somebody please help blood feathers are threatening my birds life

[Parront]

OH MY! They Really did butcher his wing feathers!

We had similar issues with Baby (tiel) when we brought him home. they had severly clipped his wings, and he
could not fly. He wanted to fly and even tho we tried to provide soft landing spots he would break tail feathers constantly.
For a long time I called him "my little butt thumper". It took quite a while for his wing feathers to grow back and for
him to have decent flight but it will happen.

In the meantime...the tank idea is a good one. I wish you the best of luck with this little one.

 

[puffthemagicweirdo]

i apologise dear dialup users!! i dont know how to scale images down
if you look at the one with him preening his wing you can see a tail feather veering off away from the other two i believe this one was actually damaged today sometime, he attacks me if i touch it! i am keeping an eye on it, i dont want to pluck anything if i dont have to.

these pics are just to give better idea of just how vunerable he is to break any new feathers and how his feathers were cut so roughly and the one with his head down is just him wanting scritches he literally instigates this himself he loves getting scritches

by the way i think he is a he but im not actually sure how to tell lol i was told something to do with tail feathers but he doesent really have many of these

 

[JLcribber]

wow i like the idea of the glass cage surely it would help i have yet to find out what a decent sized one like that would be worth.

i just called the only three vets in town and neither have an avian vet just there normal vet that they say can "have a look but theres probally nothing we can do, maybe he needs more calcium in his diet" well im pretty sure if his feathers were made of steel they would still break in this situation

im now not sure what a vet can really do to help! but then again if everyone knows how to do brain surgery we wouldnt need brain surgeons. if i knew what a vet could do to help i would be able to do it myself unless it involved antibiotics or something

im not at all keen on the average joe vet the only time i took puff to a vet i got treated like a five year old kid with his first goldfish as if i didnt know the first thing about my new best friend! how am i suposed to get information as detailed as this

from a vet that says "there is probally nothing i can do about it"
rant ended

There really isn't much a vet can do. Butchery is butchery. And that is a really bad hack job.

If you could find a very experienced "avian" vet they may be able to "imp" his feathers. That is an avenue you can explore/investigate. It won't be cheap or easy because he has so many hacked off feathers.

 

[Bokkapooh]

Why not pad the cage? Or since he's small enough, put him into an(empty of water) aquarium? And make that his temporary cage? Food, perches, non spill food and water bowls?

 

[Bokkapooh]

Personally I think it's a bad idea to try to ever "even up a Clip". Clipping even more feathers doesn't ever solve balance issues.

Also majority of blood feathers do not require pulling. Often times it just needs to stop bleeding. Then itll either die or continue to grow.

Also depending on the age of your cockatiel and mutation, to sex them goes by facial feathers. Mutations like excessive pied or lutino goes by tails feathers. Although simple mutations can be sexed by tail and flight feathers. But the males head is the way to go. Google Sexing Cockatiels.

Also its a good idea to research proper perches and cages. He may be unbalanced also due to the cage he's in/size and size of perches and type of perches.

 

[puffthemagicweirdo]

your not wrong about evening up the clip although at least i did a nicer job than the original clip, i regret it now because then at least only one wing would need to grow back but at the time being such a brutal clip on one wing and full feathers on the other he was literally doing barrell rolls off his perch and when getting frightened it didnt make him any less likely to jump so it seemed like a very viable idea at the time.
whats done is done

i did not know that blood feathers can continue to grow after being damaged i suppose if they wont clot or they are mangled thats when i need to remove them well im really glad to hear that!!!!!

thanks for your input!

also i am looking into a fish tank for him as it is a great idea (my girlfriend told me i was mad when i said babe we need a fish tank for my bird!)
as for imping i have looked into that but he has actually chewed at some of his cut feathers and i dont think it possible to put a splint in them.

 

[JLcribber]

It's not going to be possible to keep him in an aquarium simply because this is not going to resolve itself in a number of weeks. This could take up to a year to replace the damage.

