Ugh, I had to pull a broken bloodfeather!

[AlienGirl]

Well, Xen did the actual pulling. But I had to towel Gideon and hold him for it, and I think he blames me now. :-(

Anyone else have to deal with something like that?

Tucker

[buckettgirl]

1. I've done it before...

This past spring, we went out of town for a day trip. At the time, I only had 2 cockatiels in 2 separate cages. We we got home in the evening, there was blood all over the wall and in General's cage. I looked him over, but couldn't find any bleeding, so I thought it was all good. Then later we was running around outside the cage, and I saw blood dripping again, this time I was able to find the blood feather. The bad thing is, there aren't any avian vets where I live, so had we not known what to do, General might have died. My husband held General in a towel with his wing outstretched, and I pulled the blood feather. It didn't seem to hurt him, he was more pissed off about being held in a towel than anything. Didn't have any problems afterward and he has been fine since - never saw a vet.
I do know that if blood feathers are broken, they must be pulled or the bird will bleed to death...
It sucks to pull those, I hope I don't ever have to do it again...

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. Just curious....never having owned a bird...

What is a blood feather? It sounds awful!

FSC

[AlienGirl]

3. Blood feathers are immature feathers

The blood supply is still inside these feathers (also called pin-feathers) and when they are broken, they can bleed copiously--like an open straw straight out of a bird's body.

Tucker