Written by James Dawson, all rights reserved.
I've done imping many times on raptors and some other birds -- both for falconry and
for research purposes (sometimes we imp in a colored feather as an identifier).
In a nutshell, I use a plastic sliver to splice the feathers for a small parrot. For
Poicephalus, the sliver would be less than 1/8 inch in length and would be about the
inside diameter of the feather shaft at the point where the splice is to be made.
The sliver is glued in place with 5 min. epoxy or hot glue. The sliver goes inside
of the hollow shafts and serves to join together the old and new. Plastic is flexible and
seems to result in a more natural feather. The sliver is created by taking the
plastic tree from a plastic model airplane kit (I raid my son's modeling desk), holding a
six or seven inch piece on each end, placing it over a candle, and stretching it very thin
as it starts to melt. If it catches on fire, you've held it too close to the flame.
Throw that piece out -- it gets too brittle.
Other tips:
Try hard to cut replacement feathers at exactly the right length -- use an unclipped bird
or a study skin to gauge this.
Cut shafts at 90 degree angle -- makes it easier to position feather.
After feather is joined in, rotate it a little until you have full alignment between new
and old -- you should be able to get the webbing to meld together by stroking it a bit
with fingers. You should start with feathers that are adjacent to unclipped ones--
use unclipped feathers as an alignment guide and work your way out to the end of the wing.
Use a very sharp razor knife -- you don't want to crack the feather shafts.
Avoid any glue bumps or droplets anywhere on the feather -- the bird will automatically
try to pull them off and could pull the new feather out. Of course, you want to use glue
in very small quantities (apply it one droplet at a time with a toothpick). Keep the glue
far away from the restrained bird, one flap can throw glue everywhere.
Usually, the worst that can happen is that parrot pulls out the new feathers. Often, one
feather or more will fall out eventually. I have to warn you that beginning attempts often
look funny but they will increase the flight ability of the bird nevertheless. If it
looks real bad, you can always clip again.
The other major issue is how to restrain the bird during this process. Anesthesia is ideal
but I usually try to avoid it. With the little guys, I may do only one or two
feathers at a time until all are done. After I'm done, I try to play with the bird
for an hour or so to distract it from preening the new feathers.
JD
James Dawson is a wildlife biologist specializing in avian social behavior and raptor biology. He works for Sonora Environmental Consultants, Inc., a company based in Tucson, Arizona that among other things conducts environmental ed programs that utilize free flying pscittacines.