IMO he is going to need a safe environment that will need to be custom made to achieve what the aquarium would provide but on a larger scale so he doesn't have to live in a "box" for the next year. It's still going to be somewhat of a box but an aquarium is just too small. (very wide and low so he has to stay on the bottom. Something out of plexiglas perhaps)

Whoever did this to your bird is an idiot. Imagine how many other birds they have crippled. It's truly sad.

 

[puffthemagicweirdo]

as stated before it was a stupid thing to do to try to even up the clip even thou i did a better job than the pet store or breeder whoever it was and it certainly helped his balance and has at least some controll when falling from about shoulder height whereas before he would just barrel roll. it still wasnt the brightest thing to do because there would only be one wing to grow back.

only the primaries are meant to be clipped not the whole length of the wing and he is only a weiro so its not really to hard to restrict their flight or better still clip none at all if i wanted a rodent i would have got one.
it sure is sad

hey what about perspex/plexiglas mounted quite high so as to reduce the depth of the cage yet still give him a feeling of being high birds take comfort in height ??? bad idea? im goin for this hospital cage idea if anyone has any ideas feel free to chip in!!

so maybe like a special type of hospital cage is available?? i have a perch that goes from 1/4in to 1in and a rope perch and mulberry tree perches i dont mess around with store bought perches and his nails have never been clipped they are sharp as he has panic attacks rather than falls off his perch due to balence
he will stand there flapping wildly for about ten seconds then let go still flapping the whole time untill he hits the bottom thats when he snaps out of it

also if i put him on something like the top of his cage or back of a chair he will sit there untill i turn and walk away 2 steps later he freaks out and tries to fly

 

[roxynoodle]

Some aquariums are quite large. The person I bought my newest cage from had to sell it due to her U2 not being able to perch or climb anymore. She bought her bird this huge 200 gallon tank instead. I don't see the difference if it's about the same space as the cage has. A lot of people use them as a permanent solution for handicapped birds.

Sure, the plexi would work also. Just be sure it's very secure, and of course you will need to clean it a lot but you'd have to do that as well in an aquarium. It might be hard to get to it as well depending on the door of your cage.

My Pete had the same type of butcher job on his wings when I got him. The previous owner cut every feather on both side and all crooked and jagged as well. Thankfully he did not injure any blood feathers in the nearly a year it took to grow them back.

 

[JLcribber]

hey what about perspex/plexiglas mounted quite high so as to reduce the depth of the cage yet still give him a feeling of being high birds take comfort in height ??? bad idea? im goin for this hospital cage idea if anyone has any ideas feel free to chip in!!

That's a pretty good idea but I'm not sure you want him up high because then there's the falling danger again. Lot's of padding on the bottom would help.

Oh I see what you mean. Reducing the height with the plexi. Same principle as low and wide. It's going to take a little creative ingenuity what ever you try.

 

[kwingrove]

There is a process called "Imping" that your vet can do if she's willing. You do need feathers - molted from your bird or another cockatiel. These feathers are careful inserted into the shafts of the broken feathers and glued in place. The bird will have support for new feathers to grow in and can fly in the meantime. Which is a GOOD thing. If anyone wants a newsletter about companion parrots with an article on flight, send me an email: kwingrove@centurylink.net. Greg Glendell (UK parrot behaviorist) will have an article in the next issue on feather replacement. We're going to start a feather bank for the US. He'll be co-coordinator.

 

[Macawnutz]

http://forums.avianavenue.com/healthy-highway/92432-too-many-broken-feathers-need-opinions.html
http://forums.avianavenue.com/bird-boulevard/98912-mauis-feathers-update.html

I am sorry, I know your pain. Maui's feathers were far to short to even consider imping but this is what we did.

