Another bent blood feather :(

[kanundra]

Bobby's managed to bend another feather this morning. And he subsequently managed to chew it off within a few hours. There is no bleeding, but again we're in the same boat. There might be another trip to the vet's on the cards.

At this rate he won't be able to fly anywhere, he's down to no flight feathers on one side!

This I can see is going to be an issue. as he's now lop sided

Poor thing, I wonder if it was irritating him because it was his last one anyway, now all he's got are the butchered feathers from his clip.

I feel for him. But now I need to know what to do? Should I leave him lop sided?

 

[Mayden]

Bobby's managed to bend another feather this morning. And he subsequently managed to chew it off within a few hours. There is no bleeding, but again we're in the same boat. There might be another trip to the vet's on the cards.

At this rate he won't be able to fly anywhere, he's down to no flight feathers on one side!

This I can see is going to be an issue. as he's now lop sided

Poor thing, I wonder if it was irritating him because it was his last one anyway, now all he's got are the butchered feathers from his clip.

I feel for him. But now I need to know what to do? Should I leave him lop sided?

How is he bending his blood feathers?

My male budgie Bruce is forever breaking blood feathers. He's always struggled to fly and that's what seems to causes his injuries further - bad flying, crashing, more breaks.

I leave him to it but try to stop things such as night frights (which are another huge cause for Bruce... too often am I waking up to blood sheets that have covered his cage...).

If he's been butchered from his last clip - what could you do about it? You can't clip any more feathers surely as they're so badly done already?

I'd say try and restrict his flying a little (so less crashes, if that's whats causing it) but let his feathers grow out enough so he can have a proper clip where he can glide out instead of crashing.

 

[kanundra]

thanks for the reply.

He's bending them in his cage while trying to fly. He get's all worked up/excited and starts flying like mad attached to one of his perches.

This morning he caught it on the side of the cage. How can I stop him trying to exercise his wings inside his cage?

He still seems to be able to hop across the cage okay, and he's had a bath and is playing with his toys.

There is obvious growth where the other feathers were.

Having a 'home visit' tomorrow because we've applied to be a safe house for our local charity. I'll ask lots of questions and hopefully we'll be okay and pass. (put a lot of effort into making our home bird safe.) sigh....

 

[Mayden]

thanks for the reply.

He's bending them in his cage while trying to fly. He get's all worked up/excited and starts flying like mad attached to one of his perches.

This morning he caught it on the side of the cage. How can I stop him trying to exercise his wings inside his cage?

He still seems to be able to hop across the cage okay, and he's had a bath and is playing with his toys.

There is obvious growth where the other feathers were.

Having a 'home visit' tomorrow because we've applied to be a safe house for our local charity. I'll ask lots of questions and hopefully we'll be okay and pass. (put a lot of effort into making our home bird safe.) sigh....

How is he when he actually flies then? Does he drop like a rock because of his clip? If he's all pent up in his cage then I'd suggest making extra time out for exercising out side of the cage, but if he's going to be dropping like a rock it might be problematic... was it your vet who clipped him or was he preclipped?

When Bruce does his wing flapping type thing in the cage we grab him out and make him do laps (haha!) to wear him out with exercise and games and it stops him bashing himself around his cage so much. We even tried putting him in larger cages so he's got more flight room in general since he's not a great lover of coming out of his cage for flight but he still catches on everything and still holds on to the side like your Bobby and flaps like mad.

 

[Kalidasa]

^^^i was thinking the same thing. Maybe let him hang out on top of the cage as much as possible. Clip some millet and other treats up there so it's fun for him?

 

[kanundra]

I just got him to fly to me from his perch with a wrapped up treat. He just loves paper rolled up with something inside it.

He seems to fly okay, but it's not a proper flight across the room or anything. He's in a big cage I'll attach a picture. I'm not comfortable in grabbing him. I've not handled him yet, and have only just started to get him to step up. I do want to get him used to the house in general, so starting to try and get him first 'to stay on me' while I move around the room then out into other bits of the house.

I don't know how he's been clipped. It was done before we got him. But the vet did say it was a bad job.

