Flight feathers

Hello!

So I've been on a trip the last 6 days and had my mother care for my birds, when I returned earlier ant took em out of the cage, I noticed right away when Oz tried to fly to the top of the cage that something was wrong, the wing flapping was much more noisy than usual and he seemed to be struggling to gain altitude though in the end, he did manage to get up there, upon closer inspection, I noticed that most of his primary flight feathers were missing from one side.

When I checked Kaila, I noticed that ALL her primary flight feathers were missing on the right side and when she tried to fly, she struggled a lot and ended up crash landing on my desk.

I'm not too worried for Oz since he can fly well enough to not injure himself, but Kaila is a rather nervous bird that's prone to taking off if something startles her even a little, plus she's very independent so if I try to get her outta the cage and help her onto the top where she likes to be, she'll just take off to try and do it on her own...

So my question is: would it be safer for her if I were to trim the left side of her wings so they wouldn't be so asymmetrical? I stopped clipping about a year ago due to my personal belief that my birds seemed much happier when they're unclipped. However, I wouldn't want her to injure herself but at the same time, if I clip the left side, I'll have to clip the right once it grows out and she won't be flighted until her next molt...

So what do you guys believe would be the best decision for her safety... Will she realize that she needs to be careful about flying off or am I gonna have to clip her?

Um. are they molting?? birds don't normally lose flight feathers all at once. they lose one at a time from each side at a time as to avoid this very issue. Was there an accident or something that caused them to lose their feathers?? Where they broken off or did they get pulled out completely? I don't mean to sound paranoid but that is very very abnormal to happen without some type of outside influence.

There are enough feathers scattered around that I would normally think they might be molting, but usually when they molt, they don't lose one full wing at once...

As I've said, I'd been gone for 6 days so I have no idea what might have happened, the feathers aren't broken, but completely pulled out on one side only. I noticed today that Oz lost the 2 feathers he had left on his right side so he's now in the same situation as Kaila. Both of them have lost their primary flight feathers on the right side but the left side seems intact. I'm a little puzzled...

I believe a vet visit is in order. That way it can be examined. the vet will be able to tell you if they were pulled or if there is a small mite infection in the base of the feathers causing them to fall out or if they are just having an abnormal molt this year. Either way I would strongly recommend taking them to be examined