Removing Feathers to Stimulate Regrowth

[eggplantbren]

Hi all,

We will soon be taking Albie (our young Alexandrine) to the vet for some blood tests. Our vet agreed with us that the breeder was overzealous about the wing clipping and that we want him to be flighted, but there are no signs yet of any flight feathers growing back. The vet says that with a light anaesthetic he can remove the feathers which will cause them to grow back in about 4 weeks. He said he could do this at the same time as the blood test.

Has anyone done this before and would you recommend it? I reckon if he can have his feathers back in a month instead of a year it'd be awesome (the only complication is that we're having a friend mind him soon while we travel).

[marie83]

Never heard of it but i would have thought there would be a chance of permenantly damaging the feather follicules or there may be a possibility of infection, which may mean they never grow back. I would research this very very thoroughly before you go with it other than by asking on forums.
Also I don't think it will speed up the re-growth but I absolutely could be wrong.
May I ask if you have a certified avian vet, a vet who is experienced with birds or a general vet?

There is something else you could look into and that is a process called feather imping and my first thoughts is this would be much more appropriate than pulling whatevers left of his clipped feathers and much less risky.

Like I say I dont know alot about pulling the feathers so my thoughts could be way off but the imping is something I have done research on and generally it is very successful and completely painless for the bird, the hardest part would be finding somewhere to get the feathers for the procedure.
Have a look at this thread about it

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9063&p=61870&hilit=FAO+liz#p61870

[Andromeda]

Marie is right in that the first thing to do is make sure it's an avian vet.

I've also never heard of this before but any time a feather is forcibly removed there is a chance (albeit small, especially if it's only the first time) the follicle will be damaged and the feather will not regrow.

Now this is just from personal experience with a bird that plucked for about six months but it does seem that removing the feather stimulates regrowth just based on the fact that my plucking bird's feathers were in a constant state of regrowth and this was outside of a molt. He'd let them grow in partially, pluck them out again, and after a few weeks they would start to grow in again, rinse, repeat.

Still, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done. While it would be wonderful for him to have his flight feathers back sooner rather than later personally it doesn't seem worth the risk of damaging the follicles, or, even more, the risk of subjecting him unnecessarily to anesthesia which, although unlikely, can lead to death.

I'm not a vet or anything, but those are just my two cents.

[friend2parrots]

Still, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done. While it would be wonderful for him to have his flight feathers back sooner rather than later personally it doesn't seem worth the risk of damaging the follicles, or, even more, the risk of subjecting him unnecessarily to anesthesia which, although unlikely, can lead to death.

i agree with this.

also, how can one tell if, after the anesthesia wears off, if the bird experiences any pain at the nerve endings that remain in the follicle? how intense is the pain for the bird, if there is any? long will this pain last? these are things we can't know for sure.

furthermore - and this would be very important to consider - the complete removal of the entire feather would offer the bird absolutely no protection from an accidental fall, or some other calamity where it might need to fly, even a little bit, to save itself. i dont think its ever advisable to completely remove the wing feathers like that, unless you are prepared to hospitalize the bird inside a tank, provide soft bedding, prevent it from climbing out of the tank, etc (these issues came up just yesterday for a bird on the forum that broke its leg - check the health section of this forum for a post titled "bird injured his foot") removing the entire feather at the follicle would mean that the bird is completely handicapped until the feathers grow back. that seems to be a big risk to take, not to mention the possible (and likely) behavioral and psychological problems that could arise when a previously well-adjusted bird suddenly discovers that its missing its wing feathers.

personally, if i were in your situation, i would not risk these complications by any means. the imping procedure sounds like a good alternative to investigate. if i were in your shoes, however, i would just wait it out, and focus on the kinds of training activities that one can do that do not involve flight, and just keep the bird in good spirits until his flights come in.

[eggplantbren]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think we're not going to do it. The risk of him having even harder landings than he does now isn't worth it. I've watched carefully when he tries to fly and he is definitely able to slow himself down somewhat even though it seems like just a fall. So his feathers are doing him some very important good right now even though they're not optimal.

[marie83]

Exactly how short are his feathers? Is the imping definitely not an option? Greg glendal offers feathers for free (although there may be a small charge for postage abroad). The feathers are steralised to make sure your bird wont catch anything, all you will need is a vet to attach them.

[eggplantbren]

The imping sounds like it's worth asking about but I don't know if our vet will do it. I don't know whether our vet is a "qualified" avian vet. He is a vet who has been seeing birds for a few decades, but I don't know if there are official avian qualifications in New Zealand or not.

Does this work?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/376342_690269414591_1261923622_n.jpg