Written by Greg Glendell, all rights reserved.
Here goes on imping, its rather difficult to describe without 'visuals' . In the first instance, and unless your bird is very laid back, get a vet to do this under anaesthetic. Sterilize donor feathers in avian disinfectant, but ensure they are dry before using.
Aim to have your bird's wing returned to as natural a condition as poss.
Lay out all the donor feathers in correct order of attachment. Use difference in width of leading edge/trailing edge and notches/margins as well as feather length to determine correct sequence. The more distal feathers have a narrower leading edge, and have bigger notches and margins (except the two MOST distal primaries which usually are also flatter and shorter in most birds. Prepare lengths of bamboo splints from one to two inches long. Splints need to be thick enough to be a snug fit in inside the feather shaft. Whittle them down till they fit just right. Half of the splint is put into the hollow section of the donor feather shaft and half into the receiving feather shaft of your bird. All birds' flight feathers are embedded in their wing bones, so you must be very careful to make sure you do not damage you bird's feather stumps by having the splint too long. Correctly done, imping does not affect any live tissue. To reduce hassle for the bird, you can prepare and glue the splint into the donor feathers before imping onto the bird. Glue: be very careful with this. Here, in UK we use Araldite epoxy resin. The best type is that which takes about 10-15 minutes to set. If you use Superglue, you can get into an awful mess being bonded to your bird permanently and physically! Take care not to get any glue anywhere else. Shield neighboring feathers with some inert plastic film as you imp on. Work from innermost wing feathers to most distal ones as you imp. In replacing the feathers, follow the natural line, form and feather length of the species you are imping. If this is new to you, take photo's of another fully flighted bird's extended wings of the same species to check on how they should look and use this as your guide.
Allow the bird time to get used to its new wings. It may find it strange to be suddenly flighted at first. Make sure it can air-brake safely before allowing it to fly any distance.
If you have a lot of feather to replace, it might be worth just doing two or three at a time, to let the bird get used to the effect in a more gradual way. Hope others interested in imping see this. In an emergency situation (where someone has badly clipped a young bird and it is vital to the bird's mental well-being that it is flighted) you can use donor feathers from unrelated species, but do try to get the right ones if you can.
Let me know if you need more help and good luck with it. Greg
Greg, May I post this to my website?
Yes, feel free to put the post about imping out on your website, with an acknowledgment
that it is from me. you might like to say that Neil Forbes is the
British vet with good experience of doing this work. He can be contacted on drhawk@cix.compulink.co.uk or phone (UK)
01453 756065.
I've re-sent the original today, but it went out first on 17 April.