Feather sticking out from a bite?

[Pictaker]

I have a large fishtank between my birds cages and I normally leave them on their playstands at the same time with no issue. However, this morning Patience took a little hike and made it to Kermits playstand!

It appears as though Patience gave Kermits tail feathers a nip and pull right before Kermit flew away. I was just around the corner in the kitchen at the time and when I heard Kermit fly, I ran into him.

So now, I have noticed he has one tail feather sticking crooked now and pulled out a bit? Is there anything I should do?

I wont be letting them sit out together like that again. Lesson learned! Poor Kermit!

[NotEnoughTime]

IMO if the feather can be straightened out your parrot will do it during regular preening. If it can't and it is not interfering with anything - I would just live with it and let it fall out during a regular moult.

[Pictaker]

Thanks for responding NotEnoughTime, that sounds like a good idea.

I am also wondering if Patience had actually got the feather all the way out, would there have been bleeding? Could it still be bleeding somehow even though he only pulled it half way out?

[NotEnoughTime]

If a feather is fully "pulled out" (with the calamus) then there should be no bleeding. If the feather is not a "blood feather" then there should also be no bleeding if it is broken.

If a feather is bleeding you would notice drops of blood and you can use flour or cornstarch to staunch the bleeding.

If the bird has a skin injury then you might not notice blood because the blood may congeal before blood drips - but that is part of a natural healing process.

See: Bird Feather Types, Anatomy, Molting, Growth, and Color

[LovelySydney]

My parrotlet Oliver has this happen to a feather that he was preening and I just let it be and he took care of it. As long as you don't see any bleeding and he doesnt look uncomfortable I would just let it be - he'll work it out.

[SallyQZ]

Gator, my young RB2, is still very uncoordinated sometimes and often bends her feathers around. She recently crash landed on her butt and her two outside tail feathers were bent outwards - instead of a nice neat tail, she has one feather sticking out one way, one feather sticking out the opposite way on the other side, with the rest of the tail feathers grouped together in the middle. It doesn't seem to be bothering her, so I just left it alone.

This happens quite often! I don't really worry about it anymore - but if I see that she's bleeding, I take her to the avian vet who pulls out the offending feather.

[Pictaker]

This all sounds good guys! Thanks so much for the advice. I felt so sorry for him that Patience got over there and did that. I am going to be more watchful.

I will just let Kermit deal with this on his own. He doesen't seem bothered by it at all.

Thank you!

[Ashling]

Yeah just leave it if he's not bothered. If it ends up botherin him you can clip off the end I guess. When Ash had a feather that bend upwards, she wouldn't stop maniacally preening at it trying to get it straight (to no avail) so I fixed it for her.