FINCHforum

My budgie had the first 5 or 6 of fliht feater on each wing clipped. For the past few dayd she has been ripping out her fliht feathers and breaking them off. I do not know what to do, she must have broken one too short as it is now bleeding. What should I do? She is ripping them out and breaking them! Help me!!! Should I wrap her wing?


As far as training, she is a bit nippy when on my hands my but loves sitting on my shoulder

Dante
I put a paper towel on the feather with some pressure. It may be a blood feather and should stop, but just to be sure, hold her with pressure on the spot for a few minutes.

Thanks Deborah. It did stop bleeding. I am never getting her wings clipped again if this os what will happen. Could it be them growing in that is causing her to do this??

Who clipped her, if done incorrectly they will poke her as her windg close against her body, the shaft is sharp and she will tear at them...Dante, hold her in a towel and have someone take a picture of her wing out stretched., there is a way to fix it so it does not bother her.

http://www.sunnyhollowaviaries.com/parrotcare.htm

scroll down quiet a bit to wing clipping.

Has she stopped tearing at them, yet?

I did it, I have done it many times before and I have never had this happen with any of my other budgies or my teil. She is litteraly just tearing off feathers. I can hold her fine in a * something, she is acting fine towards me today. The only problem is my mom took the camera literaly 5 minutes ago for my stepdads surprise party.

How can I fix it?? I hope she is okay!!

Anna, at the moment she stopped. She is playing with her toys. I took her out for a bit. And gave her some strawberry.

I was thinking of rehoming her but she is such a pain I could never bestow her on somebody else. She bites, not bites herself!

I FOUND THE PROBLEM!!!! She must have broke one of those blood feathers!! I look and there was one sticking out! I carefully plucked it out, and she seems better already! I am glad it was noth a clipping problem. She just started doing this recently, so maybe she had a night fright or did it accidental, and then was picking because the pain???

I am giving her a nice bath, then she is off to bed!!!! this weekends goal: Find her a friend! The blood feather is so wierd looking I was sure to get it from the root like the article said. I am just glad she is okay.

How long until her feathers grow in? She is still a baby, she has her baby bars. I would like her to moult that way she can have free flight of my room, well her and the conure I will get soon

Yay, Dante!! I'm so glad you found the problem and took care of it. Your girl is very lucky to have an owner like you.

I am glad too, do blood feather keep bleeding if not removed?? Blood squirted out of it when I pulled it out.

Thanks Anna! She does not realize it, she is a pain in the rear end!

Dante, do you have Styptic powder in your Finch First Aid kit? If so, I would dab some on where it is bleeding and hold a clean Kleenex or something against the wound until it stops bleeding. You could then put a tiny bit of Neosporin on it as well.

Yes, sometimes they are pains in the Watoosi!

She is not bleeding, but the feather itself was!

I think we have some from out dog (RIP) but I do not know if it is the same kind for birds?

If a blood feather gets cut or broken, it won't usually stop bleeding until it is plucked. Then the skin where it was removed from will close up and the bleeding stops. It sounds like that's what happened with your bird, and she is fine now.

Trying to stop the bleeding from the end of the broken feather doesn't usually work. But if you need to use styptic powder on a budgie, regular pepper works well. (It does not sting.)

A baby budgie will go into its first molt between 3 and 5 months of age. That first molt can last anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. The clipped feathers should be replaced by the end of the molt, and then she will be able to fly again.

Thanks for all that info Finnie!! I am glad it is all over. I got her April 1st.. She how old could she have been when I got her??

There's not really any way to know her age for sure. You can automatically assume that she was at least one month old, because any younger than that, and they don't even have all their feathers in. (They don't even come out of their nest box before that, typically, and pet stores are pretty careful about what they have for sale, so I doubt they would be selling you one that wasn't old enough to fledge.)

What I usually do is wait until the molt starts, and then figure they are about three months old at that point. Signs that she is going into her molt will be more down feathers than usual on the bottom of the cage, some loose tail feathers or flight feathers, and then pin feathers on her head.

Actually, since you just clipped her wings, and might have gotten a blood feather when you did it, she could be starting her molt now. Because that would explain why she had a new blood feather growing in right now, instead of just all old feathers.

Anyway, if you got her April 1st, then she has to be at least four months old by now, and more likely 5 months.

Molting often makes them crabby and hormonal, so don't give up on her personality just yet. Keep on working with her!