I bought foam flooring pieces, the kind that fit together like a puzzle mat. We put the flooring everywhere in the house that he was most known to fall. We padded the bottom of his cage and even the top so he could not climb upside down. We had cayenne pepper paste, flour, and corn starch at every end of the house in case of an emergency. (quik stop is toxic when they preen themselves) When he would break one, if we could, we would not pull it. At one time I considered cutting these back but they ended up helping when new ones grew in. It has been quite some time since we had an accident and since growing his first two flights in we have been fine. It is hard, but you can only do one day at a time. My hopes are Maui flys by spring.

One day at a time.

 

[Lady Jane]

I was just about to tell you qwik-stop will cause the bird burning pain. Please use corn starch. I also agree you need a professional avian consult and directions as what to do for this bird. There may be something else going on you do not know about.

 

[sodakat]

There is a process called "Imping" that your vet can do if she's willing. You do need feathers - molted from your bird or another cockatiel. These feathers are careful inserted into the shafts of the broken feathers and glued in place. The bird will have support for new feathers to grow in and can fly in the meantime. Which is a GOOD thing. If anyone wants a newsletter about companion parrots with an article on flight, send me an email: kwingrove@centurylink.net. Greg Glendell (UK parrot behaviorist) will have an article in the next issue on feather replacement. We're going to start a feather bank for the US. He'll be co-coordinator.

I'm going to email you for the newsletter. Very exciting. How do we submit feathers to the feather bank?

 

[puffthemagicweirdo]

UPDATE!!

Puff flew for the first time in his life this morning! I just trimmed his feathers as they grew so less likely to snap but not so much so they they were useles also blocked off the bottom half of his cage so couldn't climb or fall very far, worked a treat took time and patience not all the way there as he can't fly up but still he can almost fly vertically for about 5 metres which is a massive improvement over falling like a rock

Thankyou everyone for your support and input

 

[Welshanne]

Just reading this about your poor bird and the issues caused by a bad clip. Whatever size bird you have they really need to grow and develop their chest muscles before anything is done to their beautiful feathers. The clip is to allow us to live with them safer and no use to the bird whatsoever. After all they are hatched to fly and we are doing something so artificial to them for our sakes not theirs.
A thermal of warm air can pick them up clipped or not and they can be carried up and away for miles so it is not a safe thing to do for outside convenience either.
They can learn to fly and stop indoors without injuring themselves a lot better if given the chance to use their wings as intended.
Do so hope you are able to help this little darling to live a happy carefree life again, doing what it is supposed to and not what we are wanting it to do.

 

[puffthemagicweirdo]

The way I see it birds in the wild can fly as far as they want and have the capacity to do so. in the home they ate limited and by trimming the wings to make flying harder is good because they get more exercise than flying effortlessly from one side of a room to another without breaking a sweat, but yes they should first learn to fly completely and properly before a single feather it touched with scissors, wing clipping is a whole nother arguement some people will never understand

 

[sodakat]

The way I see it birds in the wild can fly as far as they want and have the capacity to do so. in the home they ate limited and by trimming the wings to make flying harder is good because they get more exercise than flying effortlessly from one side of a room to another without breaking a sweat, but yes they should first learn to fly completely and properly before a single feather it touched with scissors, wing clipping is a whole nother arguement some people will never understand

I have to differ with you. I've observed that the birds who have no clip at all fly for a longer time, regardless if it's back and forth. The clipped birds who can still fly mostly travel from one spot to another; they rarely fly for the joy of flying. They may get a bit of exercise compared to birds who can only climb or walk, but it's not at all the same as flying laps around a room or back and forth, breathing heavy and really giving themselves a workout.

 

[puffthemagicweirdo]

Indeed it is a controversial subject
I plan to let puff fly fully for some considerable time before considering disabling any of his abilities

 

[Welshanne]

Sorry it is a contraversial subject but my view is the most cruel specimen on this planet is man and sorry that is where I rest my case. Everything that is done is done for our benefit and not the birds, let us just say it as it is and not beat about the bush.