Blood feather?

[laducockatiel]

Hi guys,

Just got a question. My cockatiel pulled out a feather, he isn't a plucker and has never plucked before, but it was a tail feather and I think it got stuck in the side of the cage and it was bothering him, so he pulled it out and he screamed when he did it. I am worried if it is a blood feather or not, the feather didn't have any blood in the tube thing in the end and there is no sight of blood but is there a chance that it might be a blood feather? He Is acting fine and as I type this he is asking for me to pet him, so I think he's ok but I just wanted to double check with you guys.

Thanks in advance!,

Laducockatiel

[pennyandrocky]

it doesn't sound like a blood feather, but she should be fine even if it was mya pulls out blood feathers sometimes

[cml]

I think you should be okay , we've lost a couple of feathers in fights here, one is nothing to worry about unless you see blood!

[laducockatiel]

Thanks very much guys, you don't know how much I appreciate the help

[Graybeard]

You need to keep styptic powder close by. When a blood feather comes out, the bird bleeds a lot, and you have to get it stopped. It happened often enough with our tiels. Oh, another indicator is blood in the feather shaft.

[laducockatiel]

You need to keep styptic powder close by. When a blood feather comes out, the bird bleeds a lot, and you have to get it stopped. It happened often enough with our tiels. Oh, another indicator is blood in the feather shaft.

I've heard u can use regular flour, is this better than using styptic powder?

[marie83]

You can use flour in an emergancy. I believe the stypitic to be alot better though. On the avian first aid dvd I have it recommends the gel over the powder as the vet presenting is says the powder tends to form a 'dry biscuit' which can get knocked off and the bleeding can start again.

[Graybeard]

Thanks, Marie. We'll look for a gel. I think Petco carries styptic? Gotta' go there today, anyhow, for a magnetic cat door. Last week the neigbor's 19 lb Serval/Bengal mix came in and upstairs where our birds live. One of our old cats was hanging out with him, and the other trying to stand his ground. He's a big ultra-expensive cat that acts like a dog.

We must have two way cat doors, as coyotes patrol the area.

GB

[marie83]

I think the gel is easier to get hold of in the US, I've only found 1 stockist in the UK and they are always out of stock. I've e-mailed them to see if they can reserve some for me when it's next back in or e-mail me to let me know when they are getting some more in but haven't heard back as yet.

The brand I was recommended is Gimborn Kwik stop and is safe for use with birds. I've never had a problem that resulted in any of my birds bleeding in 13 years but you never know so I'm considering getting it shipped over, only trouble is the shipping for it is 3x more expensive than the product itself so I may just get some more powder in until such a time I can get the gel.....

[Anna]

I always use potato flour to stop the bleeding, in my opinion it´s as good as styptic powder and it´s totally harmless to parrots (and cheap, and easy to find in the grocery stores). I´ve had a couple of emergencies with my parrots and thanks to the potato flour I managed to stop the bleedings pretty fast.

My Maya had a broken blood feather last year when I was at work, but luckily it stopped bleeding by itself and after a week or so the feather fell out. Broken blood feathers happen in the wild too, and most of the times it´s no problem for a healthy parrot, but in a worst case scenario it might be necessary to pull out the feather. However, it´s always good to have some blood stopper at home.