were gone. We haven't been able to find them.

Their you have the reason for her losing ALL her tail feathers. Of course something happened.
My first guess is that your roommate did grab her and she got scared and drop the feathers.
They don't molt all their tail feathers like that. Something happened to 100%.

 

[lotus15]

They aren't. Apparently my roommate let her out of the cage to let her fly a little. She went into the kitchen for 15 minutes and when she came back the tail feathers were gone. We haven't been able to find them. Could have been swept up under something, I guess.

Sounds suspicious to me, too. Also, please don't let your little guys out unsupervised! This can be really dangerous if they start chewing on something they shouldn't be or knock something over that falls onto them, etc.

 

[miba55]

@lotus15 @Eloy @saroj12 I asked my roommate whether or not she heard Daisy scream or whether or not she heard any loud noises when she was in the kitchen. She said 'no' to both.

I think she might have grabbed her but might not be telling me about it. Daisy kinda only likes me and keeps her distance from my roommate. I guess she grabbed her and Daisy got scared. Gonna have to have an unpleasant conversation with her.

 

[WallyLoopey]

I’m guessing she thinks you’ll get upset if she tells you what happened. Could have been an accident.

 

[saroj12]

@lotus15 @Eloy @saroj12 I asked my roommate whether or not she heard Daisy scream or whether or not she heard any loud noises when she was in the kitchen. She said 'no' to both.

I think she might have grabbed her but might not be telling me about it. Daisy kinda only likes me and keeps her distance from my roommate. I guess she grabbed her and Daisy got scared. Gonna have to have an unpleasant conversation with her.

Don’t allow her near Daisy. Tell her she can’t let Daisy out or touch her or feed her anything. In a nice way lest she get hostile and harm Daisy on purpose.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Sorry that Daisy dropped her tail feathers. She is very cute even though she is tailless right now.

 

[Lady Jane]

A budgie's tail feathers can easily fall out if they are handled in a rough way, it sounds like your roommate doesn't know how to handle birds, so like said I would tell her she is forbidden to touch your bird in any way shape or form. The tail feathers will grow back. Just like the other feathers will grow back that she has molted. Thank you for being cognizant of your bird and her safety I know from experience. Some roommates can be a real problem and I hope this doesn't happen for you. Keep us posted.

 

[nu2birds]

Yeah......the mere fact all tail feathers are gone and nowhere to be found is suspicious. I'm sure it was innocent, but they will drop their tail feathers if they are trying to escape and if the tail feathers somehow get trapped by something such as a foot or a door closing or if she was grabbed and caught by just the tail feathers. She would drop them to escape. Like I said.......".IF" this is what happened, I'm sure it was NOT intentional, but happened because of inexperience with handling birds (your room mate).

 

[MommyBird]

Put a padlock on the cage and keep the key with you.

 

[saroj12]

Put Daisy in your room and lock the room when you are out.

 

[Garet]

Have you checked in the garbage cans or asked her what she did with them? If she did do something, she may be evasive about it. Like, if you're really worried about not sounding like you're blaming her, you could 'voice your concerns' that 'a rat might have gotten into your apartment' and 'ripped out her feathers' in a bid to 'eat your bird' and you need to see them to make sure it wasn't rodents.

 

[SandraK]

What comes to mind is that your room mate may have got scared of the fact that she was out and she couldn't get her back into the cage. Scenario that comes to mind is that she grabbed your girl by her tail and ended up with a handful of tail feathers. Probably scared the dickens out of the room mate especially if she isn't into birds.