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A ton of pin feathers

outmaww

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My baby 'tiel (just finished weaning onto seeds) came home about two weeks ago, and he has a lot of pin feathers on his head. He has a big bundle of them alongside one of his cheekmarks. They look really bad, and when I scratch at them he seems to enjoy it. How do you go about preening your own bird? Do you massage them until they fall out? I know there's a way of doing it, I just don't know how. Any help is really appreciated!!
 

scrape

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You pinch them between your nails or fingers and gently rub. It will flake off like powder.
Careful not to pull or try to open any pink parts. They will flinch if it's sensitive.
 

FeatheredM

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I would just keep it simple scritch along the direction of the feathers. You definitely don't want any blood feathers.
 

lobster14

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How old is he? Usually the babies will have all their feathers grown in by the time they go home. I wonder if he was plucked. Either way, the pin feathers are really sensitive for them so you gotta be careful about trying to remove the sheath before it's ready. Otherwise, they will probably scream if you're too rough with them as it does irritate them quite a bit. I usually will just very lightly stroke with the grain of the feathers until they are ready to be unsheathed more. Usually, you can tell if they are ready as you'll see the feather poking out the end. Then you can just gently pinch it between thumb and index finger and gently massage/roll the feather between your finger. The outer layer should come right off. If it doesn't, probably should give it a bit more time.
 

bonjourtok

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Very gently roll the tips between your pointer and thumb. You'll find out very quickly the limits of how close you can get to their skin, they'll let you know.
 

outmaww

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How old is he? Usually the babies will have all their feathers grown in by the time they go home. I wonder if he was plucked. Either way, the pin feathers are really sensitive for them so you gotta be careful about trying to remove the sheath before it's ready. Otherwise, they will probably scream if you're too rough with them as it does irritate them quite a bit. I usually will just very lightly stroke with the grain of the feathers until they are ready to be unsheathed more. Usually, you can tell if they are ready as you'll see the feather poking out the end. Then you can just gently pinch it between thumb and index finger and gently massage/roll the feather between your finger. The outer layer should come right off. If it doesn't, probably should give it a bit more time.
Unfortunately, I don't have his exact age. I'm previously was guessing about 10 weeks when I got him. I only know that he's very young, as when I visited the bird store and met him and asked if he was up for sale, the woman there said that they were too young to go out yet, and I had to wait a week to pick him up. Maybe he was still too young when I brought him home?

I'm not sure how many pinfeathers is normal for babies; here's some pictures. I was able to get him in a drowsy mood : ) he's usually running up and down the walls. The pictures don't really show the patch on his left side (the feathers are covering it), it's almost like a bundle. I don't know what to do for them, it just looks really uncomfortable for him. He also has a ton of them right under his mohawk and a few actually in there.

20220609_110718.jpg 1654798449098.jpeg
 

lobster14

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Babies usually go home between 8-12 weeks old, depending on when they are weaned. And most breeders will want the baby to be maintaining weight for at least a week on their own before letting them go to a new home. I got my cockatiel at 10 weeks old. Usually most of their pin feathers are gone by 6-7 weeks. (I believe the bulk of pins happen around 4 weeks old). I'm not a breeder, but have heard from breeder friends that sometimes the parents or other birds will pluck the babies' feathers, forcing them to regrow new feathers (hence new pins).

Either way, your photos do show he has a lot of pins so I would just start by scritching his face along the grain of his feathers. Going against the grain now would probably be uncomfortable. You can also try gently pinching some and rolling them between your thumb/index finger to see if they are ready to break apart. Key through all of this is be as gentle as possible. He will squawk if you are too rough. And that may not mean he wants you to stop, it just means you need to be more gentle. Sometimes I accidentally pinch a pin on my Tiel, he yells, but he immediately bows his head again for more scritches.

You can also definitely go into his crest, too. My cockatiel loves it when I gently preen his crest feathers and scritch the top of his head.
 
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