Hi everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!
I haven't posted for awhile but witnessed something new today and am concerned...
Pepe woke us early today, flock calling for me until I came downstairs to feed him.
Once he was fed, I started to prepare breakfast for my family, chatting with my partner and Pepe while doing so.
Pepe didn't seem too hungry and sat on his favorite perch to start preening (I have noticed a few downy feathers in/around his cage lately but have yet to experience a molt so wasn't sure if that was what was happening or not.
Anyway, my attention was brought back to Pepe when I heard a distinct cracking noise from his cage - turning around, I noticed that he was breaking on of his tail feathers about 2 1/2 inches from the tip and it fell to the floor of the cage. Having never seen him do this before, I was intrigued as to why he would do that. My partner and I watched as he continued to do so to ALL of his longer tail feathers! My little green one now has a short little tuff where his blue/green tail feathers used to be!
I have read a few posts regarding molting and plucking and am somewhat convinced that he is molting and not plucking as no bare spots or bleeding are visible.
But still what strange behavior! Can anyone offer any insight!?! Picture included to illustrate!
Full Version: Breaking Off All Tail Feathers
I have never heard of that before. I know that if the cage is too small the tail feathers will break off but never heard of a Quaker breaking them off.It could be an attention grabber??? Someone I'm sure might know why????????
QUOTE (Esther C @ Oct 4 2009, 02:09 PM) 
I have never heard of that before. I know that if the cage is too small the tail feathers will break off but never heard of a Quaker breaking them off.It could be an attention grabber??? Someone I'm sure might know why????????
Thanks for your reply, Ester!
I don't think its an issue of Pepe's cage being too small...he has plenty of room in there. Though, the feathers he did break off were not new looking and some did appear jagged near the tips.
I do hope someone comes around soon - he seems happy/healthy/his normal self just with a lack of pretty tail feathers...
Enjoy the rest of your day!
How very odd. He broke them deliberately? He looks awfully cute with his little stubby butt, but I'm sure that's not normal behavior. Clyde has broken tail feathers and went around with them hanging half on and half off and wouldn't let us snip them -- we had to wait for them to just fall off eventually. He won't even let us TOUCH his tail.
QUOTE (Siobhan @ Oct 4 2009, 02:27 PM)
How very odd. He broke them deliberately? He looks awfully cute with his little stubby butt, but I'm sure that's not normal behavior. Clyde has broken tail feathers and went around with them hanging half on and half off and wouldn't let us snip them -- we had to wait for them to just fall off eventually. He won't even let us TOUCH his tail.
Siobhan! I was hoping that you would be around and reply to my post - you have been VERY helpful in the past. Yep, he did it deliberately - one after the other - breaking them with his beak and preening until they fell to the floor of the cage. He continues to preen in that area but only downy feathers have fallen since this morning. Pepe refuses to learn to step up but will let me pick him up with a blanket (he is fond of nibbling my fingers so I use an old baby blanket to cuddle him) and I checked around his "little stubby butt ha ha" but all seemed okay there! I am just off to the grocery store and will drive by the vet to see if he is open today (not usually open on Sundays).
Oh my strange little green friend!
Enjoy the rest of your day, Siobhan! Hope your fids are well!
Maybe he just wanted a new look. 
QUOTE (Siobhan @ Oct 4 2009, 03:11 PM)
Maybe he just wanted a new look.
Maybe!! LOLThe vet was not open today but I will question him on Tuesday when I take my pooch for a haircut!
How old is Pepe? Are the tips of the quill still intact in his tail? As long as they are, new ones will not grow in. It could very well be that he'd bent them in his cage or if he had a fall and they were bothering him and so he broke them off to stop the weird feeling.
Young birds are constantly breaking tail feathers it seems and it can become a habit quite quickly to continue to do so because they aren't used to the feeling of a long tail. So if you notice him continually playing with his tail area you might want to try and distract him so he'll leave them alone. If the tip of the quill isn't removed by him soon, you might talk to your vet about pulling them so that his new feathers will grow back in.
Young birds are constantly breaking tail feathers it seems and it can become a habit quite quickly to continue to do so because they aren't used to the feeling of a long tail. So if you notice him continually playing with his tail area you might want to try and distract him so he'll leave them alone. If the tip of the quill isn't removed by him soon, you might talk to your vet about pulling them so that his new feathers will grow back in.
