Feather

[blueberrybuns]

I was holding Kiki a minute ago and she had what appeared to be another flight feather coming in. All of a sudden she flapped her wings and it came off. I looked at it and there is blood in the tip of it, but it is clotted. I checked her wing and did not find any blood so i am wondering if this is unusual and if I should worry about it...:S

[Budgiekin]

Hi blueberrybuns. Did the whole feather come out? What I mean is, did the entire shaft of the feather come out of Kiki? You can tell if it's the whole feather if the shaft is a bit tapered at the end. I suspect this is nothing to worry about since the blood seems to have clotted.

However, if a blood feather (which is a young feather that has a blood supply to the shaft) broke, that would be an emergency! You'd see blood coming out of the shaft that would still be partly attached to your bird. In that type of situation, the bleeding shaft is sort of like an open artery; blood would just keep spilling out until you either plucked the feather out (which is best) or the blood clotted (which it isn't likely to do on its own if the feather has a heavy blood supply). Aries broke a blood feather on his wing once and I had to pull it out. I still remember the scream that came from him when I had to do that. OUCH!!

As long as Kiki isn't bleeding anywhere, she should be fine. Losing feathers like that can happen on occasion so it isn't anything to be concerned about.

[blueberrybuns]

Thank you Budgiekin! No it was not the entire feather, it broke off. I just checked her wing again and it looked like she bled a tiny bit after it happened but looks like it had stopped. I out some pressure on it and did not get any blood off of her when I did it. I am going to keep looking at it and if I have any suspicions I will pluck it. My problem will be finding it because she hates me messing with her wings and is not 100% tame yet.

[Budgiekin]

Well, if it isn't the entire feather, you may have to dig around and see if you can pluck it. Does it appear to be bothering her? If not, you could probably leave it alone. If she keeps picking at it, then you will probably want to pull it. (You have to pull quite hard. . . and quickly too to get it, otherwise the feather shaft doesn't come out and you just end up hurting your precious budgie). If the shaft is short, you may have to use pliers to get a good grip.

It sounds like Kiki maybe broke her feather from playing? Sometimes that happens and just like you said, you'll want to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't continue to bleed.

The other thing you can do if you notice any more blood is to apply a bit of stiptic powder to the bloody area to stop the bleeding (just enough to cover the bleeding spot). If you don't have any of that powder, you can use corn starch. (Just make sure you don't get any in your budgie's nostrils or beaks!)

Let me know how it goes if you end up taking further action.

[blueberrybuns]

Thank you I will have to consider that. I tried getting to it but she is giving me problems trying to get to it. I will keep an eye on it.

[Budgiekin]

I sure hope you don't have to pull it; it hurts them pretty significantly. But if you do have to, make sure you hold the wing securely in one hand, and pull straight out with a quick jerk with the other hand (with the pliers if needed).