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Eating feather dust

Saharr98

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Hi everyon, I have a 6 month old cockatiel. As we know cockatiels have white powder that comes from their feather. I have noticed that while preening my cockatiel eats the white powder that falls from him. I was wondering if anyone knows what this behaviour means. Thank you all
 

Zara

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Chomskypom

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I’ve seen my tiel playing with the down feathers that he preens out. Like, nibbling them with his beak, sort of rolling them around, touching them with his tongue. But he drops them eventually and goes back to preening.
I don’t think I’ve seen him actually eat the dust or down on purpose though.
Does it happen while your bird preens, or does he walk around the bottom of the cage looking for it later, or something else?
 

sunnysmom

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I have seen my birds chew on it. You think he's ingesting it?
 

budgieluv3

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Maybe a quick spritz of water when you see him do that will do the trick. I’m not sure whether ingesting normal or not.
 

Sparkles99

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Maybe budgieluv3 is right & your bird might like a bath/ shower offered.
 

Saharr98

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I’ve seen my tiel playing with the down feathers that he preens out. Like, nibbling them with his beak, sort of rolling them around, touching them with his tongue. But he drops them eventually and goes back to preening.
I don’t think I’ve seen him actually eat the dust or down on purpose though.
Does it happen while your bird preens, or does he walk around the bottom of the cage looking for it later, or something else?
I’ve seen him ingest the white powder but he doesn’t go looking for them. I’ve also never seens him eat an actual feather just the white powder that falls. It’s like when he preens and his powder falls on my shirt or something he will pick them up after he finishes preening and it somes. It honestly looks like it interests him when he sees simething on my shirt but I am still not sure if this is normal or not.
 

Saharr98

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59
Maybe a quick spritz of water when you see him do that will do the trick. I’m not sure whether ingesting normal or not.
I give him a bath usually once a week, maybe more would be beneficial
 
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