Tail Feather concerns

[Tiki1]

Hello everyone,

I have a 6 month old Sun Conure. She is wonderful and very active in and out of her cage. My concern is this; she keeps breaking her tail feathers off about a inch from her rump . They start off getting badly kinked, then break off. I have not caught her feather chewing so my theory is she is doing it by playing (she is a relentless cage climber ) and over extending her feathers to almost the breaking point. (I have witnessed this)
I have been misting her more often and I recently bought her a bigger cage in the hopes that she would have more room, but its still happening . She has 3 tail feathers remaining on her body . I have several questions related to this dilemma:
1. I have trimmed off 3 or 4 of the tail feathers after she kinked them so badly they were sticking out on the sides of her body - should I be pulling these out? I think not but don't really know what happens if I leave them in.
2. Leaving the broken stubs of feathers in her, will these come out by themselves?.
3. Will she grow back the tail feathers she is losing? How quickly -timeframe-do these come back in?
She just about completed her first real molt since birth. I have checked several books I have and can find nothing about this. Any education on this is appreciated. Thank you!

[Monica]

You probably should not pull the feathers out as this can be quite painful (you might want to compare it to pulling out 20 or more hairs at once in the same spot). Chicks are clusmy, and that is just what she is! She is still a baby, and as she matures she will eventually grow out of this as most other birds do (though some have always been known to be rough players and will have raggled looking feathers as adults from playing so roughly....).

1. I have trimmed off 3 or 4 of the tail feathers after she kinked them so badly they were sticking out on the sides of her body - should I be pulling these out? I think not but don't really know what happens if I leave them in.

You can just break or cut the feather at the point where it is broken, and leave the stub as it should not cause any worry to her... If you just leave them in, they will eventually molt out and new feathers will replace the old broken ones.

2. Leaving the broken stubs of feathers in her, will these come out by themselves?.

By leaving the stubs of feathers in her, no they will not grow back out... Once a feather is broken it will not grow back like a broken or trimmed nail... the feather must first be shed before a new one can regrow in its place (think about dogs hair... many dogs shed twice a year to grow in new hair).

3. Will she grow back the tail feathers she is losing? How quickly -timeframe-do these come back in?

How quickly she regrows these feathers can very. She can regrow them within a month to up to 3 months (if not longer). It depends on whether or not she is molting, and depends on how long it takes for her to loose a feather for it to be replaced.

[DocT]

It sounds almost like maybe the other cage may have been too small for your conure. Hopefully with the larger cage her feathers will grow back now. My B&G had hardly any tail feathers when I got him but was in too small of a cage. When I got him a HUGE cage they all came back.

Bonnie

[The Outlaw]

The sun conures like the macaws are blessed/cursed with long tails. Consequently, they need a lot of training in how to drive them. Young birds under one year old will usually destroy most of their tail feathers along the way. Its just part of growing up.

Leave them alone. Don't pull them unless they are bleeding, then you must pull them. New tails usually are created twice a year. You may trim away hanging pieces to keep them from getting caught on the cage bars.

I have a housefull of macaws and with the exception of the oldest, Margarita, its a challenge for them to actually have those beautiful tails for more than a few months. As they get older, they care more and more about how they look. When they're young, its of no concern to them.

[Jer]

I have the same question about Ozzies tail feathers. She got one new one in, broke it, and now back to stubs again. She will be a year old this month. In reality, how long DOES it take to get these back. I am wondering if she ever will...and what can I give her, food, vitamins, etc...to help her grow these and make them stronger??

Jer

[The Outlaw]

Jer:

I find that adding lots of cooked sweet potatoes to their diet helps a lot. Its full of beta caratene and that's what they need. Also, don't forget to add protein to their diets. Chicken wings are fed here about 3 times a week.

Tails are pretty much a work in progress. Normally molted tails are replaced about twice a year. You also need to provide adequate bathing for your birds. It softens the feathers and gives them something to do as they preen away.

By the way, how is the breast injury coming along?

THE OUTLAW

[BirdsUnlimited]

How far does the bird go when it tries to fly? Does it drop like a sack of cement? If it does it could be from being wing trimmed too severely, goes straight down and lands on the tail feathers breaking them. I see the Outlaw asked how the breast injury was which might also indicate that it drops straight down instead of flying out and down. Even a bird that may have been properly clipped can put on weight and thus crash to the floor breaking tail feathers. The bird will have to learn to fly with some coordination before new tail feathers will be kept. I've never heard of beta carotene helping strengthen feathers but only to help make them redder but this is now somewhat controversial as it's thought to be a molecular thing only parrots have (as seen in a recent Bird Talk issue). Feathers are made up of keratin, the same stuff our hair and fingernails are made of. Be patient, the bird will moult and eventually look great.

[DocT]

I have to agree I don't know if the sweet potatoes are going to be a magor part of the feathers growing back. But surely a well balanced diet will help in feather growth.

Bonnie

[The Outlaw]

I've been feeding the recommended diet from Land Of Vos for 5 years. Simply come see my birds. They look great. I don't feed any pellets, but I balance their diets very carefully. All of the yellow/orange veggies are recommended for feather production. None have been sick or had any calcium or other diet deficiencies. Since they range from 3 years old to 22 years old, and all kinds of species, I think that pretty much tells the tale.

The other added bonus to feeding a good fresh diet is that I don't ever have dry flaky birds. They all have pins that need to be removed, but the skin is always healthy.

[BirdsUnlimited]

The Outlaw, please don't take it as a shot at you, it wasn't intended that way. In fact I like your opinions better than at least two of "the experts". However, what's a balanced diet for a bird? I don't believe it would be the same for a blue fronted amazon as it would be for an orange winged amazon, two similar species. Land of Vos has a nice web page and what works for her birds may work for many but not all birds. As she deals with a lot of eclectus it stands to reason that she would feed a diet rich in beta carotene. There is still a lot to learn to learn about avian nutrition. I'm sure your birds look great as some on this board have stated.