Flight feather question

[Dawnsfall]

My severe was partially clipped until I had to go away on a business trip while he was sick and my husband was in charge of giving him meds. Cody keep flying away from my husband, so he had the vet fully clip his wings (unbeknownst to me until after the fact) when he took him in for a checkup. Anyhow, the plan was to let his flight feathers grow back in and then just partially clip them again -we just want to slow his flight down enough that he won't fly into something and hurt himself. Anyway right now he has a single flight feather growing in. Should I just leave it? How long will it be before the others start coming back?

[jenseits]

If you have a flight feather in the process of growing in right now, then it won't be long until the others are back as well. They usually grow in one right after the other.

Just be careful. A lone flight feather growing in after a clip is vulnerable since there are no surrounding feathers to protect it. But yes, you need to leave it alone right now.

[Dawnsfall]

The flight feather grew in all the way, but the others didn't follow. Cody was preening that one feather a lot and seemed to be fussing with it a lot. Anyway, he pulled it out. I am guessing it couldn't have felt good to pull it out because there was a bit of blood on the end of the shaft. I have found at least one of the cut feather shafts molted out in the last week, but it still doesn't look like any of the other flight feathers are growing in.

Is this weird or normal?

[Dawnsfall]

Just hoping i could get an answer to my last post...

[Jag]

Until your bird goes through a molt, it won't get in new flight feathers. Don't know why it got one 'lone' one... unless it went through a 'light' molt.

[NotEnoughTime]

Likely the "lone" feather was still growing when the feathers were clipped. Then it continued to grow in and became the lone flight feather.

[Dawnsfall]

His feathers were clipped at the beginning of summer- how long does it take a feather to grow in? Cody is losing feathers left and right at the moment so I guess he is molting.

[Jag]

If he's shedding the clipped feathers a lot now, then he should be getting the 'new' flights in soon.

[DeaGrain]

Ki was clipped right before I got him on the 9th of August 2008 (hatch date 03/21/08). He is now fully flighted (minus 2 feathers on one side) and has been for about 3 months. The clipped feathers gradually fell out and were replaced over about 6 months. During the same time he lost and replaced all tail feathers and most of his "crown" feathers. He is now getting more "crown" feathers and another new tail feather.

Hope that helps with a time line...

[NotEnoughTime]

My girl seems (and have to emphasize *seems*) to lose about half her feathers every six months... So some of her primary flights remain clipped when let her "grow them out" over the winter. She only "grows out" three or so (which gives her a great deal of lift!!). So I would expect it would take a year to replace all feathers...