Tail Feathers Missing On My New Baby

[rchyrch]

Hello all, AS you may know, I adopted a Sunday Conure last week. He is settling in great and he is sooo sweet and actually pretty quiet except for the occasional screach to see where I am. Anyway- I have a question about his tail. When I got him his tail was/ is in bad condition. He only has like one long feather and the rest are short and bent or broken. I wonder how this happened? My questin is will his tail grow back in normal, and about how long will it take? At first I thought he has plucked them, then I read on here that tail feathers are rarely plucked, it hurts the bird- so they dont do it. He must have encountered some sort of trauma, the place I got him from seemed really nice, but you never know what happened to him before. I was told that he was surrendered because his former family got a new bird and this one was beating up on it- well yeah- thats just natural when another bird moves in on the attention. Anyway- I love him and IM so glad that he found his way to me, or me to him, or how ever it happened! Im just curious about his tail growing in.

[stepht25]

My black capped conures tail was a mess when we got him. He would hang on the side of his cage and bob up and down - causing his tail to rub against the cage bars and it ruffed them up pretty good. He also chewed on it and pulled some of them out. He could also be going or just have gone through a molt (several of our birds are in the process of molting now). So if he has recently been molting - some of the tail feathers could be shorter because they haven't fully come in all the way. If they are in the process pf growing in they should be done in a few more weeks, I think. If he hasn't molted and they are shorter from him chewing on them or playing too rough, causing them to break or whatever - new tail feathers won't come in until he does molt. If he has pulled some out - I believe they will grow back in, in a few weeks. When Cosmo pulled out his tail feathers they re grew before he went into a molt. (hope that all made sense! LOL)

By the way - Congrats! And Welcome to the board! Would love to see pics of your conure - and what's his name?!

[catschair]

Welcome to BB! When I got Magellan (a ringneck), she had a little duck butt. I still don't know if she was a baby or lost her feathers. I pretended not to notice and she didn't know to be embarassed. She has a glorious tail now (little less than a year later)-- just took a bit of patience. Would love to see pics of your new baby (even with the tail that needs improvement).

[swanwillow]

my lory has the same problem.. cept, hers is from rough and tumble, roll on your back, chase ball type play.

just like flight feathers, they'll grow back, as everyone else said.

Otherwise, I too am stuck with a duck butt birdie!

[Valo's Moirana]

where's gayla when you need her?

pita's nick-name was duck-butt for the longest time, and that was for a reason - he too smashed his tail. it's common for young birds when they're still experimenting with balance. it'll grow back eventually.... i'm sure, gayla has a photo of pita and his now perfect tail compared to how it used to be (you can search for her pics too, her user name is gbird)

[rchyrch]

Thanks for all the shared knowledge!! I guees he will just be- as you say- a duck butt- too! hahah I will try to get a picture soon and post it.

[Eliza]

This happens a lot to parrots with longer tails, particularly if they are young. In time the tail-feathers should start coming in and as the bird matures, they should remain nice.

Have you made arrangements to take your new sunnie to an avian vet? S/he might have some ideas about the tailfeathers, too.

[itchysquid]

Caesar started biting his tail when I first got him, he was a duck butt too!! I took him to the vet and asked on forums and I basically heard the same thing, he was young and clumsy and possibly over preening on an already messed up tail. The vet said he could pluck the feathers out to let them grow back nice, but Caesar was due for a moult anyway, so I just let him moult them out and now he has a nice pretty tail!

[Michie3]

Originally Posted by swanwillow

stuck with a duck butt birdie!

My Pei Chi (Black capped) is the same way right now! He didn't have much of a tail when my husband and I first got him (sometime in July), and we were starting to worry if they'd ever grow in or if something was wrong. He's our first bird so we haven't experienced molting yet but he has been losing feathers within the last couple days (which is unusual). It reassures me that this condition is not his alone! He is still really young, his hatch date was February 15th (so close to Valentine's Day, no wonder he's such a lil love bird).

One question though... what are the signs of molting (other than falling feathers), how long does it last and where can I find some more info on it? Thanks!

[Sally]

Hey, duck butt's are cute! hehe.