baby macaw 6 weeks old feather help

[JRKRACING1]

I have a 6 week old macaw named "Gator". He is doing great. My question is his feaherrs are coming in witht he sheath on them and have been for quite some time, should I be helping the feathers come out by playing with tthe sheath to loosen them? some of them are very long with just a bit of feather sticking out the end. I don't ant to do anything to hurt him but it seems like I read something about helping them along since he has no nest mates to help them along. Just thought I would ask before I started to do this. Thanks. John

[LoveMyBeak]

to be honest with you, just let nature do it's job he IS only 6 weeks old, that is really young, now...if he were 6 months then theres a problem heh heh.
I imagine he will preen them out, I believe that he needs to learn how to preen with his first feathers, think of it this way......if you do it for him then how is he gonna learn, but then again I am NO bird expert, I am just using common sense with that bit of advice. Hopefully an expert like Lisa B will help you out, she seems very knowledgable........LMB

[kellywess]

Yes, you should be "gently" helping to peel away the keratin (start at the tip and work your way back towards the body). You have to be careful and preen only the feathers that have come all of the way through the skin. If you do not preen your baby, especially his head, wings and tail feathers... his feathers will be very dry and lack luster when the keratin finally flakes off on its own. This will not keep him from learning how to preen on his own. Even as he matures, you will have to help preen his head and neck feathers as he molts, unless of course you plan on getting him a mate.

[Many Feathers]

I use a soft toothbrush to gently preen the pins on my baby macaws. They love it! They will even lift up their butts for you to gently brush their backs. Don't keep the toothbrush too long in one position. It will also help loosen and remove dry skin along with quill casings.

[Copper]

Tooth brush does wonders.
If you are going to peal the keritin, only do the very ends where the outer sheath has turned white. These are his first feathers, and they are blood feathers. You can too easily do damage, and hurt the baby. You don't want to traumatize the little guy, the feathers will grow out soon enough.

[Lessadalinar]

Would ya post pics?" Looooove pics and how is the little guy doing?

Do you have the parents? because you have such a young baby. was just wondering.
and maybe I missed it. what kind of macaw is it ?

[JRKRACING1]

I'm trying to get my wife in gear to post some pics of all of our birds but she usually does this at work and she is out this week due to a death in the family. Soon though I promise. I'm very excited to show them off. "Gator" is a green wing macaw and is about 6.5 weeks old as of today. He is doing great and he really likes the tooth brush. He is really starting to develope a personality and enjoys being petted and does not just look to us for food anymore (he really enjoys eating too though). He really likes being preened with the tooth brush. We do not have his parents he is our first macaw. A friend of ours, who has a small pet shop locally, had him and needed to get him a home she felt good about so we helped her out (she didn't have to twist our arm too hard ) We were kinda looking for a macaw anyway but didn't have the money and she made it right for us that way and that's how we ended up with the baby "Gator". (yes we are huge Florida Gator fans). I am taking pics all the time so I will have her post before and after shots. Thanks for all the help and your patience with the pictures. John.

[KimM]

Six weeks is awfully young yet. I would wait on the preening thing. At that age, they're just really coming in. When it's time, as Kelly and Copper mentioned, very gently peel away the keratin covering. Wait until it's turned completely white. You'll get to know the "feel" of a feather ready to be preened. It will really come off pretty easily and sort of feel like dried paper. Just be careful, within that "covering" is a vein (capillary) that runs from the base of the tail and if preened too short, it will bleed (blood feather). If you're going too far, trust me, the bird WILL let you know. Not to frighten you, but if you do have a broken blood feather, you need to get it out immediately and from the base where it is attached to the skin. Others can advise you better on this than me. I have fortunately not had this experience yet.

I would encourage at this age touching him "everywhere" so he is used to being preened and handled. I did this with Newton and I'm so glad I did. He will literally waddle up to me, turn around and stick his little butt in my face with tail straight up in the air (feathers flared) for me to preen his tail.
Elliot was not taught this and he's very funny about having his tail touched. We're still working to build that trust for me to touch his hind quarters.