Charlie ' Tail

[Heather]

So several months ago I was trying to get Charlie into her carrier to got to the vet...she is missing a wing and won't let me touch her...she did a dive bomb onto the floor and lost a blood feather it fell out. When we got to the vet she was still spotting a little so the vet cauterized the spot....well when I took her back to see her regular vet later he said to leave it be...she has a gap between some of her tail feathers...When she fans her tail the last two feathers stick way out to the side like almost straight out...I am worried that they will get caught on something or in something like the cage bars....The vet said the feathers should grow back but I am not seeing any signs of new growth and she has been molting tail and wing feathers recently. ...

You can see the 2 offenders in the picture....

2011

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[Heather]

To clarify the first vet was kind of an emergency trip she had inflated the air sacs on her back and it freaked me out because I didn't know what it was...

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[Honesty]

Hi Heather.

Don't worry about the tail feathers sticking out. Codie has had a couple like this and they have fell out on their own.
There was a time when Codie lost all his tail feathers and it took roughly about 8 months for them to grow back. They just suddenly appeared :)

[Heather]

They have stuck out since we brought her home back in july...she is missing more than just the one that she lost on the way to the vet...

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[Pinkbirdy]

I think Bluefrnts have the prettiest feathers though. No touching her yet though. Was she a cage bound girl ?

[Honesty]

You will find they will grow back. you may find she will pull the other 2 out!

[Heather]

The lady I got her from said she had her for about 1.5 years and I was told she was never out of the cage...I was told she belonged to another lady before that...The lady I got her from never even gave her a name

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[Honesty]

What is her behaviour like towards you? Will she step up, or take treats from you?

[Heather]

She takes treats really well...and she acts like she wants to be near when I have Parker out but she won't step up and if I try with a stick she freaks and will do a dive bomb...she is missing a wing...so it is difficult to get super close because she will just freak out and jump off her cage or the perch inside the cage and then she will run away on the floor or if you get close on the floor she makes this awful noise and flips on her back and spins cause she only has the one wing.

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[Heather]

She is not aggressive...but if you get too close she will bite...

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[jules]

oh bless charlie, heather. it could take her some time to trust you fully. maybe the feathers just grow back this way even after a molt? or they get bent each time, so that could be why your vet said to leave them. if they don't bother her, then i wouldn't worry :)

does she have padding around and inside her cage? i talk to a lady on facebook and she has a grey with no wings and he has those cargo nets around his cage and all sorts of things so he can climb around. could this help charlie do you think? she is so lovely sitting on her cage :th_heart:

[Heather]

She does fine in her cage as long as you don't try and grab her...her cage is wide and short so she doesn't have far to fall...but she gets around just fine...she also has learned that if I say cage and hold my hand up she will climb into her cage...she really is a smart one...

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[Casper's 2nd best friend]

How is Charlie doing? Casper is down to six full length tail feathers now, mainly due to him hanging by his beak and dropping onto his rump off the side of the sofa.
It would be reassuring to hear that Charlie's tail has regrown.
I have tried showing Casper pictures of other parrots with a full compliment of tail feathers but he hasn't taken the hint that he needs to do a bit of new growth.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

I'm glad that the tail feathers grow back eventually, Casper has a very casual attitude to the care of such important feathers. Today, after a visit to the vet to have his beak trimmed his tail is a right old mess, two feathers upside down and the others looking like he has been dragged through a hedge backwards. He isn't the slightest bit worried despite us pointing out that he looks like a scarecrow.

[Lady]

Well I must agree, as long as he is healthy and happy it isn't important how they (or we) really appear to others.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

I think patience and treats/bribes are called for. When Casper first came to us he hated me - until one day when my wife was tickling his neck and he had his eyes closed, I took over from her. He eventually looked up and saw it was me tickling him and that I could perhaps be trusted. Now we are great friends.
His tail however is down to it's last five feathers - just the outside ones so there is a big gap in the middle. Mostly caused by feathers getting broken because rather than flying from the sofa to the floor, he hangs off the edge by his beak and then lets go using his tail as an airbag.
I think he is hormonal at the moment, he seems to love one of his foot toys in a totally inappropriate manner, fluffs up his feathers and clucks like a chicken. He is also spending a lot of time under the newspaper we put on the floor around his cage in case he poops from a great height. He wasn't named after Casper the ghost but that's what it looks like when a newspaper starts moving around the room with him under it. He is also into shredding the paper in a big way at the moment.

[kendrafitz]

It must be so funny to see the newspaper walking around the room!!

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

Yep, he pops his head out to see what we are laughing at, then goes back under.

[kendrafitz]

Lol!! If you ever get it on.video, please post it. I would love to see it. Casper is funny and doesnt even know it!!

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

I will upload some video as soon as we work out how to get it from Margarets ipad to my pc laptop. In the meantime, what is the recommended way of getting white feathers clean on a parrots head after he has been messing around with news print? :th_smile: