Written by Chris Biro, All rights reserved.
Hello All,
I should clarify. On one my last posts I mentioned my two latest flyers in a manner that
implied that both are currently flying. This is not quite true. Obee, the Patagonian
Conure that was given to me specifically for free flight training around the first of
August last year, is just starting to fly again after being lost in Seattle for five days
in early September. The little guy got spooked during our last set up of our Ship
for the season and then landed on someone at a nearby rest stop - then was off down the
freeway. This makes recovery a real tough one. This kind of unexpected stuff happens
and you just have to learn how to deal with it.
Anyway, when we got him back after an agonizing five days and about $400, the people that
had him had clipped his wings. I have pulled these feathers and they are nearly all
grown back in now. I don't normally like pulling feathers, but in this case, I
feared that I would miss my "window of opportunity" regarding his free flight
training. Through this I learned a few more details.
PULLING wing feathers is a bit different that pulling tail feathers. It is pretty
easy to hold on to the bird and pull the tail feather with a pair of pliers. Wings
feathers are nowhere as simple.. Besides the fact that they seem to be held in there
tighter, the wing itself is not so easy to hold onto in a manner that will not harm the
bird. It is very important when pulling any feather that the feather not be twisted
or pulled at an angle, this could cause real damage to the feather follicle, obviously not
good. I
wound up holding the wing feather with a large pair of medical locking
"tweezers" and holding the wing right at the point where the feather enters the
wing. then with my hand (that has the wing) pushed firmly against my leg (to stabilize it)
I then began applying steady (non jerking) pressure in the
direction I wanted to pull the feather. By steadily increasing the pressure as
quickly as possible without jerking on the wing, I soon had the feather out.
I would do two per side and then wait until these feathers were nearly grown all the way
in. I did not start out this way though. At first I had a vet pull the feathers and
he pulled very other one on each side. The first feathers to start in where outer
flight feathers. Since a new feather shaft is much softer as it is growing in, it is
more easily broken. Normally when a feather falls out and grows back in it has the
other nearby feathers to add some support and thus does not get broken as it grows in.
When the wings have been clipped these other supporting feathers are not available
as support and the feather is easily broken. This is what happened to Obee's first
several wing feathers. The outers continued to grow in and get broken. I tried
keeping locked up in his cage the last few days as the feather got beyond the two
thirds length but he still managed to break them by his climbing and jumping around in
side his cage.
Previously, I had noticed that tail feathers will first be seen after about a month after
being pulled. Then it usually takes another month or so for the feather to grow to
its normal length - this is a general observation, recognize that this time will vary
depending species and length of tail. The wing feathers appeared after about the same
month but seem to take closer to two months to grow out to normal length.
Thus started my new approach. I would only pull the inner most feathers so that they would
have the support from the feathers of one side, and thus reduce the risk of broken
feathers. The risk of the feather being broken was the greatest as the feather
reached about two thirds length and beyond. Thus I waited until the feather was
approaching two thirds of its length before pulling the next set. This way by the
time the next feather began coming in, the previous feather was mature and strong.
This approach has worked but has been fairly slow. Obee has only two feathers on one side
that are about an inch short, but are not the outer two (late coming replacements from
those previously broken). But the other side is still waiting on the three outer
most (the very outer one being just recently pulled) to finish coming in. This
current configuration has him flying off balance. As these outer feathers get closer to
being balanced in length, he is getting more and more willing to fly in the house. He has
demonstrated that he CAN fly anywhere he wants but still is not doing as much as before. I
think this is mostly due to his being off balance. I can see he is twisted sideways
as he lands on my arm.
Anyway, within the next couple weeks I think I will have him back flying outside again.
I hope this is the case because our first fair of the season kicks off in about two
weeks. This fair is also in the area where he was lost and where the newspaper did
two front page articles about him being lost to help us find him - I thought that
pretty cool of them (it sold newspapers too - "the local bird trainer needs your
help" kind of human interest story). This is cutting it all a bit close for my
liking. We shall see how he does and go from there. At the time of his getting his
wings clipped he was by far my best flight student so far. when I get him flying
I'll see that we get some photos this time.
Parrots: more than pets, friends for life.
Chris Biro