Has anyone else heard of this type of "grooming"?

[AtomicPink]

I very recently inherited an Umbrella Cockatoo from a friend who became to ill to care for her. When we were going over all her care instructions she told me that she brought her to a local bird specialty store regularly for grooming and usually the charge for this grooming is $40 and since I was helping her out she wanted to pay all the birds future grooming appointments for me. I asked what exactly was involved in the grooming and she said that they would pluck out several feathers from random places, long ones from her tail, short ones from her back, etc. The bird store lady's explanation of why this was necessary was very long but part of it was something to do with certain "bad" feathers were interfering with growth and causing the bird constant discomfort which will lead to insanity.

Now I have no intention of bringing this bird back to this place and allowing her feathers to be yanked out again. I have a decent amount of experience working with birds both as a technician for several years in an exotic pet clinic and with my own birds, and I have never once heard of this. I am wondering if anyone else has ever been told they need regularly pluck feathers from their bird or if this is just something that this bird store made up.

[MissLady9902]

The only time i've ever heard of the need to pluck a feather is if the bird broke a blood feather and it was bleeding.
Sounds like a load of crap to me but I haven't done any research on it.
I wouldn't take my birds either. I assumed grooming meant triming nails and beak...maybe a bath but I think that's pushing it.

[Michael]

Just make sure that this bird does not have some kind of specific/individual condition. If it is a normal healthy bird, I think this sounds wrong.

[pchela]

If a bird breaks a feather off halfway and it doesn't come out at the root, it will not grow out until the broken feather has fallen out naturally, usually during a molt. It's the same as the flight feathers that are cut to prevent flight. They grow back about twice a year after the bird has molted. Some people believe that they should help the feathers grow back by plucking out broken ones thus allowing the new feather to grow back in sooner. It is cruel and purely cosmetic and I don't agree with it at all but this is why it is done.

[alight15]

I read something similar on this one site which sells "parrot training videos"
they gave a good explation for it and it was supposed to be included in their videos..but as I read more on parrots and found more sites it was clear this is only in a bad situation unlike stated; and that their video samples were too...controlling of the parrots...like too serious of a' type of parrot training for me to do(I.E. playful dog training compared to K9 police dog training).

but methinks this should only be considered when a real bird vet suggests it

[Suzzique]

I would not allow any one to pull feathers from my bird. :p It's one thing if it was a blood feather and the vet was doing it. But just because the feather doesn't look pretty? That is just nuts. The bird store that I go to only charges $10 to clip flight feathers and trim nails. But if you bought your bird from them they don't charge at all.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Sounds like dangerously expensive woo-woo to me.