Not sure if blood feather?..

[Vasilis]

Hello. I just noticed some dried blood under my cockatiel's right wing and a little pool of dried blood on the bottom of the cage. I also found a feather at the bottom of the cage with some blood on the tip.

Here is a picture of the feather:


He is acting completely fine and eating and drinking normally. I only noticed because I looked over as he was preening under that wing and I saw the blood. I am by myself now, so I can't attempt to pull a feather (also, I have never had to do that before so I am pretty nervous!) until my husband gets home. I did get to pull out his wing and try and look at it and I couldn't see exactly where something went wrong. It's been about an hour since I initially noticed and there has been no new blood. I think this happened while I was at work this morning and the bleeding has since stopped. When I got home I got him out and he was on my shoulder for a while before I put him back in his cage, and I didn't notice the blood until after that and it was dry so it had to have happened earlier.

Should I be concerned? Is this a blood feather? I don't think he is molting yet because I don't see any other feathers missing, but maybe it's just the beginning? He just turned 6 months. I am also new at this. Can you tell? hehe

 

[Anne & Gang]

It does look like a blood feather but it fell out on its own so leave it be..if there is no continued bleeding, then there really is nothing to worry about..always best to have either some Quick Stop or cayenne pepper (you make into a paste and apply pressure) in case the bleeding starts again...

 

[Cyreen]

A "pool" of blood sounds kinda scary. As long as the shaft of the feather isn't broken, there's nothing you need to pull. Evidently he did that part himself. Once the feather is removed the bleeding will stop. A broken feather shaft will continue to bleed and should be pulled (slow and steady, don't yank).