Blanco's wierd tail feather

[DebsFlock]

When Blanco appeared on our doorstep, aside from being underweight and filled with roundworms, he had one tail feather that stuck out at about a 30 degree angle to the side of the rest of them. It's a broader, blunter one that I assume would normally tuck into the sleek pointed tail and not be particularly obvious. When he molted it out, I was happy and thought it was likely a feather that had gotten yanked or otherwise damaged during his outdoor adventure. However, it has now made a full reappearance, and it's stuck out to the side as it was before. It tends to get a big ragged since it drags against things when the other tail feathers clear them.

Should I assume this is a genetic thing, essentially a defect? Or a permanent result of injury? Is there any reason I'd want to trim the feather back to get it more out of the way?

I asked the vet about it when I took the little guy in for a once over and his opinion was basically "whatever". OTOH, I was not very impressed with that vet. He prescribed an inappropriate wormer for a 'tiel and the poor guy was sick as a dog, I'm still a bit concerned it did some permanent damage. You'd think in a city like this, there would be avian certified vets on every block, but in fact the closest actually credentialed one is now a two hour drive through heinous traffic away. There is an AAV registered one with a separate exam room from birds a half hour from our new house, and I'll probably take one of them in there for a well bird visit soon to check it out...

 

[Spiritbird]

Is this feather securely attached to the bird??

 

[DebsFlock]

Is this feather securely attached to the bird??

Oh yes, definitely. It molted out and then regrew in the same location/direction. It's not a broken feather or one in the process of molting!

 

[friedsoup]

Here goes I've posted this story before but it might answer you question. My first GCC (Buddy) had a tail feather that curved out from the rest and just looked odd and I thought it was diet or heritary as I saw nothing that explained the feather. The we left California on our way to NC and while driving across AZ I saw him sitting on the headrest of the seat next to me standing on one foot the other foot is holding that curved tail feather and using it to scrub the devil out of the top of his head. I nearly drove off the road laughing I had had this bird for over a month and never seen this behavior. But I had my answer curved feather used as head scratcher.

 

[DebsFlock]

Leave it to a GCC! I'll have to watch the little critter more often. That's a great story.