QUOTE (Andie's Mom @ Oct 4 2009, 08:10 PM)
How old is Pepe? Are the tips of the quill still intact in his tail? As long as they are, new ones will not grow in. It could very well be that he'd bent them in his cage or if he had a fall and they were bothering him and so he broke them off to stop the weird feeling.
Young birds are constantly breaking tail feathers it seems and it can become a habit quite quickly to continue to do so because they aren't used to the feeling of a long tail. So if you notice him continually playing with his tail area you might want to try and distract him so he'll leave them alone. If the tip of the quill isn't removed by him soon, you might talk to your vet about pulling them so that his new feathers will grow back in.
Young birds are constantly breaking tail feathers it seems and it can become a habit quite quickly to continue to do so because they aren't used to the feeling of a long tail. So if you notice him continually playing with his tail area you might want to try and distract him so he'll leave them alone. If the tip of the quill isn't removed by him soon, you might talk to your vet about pulling them so that his new feathers will grow back in.
Thanks for your reply, Andie's Mom - any new insight is very much appreciated.
I am not completely sure of Pepe's age but we estimate him to be about 7-8 months old.
As far as we can tell, the tips of the quills are still intact in his tail. I can't think of any incident lately where he could have bent his tail but he has recently started hopping from his lowest perch to the floor of his cage - he makes quite the loud thump when he lands so maybe he bent them doing that?? I'm not sure...
I will keep my eye on him over the next few days to see if he does remove the tip of the quill on his own and will definitely ask my vet about our options when I see him on Tuesday. Thanks for your insight!
Good night to all,
Heather
QUOTE (hlm584 @ Oct 4 2009, 10:35 PM)
As far as we can tell, the tips of the quills are still intact in his tail.
I will keep my eye on him over the next few days to see if he does remove the tip of the quill on his own and will definitely ask my vet about our options when I see him on Tuesday.
I will keep my eye on him over the next few days to see if he does remove the tip of the quill on his own and will definitely ask my vet about our options when I see him on Tuesday.
Ugghh, my vet appointment was cancelled until the weekend! But I was wondering if someone could assist me in telling me how to remove the quills that Pepe left from breaking his tail feathers off??!! I have never done something like that before and am kind of scared of maybe hurting him....help!
Also...reading another post...I just made a new connection with how Pepe might have injured his feathers...I am thinking my perches are set too close to the bars, especially on his sleeping perch...on a mission now to find some natural perches to use until I can find some longer ones at the pet store.
Any help/ideas are greatly appreciated - thanks guys, you make life with a quaker so easy!!
Making your own perches is very very simple and SO MUCH cheaper than buying them! (Though I did buy one cement one and the rope one.. I haven't found a good local supplier of rope where I can play with making rope ones...)
Find yourself some safe trees (there are a bunch of links in the forums that will tell you which ones are good). RECENT deadfall seems to be the best to work with. I've been using birch and poplar - it's a white wood with very little sap and the bark isn't too crumbly. Saw off a longer piece than you think you need. Bring the branches home, cut'em down to the sizes you want, and wash down with a good soaking of vinegar and water. Then you can set them out in the sun for a couple of days to dry completely, OR you can put them in the oven and bake'em. This is to make sure you kill anything that might have set up residence in the bark or wood. WARNING: LOL If you pick a stick that has branches with little tips they will SMOLDER in the oven. I didn't think of this the first time and the house smelled like woodsmoke for a week even though I yanked all of the sticks out before I started a fire. *beams*
Go to the hardware store. You want a "hanging bolt" - that's the kind that has threads on BOTH SIDES. You'll also need an appropriately sized wing nut and two big washers. If you're not sure what I mean, look at the end of any of your commercial perches that bolt onto the cage with little wingnuts. When you're finished it should look the same as that. Boil all of your metal pieces for a few minutes and set aside on paper towel or something clean to cool off.
