My Cockatiel Has a Loose Feather?
Category: Cockateil Toys Q&A
My cockatiel, Diablo, has a loose tail feather. Actually, it was bending in half because it got stuck in the cage bars because of a toy (which was removed). And it is really annoying me and Diablo. He tries to get it off, but it hurts him. The Av. vet said that it will fall off. It has been there for a month!!! How do I safely, and painlessly, remove this stubborn feather?
It’s bended in the middle. It is a medium sized tail feather.
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The vet gave you god advice. It needs to work itself out, allowing for the healing to be there where the feather comes out. Don not try to force it out for him, even if it looks like you are doing him good. It WILL fall off in due time!
Good for you for calling a vet!!! Now, just don’t be afraid to listen to him.
IF IT HELPS u ANY MY bF HAS A LOOSE SCREW HE HAS IT FOR 2 YEARS NOW
As much as I hate to say this, you’ll have to cut off the portion of the feather that is bent. This is not unhumane, since its only the end part of a feather, and there are no nerves in a feather. The only problem is that he’ll look silly, but its a small price to pay.
You didn’t mention which tail feather it is… Because if it’s the biggest one, then, having it bent and stuck there will make your cockatiel very annoyed and irritated. And if he’s annoyed, he will try to rid of it even harder, and might hurt himself in the process.
I doubt the feather is ready to fall out yet, and you should definitely not pull it out, because it will hurt for sure, and may even cause some bleeding (It’s a tail feather, and those are not easily fallen off, and connected to ALOT of nerve-endings…you may notice from previous fallen-off tail feathers that the end ‘stump’ is bigger, therefore, deeper into the skin.)
EDIT: Well, since it’s medium, it’s still fairly sized, and bothersome. It’s the same thing as a person having flaked skin…whether its a big or small area, it’s still annoying, and you need to get rid of it.
Don’t pull it out, it will come out on its own. You could cause him to bleed if you try to pull it out. If the break in the feather is around the middle or end you can trim it at the break with some scissors. This may help and it won’t hurt him.
Get a 100% cotton dishtowel, have a sharp pair of scissors ready, and carefully grab and loosely wrap Diablo in the towel. He’ll scream and squirm, but talk soft and soothing to him for a minute, then cradle him to an angle and clip the feather, or have a trusted someone clip it for you~ carefully put him in your lap, and remove the towel ~
Happens to my parakeets all the times but it ususally falls in 2 or 3 days but since ist takign a whiel to fall out u might wanan consider cuttign it. If you dont’wanan cut it u can jus snip a lil peace off it so that it doesn’t annoy the bird a lot, Cockatiel’s have long tail featers so it will be nice if you cut a piece of the feather off n gradually let the rest come off on its own.
Hey mackenzie, it is good for you to wonder what to do with the feather, but for sure, you shouldn’t cut a piece of it off. This will annoy the bird even more. I suggest just giving him maybe 1 extra bath a week until it falls off. It will eventually fall off. Hope i helped good luck!
it will aventauly fall off when diablo molts so dont worry unless its a blood feather.DONT CUT WITHOUT PROFFESIANOL ADVICE IT MIGHT BE A BLOOD FEATHER.say hi to diablo and grey grey for me
It’ll fall off when it’s ready. Don’t try to pull it out yourself as your bird will scream in pain etc. Just leave it be. It’ll come out in due time.