They cut his tail feathers.

[gracebowen]

Jets Tail

Some if you may remember when I first got Jet he had a bad clip and was forever breaking blood feathers. Especially in his tail. I spent the first month or so with my firstthought every morning being is Jet still alive? Did he break a tail ffeather in the middle of the night and die.

His tail is finally growing back except for one spot. I'm beginning to think that featheris never going to grow back.

 

[gracebowen]

I thought I was imagining things before but not anymore. Jet was still long enough for me to get a good look at his tail. His previous owners clipped his tail. I thought his baldness was from breaking feathers only but I just clearly saw a cut tail feather. I am now even less sure of how well his tail will come in. To see what I mean please see post Jets tail.

Perhaps I should have put this there.

 

[Rockford]

I wouldn't get too worked up about a cut tail feather. You already know he has a habit of breaking feathers and the previous owners could have simply cut off the end of a feather that was broken but still attached or something like that. I've done that, especially with very young birds especially young 'tiels.

And FYI, if you want to update info or otherwise discuss a topic that you've already started a thread for, it would be much easier for people to follow if you just post to the existing thread rather than starting a new one and then telling them they can look at the other one to see what you're talking about. I hope you don't take this the wrong way.
Edit: A mod has merged the two threads

 

[gracebowen]

When I first got him he had a horrible clip. He couldn't glide and only had 2 tail feathers. After a day he had none. 5 Minutes after getting home he broke a tail feather. Then he lost about 5 sets of growing feathers before finally keeping them. This is also when most of his primaries grew back.

 

[Rockford]

I guess I don't understand how he could have a cut tail feather done by his previous owners, if he has lost all of his tail feathers multiple times since you've had him.

 

[gracebowen]

All of the ones that he had that have grown back so far. His tail is still growing back. I'lltry to ffigure out photobucket or make a short YouTube clip so I can show what I mean. I've had him 2 to 3 months. I'm still learning. I just got birds this year after owning a budgie 20 years ago.

 

[Puck]

It is true that they might have clipped it off because it was broken. I swear sometimes that Sammy is trying to make me look like an abusive mom who keeps him in a shoebox--he can get himself into situations that leave his tail feathers looking like a mess! And his cage is HUGE, darn it! He snapped one not quite in half somehow, and it was sticking out awkwardly for several days. I might have tried to do something about it but it finally came off (he doesn't like me messing with his tail feathers so when i tried to touch it he'd just keep turning in circles, LOL). Your Jet's tail feathers do look odd in the photo in the other thread, though it's hard to see. Is the "empty" looking spot where the cut feather is? If so then it will probably fall out and grow back eventually.

 

[gracebowen]

No I think the empty spot is where the ffeather he broke his first day home was. I pulled that one. I had read to pull them then I read not to because if you do it wrong it may never grow back so I stopped pulling them. I just applied pressure to stop the bleeding.

The bald spot hasn't had a feather since the day I got him. The feather with yellow in it looks cut. On the plus side he was partly tame and had been taught to step up.

[ame="https://youtu.be/wyV5EgOKgSk"]Jets tail - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Kae]

He could be picking his feathers in a strange way or his previous owners may have needed to cut it off if they broke a blood feather...

 

[Allee]

Grace, I merged your two threads, I think it will be easier for readers.

Jet's tail doesn't look too bad. It isn't unusual for birds to break feathers while playing.

 

[labell]

Willow sacrificed 3 rudder feathers learning to fly so there is a gap in her tail. Don't stress they will grow back.