Here's the trick: take your handy dandy drill and drill a hole JUST smaller than the bolt into the end of your stick. Screw the wingnut onto the bolt as far down as you can go. It will stop turning when you reach the heavier threads that are meant to be sunk into the perch. Using the wingnut as little handles, screw the other end of the bolt INTO your predrilled hole. It's a little tough - I use a towel to keep my fingers from slipping. Keep working at it until you get that wingnut flush to the end of the wood. Once it's in there good and tight, take off the wingnut, slide on your washers, put the wingnut back on and VIOLA! You have just made a perch. Best thing is it only cost you a couple of bucks and a trip outside with a saw. If you want it to extend all the way across the cage just measure carefully and put a bolt into each end. The nice thing is, once the bird destroys the perch you can save the wingnut and washers for your next perch. All you'll need to replace is an appropriately sized bolt.
You can have a blast with this and pick sticks with multiple branches coming off of them, ones with really cool kinks and angles, and you can play with perch thickness without it costing you a fortune. The ones in the petstore for some reason always seem poker straight and I could never figure out why they would go to all of the trouble of offering "real wood" perches that just looked like doweling with bark on it.
Have fun!!!
Find yourself some safe trees (there are a bunch of links in the forums that will tell you which ones are good). RECENT deadfall seems to be the best to work with. I've been using birch and poplar - it's a white wood with very little sap and the bark isn't too crumbly. Saw off a longer piece than you think you need. Bring the branches home, cut'em down to the sizes you want, and wash down with a good soaking of vinegar and water. Then you can set them out in the sun for a couple of days to dry completely, OR you can put them in the oven and bake'em. This is to make sure you kill anything that might have set up residence in the bark or wood. WARNING: LOL If you pick a stick that has branches with little tips they will SMOLDER in the oven. I didn't think of this the first time and the house smelled like woodsmoke for a week even though I yanked all of the sticks out before I started a fire. *beams*
Go to the hardware store. You want a "hanging bolt" - that's the kind that has threads on BOTH SIDES. You'll also need an appropriately sized wing nut and two big washers. If you're not sure what I mean, look at the end of any of your commercial perches that bolt onto the cage with little wingnuts. When you're finished it should look the same as that. Boil all of your metal pieces for a few minutes and set aside on paper towel or something clean to cool off.
Here's the trick: take your handy dandy drill and drill a hole JUST smaller than the bolt into the end of your stick. Screw the wingnut onto the bolt as far down as you can go. It will stop turning when you reach the heavier threads that are meant to be sunk into the perch. Using the wingnut as little handles, screw the other end of the bolt INTO your predrilled hole. It's a little tough - I use a towel to keep my fingers from slipping. Keep working at it until you get that wingnut flush to the end of the wood. Once it's in there good and tight, take off the wingnut, slide on your washers, put the wingnut back on and VIOLA! You have just made a perch. Best thing is it only cost you a couple of bucks and a trip outside with a saw. If you want it to extend all the way across the cage just measure carefully and put a bolt into each end. The nice thing is, once the bird destroys the perch you can save the wingnut and washers for your next perch. All you'll need to replace is an appropriately sized bolt.
You can have a blast with this and pick sticks with multiple branches coming off of them, ones with really cool kinks and angles, and you can play with perch thickness without it costing you a fortune. The ones in the petstore for some reason always seem poker straight and I could never figure out why they would go to all of the trouble of offering "real wood" perches that just looked like doweling with bark on it.
Have fun!!!
Hello,
I am just now reading this. Wanted to add that my IRN did this sort of thing when he was young. He kept breaking/bending his tail feathers by falling the wrong way or something. They would not break completely off but would be bent or damaged really bad. I guess he got tired of them being bent and he decided to bite them off. Then we had a little stumpy IRN running around. I finally figured out that if I were to plucked his remaining stubs out that maybe just maybe he would grow his tailfeathers back out and leave them alone. I hated pulling them out. It was absolutely horrible to do but was the best thing I could have done because he would have never grown them all back at the same time.
To do this get someone else to hold the baby wrapped in a washcloth or something so that they have him firmly and he can't jump. With you hand find the base of the tail feather and very quickly jerk it out. Pull straight out and make sure it comes straight out. Do not break it off, or he will most likely bleed. I did this with Melon. It was a loud snap each time and he would flinch and yelp but I knew I had too. He did not bleed and was perfectly fine afterwards. His tail came back in a few weeks and has been perfect since. Except for when they are all playing in the floor and Ruffles decides to grap Melon by his long tail and drag him around.
