Timne lost all flight feathers in 24 hrs???

Jessie on mon lost 2 flight feathers on one of her wings. I figured molting. But then last night she lost the rest of her flight feathers on that same wing when she tried to fly. Now she just falls and can fly. She has been grownded to her cage today because when she tries to fly she hits the ground with a thump. She wont let me open her wings but that isn't abnormal. Is it normal for them to loose all flight feathers on one wing so close together?? I don't think so. Has anyone seen this before???

Did she pluck them or they just fell off??? Any other feather loss??? It does cause for an concern if she lost multiple feathers like that. You should take her in to the vet and have her tested for PBFD.

By the way, keep Jessie as far away from your other birds for the time being. IF she tested positive for PBFD, you need to have the rest of your flock tested as well as it is contagious!

I would recommend an avian vet visit as this does not sound normal to me.

What is PBFD???

Is it possible she got spooked and/or got her wing caught in something and felt the need to "drop" her feathers to escape?

I just read some on pbfd. Thank goodness she hasn't has any of those symtoms at all. Her beak is still healthy and powdered like normal and all her other feathers are still in perfect shape. I still want to take her to the vet but I have a dog that is unfortunately not going to make the yr and his meds are 150$ a week. So not that I don't want to rush her to the vet but I was covering all options before I pay for the vet to tell me its normal. I would normaly take her in right away but money is very tight right now with so much med bills for Fritz(my dog)

When she lost the last four feathers yesterday it was when she got spooked. A friend of mine (Rizzo's mom, she came to visit him) She was holding Jessie when Jessie got spooked and flew of. She lost the last 4 feathers and that's when I realized she couldn't fly. The feathers fell out as she flew the short distance and hit the ground. Can they loose their feathers from fear????

Yes they can, and that's usually the *only* reason why a bird will lose an entire set of tail and/or flight feathers. It is "normal", in the sense that it's built into their system in a 'fight or flight' kind of response. If they can drop their feathers, it may help to ensure an escape from whatever they are trying to get away from. There's quite a few stories out there of parrots losing all their tail feathers and owners freaking out that they've hurt or damaged their birds! Not so common, but not unheard of, are the flight feathers dropping out.

Sounds like she'll be "grounded" for a few weeks, or as long as it takes for them to grow back in, but as long as she doesn't hurt herself from a lack of flight, she'll be fine!!!!

That makes me feel soooooo better. After talking to you all I do believe it was flight or flight. She was trying to get away yesterday. And as I post here I am also reading on PBFD and I still think everything else on her looks great. Just those flight feathers. I could just cry right now I am sooo relieved. I will definatly keep an eye on her feathers and see if their are new ones coming in. But till then my poor baby is apparently grounded. