New feathers that keep breaking/bleeding?

Mimi (Nanday Conure) has had a lot of problems with her feathers lately, and I’m not sure what could be causing it or how to fix it. She broke an incoming feather on the back of her neck about 2 weeks ago, I plucked it out and it started to regrow without any hassles a few days later. Last week, the same thing happened with a new feather coming in near her tail. Again, I plucked it out and it had no problems regrowing. But today when I was petting her, I noticed the back of her neck was all bloody, and again, the same feather had broken and had bled, the blood was dry, though. It was pretty much almost finished growing, but still had a few millimetres of blood left in the feather shaft thingy. I checked near her tail where the other new feather was and sure enough, it was broken and had bled, too.

I’m not sure why her incoming feathers keep breaking, could there be a specific reason? She has a great diet, lots of fresh fruit, veges, pellets and small amounts of seed/nut mix. She is quite clumsy and knocks herself around a bit, so I’m not sure if she could be breaking them herself. She seems to be an “alright” groomer but not great, could she be breaking them herself by grooming too roughly? Lola grooms her constantly; could Lola be accidentally doing it?

Does anyone else have a problem like this...?

I feel awful when I have to pluck them out because she makes this awful little “ouch!” noise. I just want her to be able to grow her feathers properly. :smile003:

I'm very wary about what it could be... I would suggest a visit to the vet.

When you say "broke", was the feather already broken/showing signs of deficiencies? (E.g. doesn't look like a normal, healthy feather), or was she plucking? Could it be social plucking?

Also, has the colouration of her feathers changed at all? And are the breakages in the same location each time?

Regardless, an avian vet is the only one who's opinion would hold any weight. A call or visit may be in order.

I'd take her to the vet and if he cant see something wrong, separate the two birds and keep her in her cage to restrict some movement for the day to see how it goes

I noticed you're in Melbourne. I'm not familiar with how close things are there, so you'll have to work out which one would be closer.

Have a look at these guys:

Dr Colin Walker
Melbourne Bird Veterinary Clinic
Cnr Stud Rd and George St
Scoresby
VIC 3179
Tel: 03 9764 9000
Australian Pigeon Company
[email protected]

Dr Pat Macwhirter
Bird Vet Melbourne
128 Highbury Rd
Burwood
VIC 3125
Tel: 03 9808 9011
Bird Veterinarian | Bird Vet Melbourne | Avian vet | parrot vet
[email protected]

Alisana said:

I'm very wary about what it could be... I would suggest a visit to the vet.

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Alisana said:

When you say "broke", was the feather already broken/showing signs of deficiencies? (E.g. doesn't look like a normal, healthy feather), or was she plucking? Could it be social plucking?

Also, has the colouration of her feathers changed at all? And are the breakages in the same location each time?

Regardless, an avian vet is the only one who's opinion would hold any weight. A call or visit may be in order.

Click to expand...

Her feathers in general seem fine... nice, fluffy and bright, she does have a bit of bronzing on her back from rough play with her sister but no stress bars or anything. Her tail is in a bad shape from when she was a baby, she was kept in a cage with cockatoos and galahs at the breeder and they shredded her tail, it still hasn't moulted and grown back yet. Wasn't a great person I bought (or rescued...) her from, but that's a different story! I have never seen her pluck a feather out... I'm not sure it could be that, she is so happy and healthy otherwise, and it just seems to be these two areas causing problems for her.

I did take her to a vet when one of the feathers near her tail broke as it had snapped off under the skin and was bleeding constantly, we took her to the bird clinic in Burwood. While I was not entirely impressed with the vet (Dr. Phil) he said she was fine and had no feather issues...

MaraWentz said:

I'd take her to the vet and if he cant see something wrong, separate the two birds and keep her in her cage to restrict some movement for the day to see how it goes

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While this sounds like a good idea, I just couldn't separate them... they are totally bonded and would just scream 24/7 if I was to separate them for more then 5 minutes. I also think it could cause them a huge amount of stress, they love each other so much and can't go anywhere without each other. If one has to go to the vet, the other one comes along for the ride, too... lol.

bumblebec said:

Alisana said:

I'm very wary about what it could be... I would suggest a visit to the vet.

Click to expand...

Alisana said:

When you say "broke", was the feather already broken/showing signs of deficiencies? (E.g. doesn't look like a normal, healthy feather), or was she plucking? Could it be social plucking?

Also, has the colouration of her feathers changed at all? And are the breakages in the same location each time?

Regardless, an avian vet is the only one who's opinion would hold any weight. A call or visit may be in order.

Click to expand...

Her feathers in general seem fine... nice, fluffy and bright, she does have a bit of bronzing on her back from rough play with her sister but no stress bars or anything. Her tail is in a bad shape from when she was a baby, she was kept in a cage with cockatoos and galahs at the breeder and they shredded her tail, it still hasn't moulted and grown back yet. Wasn't a great person I bought (or rescued...) her from, but that's a different story! I have never seen her pluck a feather out... I'm not sure it could be that, she is so happy and healthy otherwise, and it just seems to be these two areas causing problems for her.

I did take her to a vet when one of the feathers near her tail broke as it had snapped off under the skin and was bleeding constantly, we took her to the bird clinic in Burwood. While I was not entirely impressed with the vet (Dr. Phil) he said she was fine and had no feather issues...

MaraWentz said:

I'd take her to the vet and if he cant see something wrong, separate the two birds and keep her in her cage to restrict some movement for the day to see how it goes

Click to expand...

While this sounds like a good idea, I just couldn't separate them... they are totally bonded and would just scream 24/7 if I was to separate them for more then 5 minutes. I also think it could cause them a huge amount of stress, they love each other so much and can't go anywhere without each other. If one has to go to the vet, the other one comes along for the ride, too... lol.

Click to expand...

OK... That's good to hear that there is no discolouration and that the feathers look normal. If there were, I would recommend a vet as an emergency action because of what it could be. (If it get's worse, get her to the vet ASAP!!) If you want to pay to get bloodwork done, then it may be worthwhile looking at to make sure she doesn't have any infections or viruses.

Did you give either of the Vets I recommended a call? While we are all bird owners, we're not avian vets, so we can only make assumptions and guesses - without the opinion of an avian vet, we can only do so much.

Inspect her skin. Make sure it's not irritated in any way.

Keep an eye on the pair and watch if it is the result of social preening. Otherwise, if she is overpreening herself, you may need to get a little jacket for her until her new feathers grow in. If it turns out it IS social preening... you may just have to separate them; keep them near/next to each other in their separate cages, but only let them out during supervised play. Good luck!!