Which has happened a few times but we keep a close eye out for that now.
I am just now reading this. Wanted to add that my IRN did this sort of thing when he was young. He kept breaking/bending his tail feathers by falling the wrong way or something. They would not break completely off but would be bent or damaged really bad. I guess he got tired of them being bent and he decided to bite them off. Then we had a little stumpy IRN running around. I finally figured out that if I were to plucked his remaining stubs out that maybe just maybe he would grow his tailfeathers back out and leave them alone. I hated pulling them out. It was absolutely horrible to do but was the best thing I could have done because he would have never grown them all back at the same time.
To do this get someone else to hold the baby wrapped in a washcloth or something so that they have him firmly and he can't jump. With you hand find the base of the tail feather and very quickly jerk it out. Pull straight out and make sure it comes straight out. Do not break it off, or he will most likely bleed. I did this with Melon. It was a loud snap each time and he would flinch and yelp but I knew I had too. He did not bleed and was perfectly fine afterwards. His tail came back in a few weeks and has been perfect since. Except for when they are all playing in the floor and Ruffles decides to grap Melon by his long tail and drag him around.
Which has happened a few times but we keep a close eye out for that now.
QUOTE (Cacophony @ Oct 7 2009, 02:52 PM)
Making your own perches is very very simple and SO MUCH cheaper than buying them!
You can have a blast with this and pick sticks with multiple branches coming off of them, ones with really cool kinks and angles, and you can play with perch thickness without it costing you a fortune. The ones in the petstore for some reason always seem poker straight and I could never figure out why they would go to all of the trouble of offering "real wood" perches that just looked like doweling with bark on it.
You can have a blast with this and pick sticks with multiple branches coming off of them, ones with really cool kinks and angles, and you can play with perch thickness without it costing you a fortune. The ones in the petstore for some reason always seem poker straight and I could never figure out why they would go to all of the trouble of offering "real wood" perches that just looked like doweling with bark on it.
ˇWow! Thanks so much for this fantastic perch tutorial (fire warnings included ha ha)
It sounds like a great project for my partner to do as he is more skilled with a drill than me! Can't wait to find some unique shaped perches for Pepe! Have a great day,
Heather (hlm584)
QUOTE (ruffles momma @ Oct 7 2009, 03:12 PM)
Wanted to add that my IRN did this sort of thing when he was young...I finally figured out that if I were to plucked his remaining stubs out that maybe just maybe he would grow his tailfeathers back out and leave them alone. I hated pulling them out. It was absolutely horrible to do but was the best thing I could have done because he would have never grown them all back at the same time.
To do this get someone else to hold the baby wrapped in a washcloth or something so that they have him firmly and he can't jump. With you hand find the base of the tail feather and very quickly jerk it out. Pull straight out and make sure it comes straight out. Do not break it off, or he will most likely bleed. I did this with Melon. It was a loud snap each time and he would flinch and yelp but I knew I had too. He did not bleed and was perfectly fine afterwards. His tail came back in a few weeks and has been perfect since. Except for when they are all playing in the floor and Ruffles decides to grap Melon by his long tail and drag him around. Which has happened a few times but we keep a close eye out for that now.
To do this get someone else to hold the baby wrapped in a washcloth or something so that they have him firmly and he can't jump. With you hand find the base of the tail feather and very quickly jerk it out. Pull straight out and make sure it comes straight out. Do not break it off, or he will most likely bleed. I did this with Melon. It was a loud snap each time and he would flinch and yelp but I knew I had too. He did not bleed and was perfectly fine afterwards. His tail came back in a few weeks and has been perfect since. Except for when they are all playing in the floor and Ruffles decides to grap Melon by his long tail and drag him around.
Which has happened a few times but we keep a close eye out for that now.
Thanks for your reply!Oh boy, I am really not feeling up to pulling the quills out - blood...eekk...I will freak if that happens! *big breath* I will give your suggestions a try once my partner is home from work and he can assist me...
The wuss in me wants to know what would happen if I just left the quills in...I mean, he isn't really bothering with them and I don't mind a tail-less quaker ha ha Eekkk!
And also, thanks for the giggle - I am trying to picture in my mind, Ruffles dragging Melon around by his long tail - too funny ha ha
Thanks again for your help - take care,
Heather
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