I know they are only supposed to clip some flight feathers so they can't fly. But he's been clipped the full length bar the end three long ones. Which is why they're irritating him as new longer ones grow back. The Vet did say that with other species this is a a big problem as they then don't like the longer feathers and can start plucking. I just hope that this doesn't happen as these start to grow back.

He's had lots of fun today, playing out the cage, eating his veggies and fruit and a bath. Now he's taking a nap. lol

Normally he's out all day long but I only interact with him in the afternoon when I get in from work.
He is moulting too, and cranky because of that. About 15mths old, he's hormonal and when agitated batters his toy, then tries to mate with it. Poor thing.


I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for the other side of him and I'll let you know how he gets on tomorrow with the lovely bird lady coming for the home visit.

Thanks so much for your time, it's nice to know others out there. Go through some similar things.

 

[Mayden]

Oh and relation to my other post; please folks, don't play "chase me" with your birds unless they're comfortable with it!

I chase Bruce, he stops, turns and chases me, we know it as a game, but most birds won't appreciate it!

 

[kanundra]

oops here is the pic of his cage. He's in the top corner.

Warrington isn't too far from me. 40 mins or so. We used Rufford Vet's our local, he's been treating our pets for 30 years. And was recommend to me by a Macaw owner. Other than that there was a vets towards blackpool but that's 40 mins away and wasn't too happy to have him in the car for too long.

 

[Mayden]

I just got him to fly to me from his perch with a wrapped up treat. He just loves paper rolled up with something inside it.

He seems to fly okay, but it's not a proper flight across the room or anything. He's in a big cage I'll attach a picture. I'm not comfortable in grabbing him. I've not handled him yet, and have only just started to get him to step up. I do want to get him used to the house in general, so starting to try and get him first 'to stay on me' while I move around the room then out into other bits of the house.

I don't know how he's been clipped. It was done before we got him. But the vet did say it was a bad job.

I know they are only supposed to clip some flight feathers so they can't fly. But he's been clipped the full length bar the end three long ones. Which is why they're irritating him as new longer ones grow back. The Vet did say that with other species this is a a big problem as they then don't like the longer feathers and can start plucking. I just hope that this doesn't happen as these start to grow back.

He's had lots of fun today, playing out the cage, eating his veggies and fruit and a bath. Now he's taking a nap. lol

Normally he's out all day long but I only interact with him in the afternoon when I get in from work.
He is moulting too, and cranky because of that. About 15mths old, he's hormonal and when agitated batters his toy, then tries to mate with it. Poor thing.


I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for the other side of him and I'll let you know how he gets on tomorrow with the lovely bird lady coming for the home visit.

Thanks so much for your time, it's nice to know others out there. Go through some similar things.

I understand that he's still so new you to so it'll be hard getting him to play and exercise away from his cage. If you can work on step up as the main focus and let him have his own time out of his cage so he can try and fly (supervised, so you can intervene if he's panicking or stressed) but can get him to step up and put him away afterwords I think that would be best. Trying to train him with tricks (or target/clicker training first) would probably be ideal as he'll be focused on something and using his energy still. Especially when you start doing target training so he has to fly to get to it etc.

Good luck with the visit tomorrow. Try not to get carried away though with too many birds, Bobby's gonna be a toughie as it is and you don't want to get overwhelmed with another problematic bird

 

[Mayden]

I think more toys will help too. He's got a hanging toys that he can chew and clamber on, but no 'investigating' type toys. Wicker things he can shred easily, foraging toys to keep him occupied. Maybe you should look into those for his cage so he's maybe a little more preoccupied when you're not there.

 

[kanundra]

Yeah he really likes the foraging stuff. I've been watching some youtube videos on making things which are safe for him to play with.

Defo not going to go over the top with birds, we don't have a big, big house. But the rescue has already fallen for Paul, (my hubby) we'll see how things go.

He loves the clicker training, and that's how I started. I'll make some more toys for him and pick up some other things for his cage. thank you.

 

[kanundra]

Got to pull the feather today. He managed to tweak it this morning and I actually saw a drop of blood. So if I can't do it with a friend. Then he's going back to the vet asap.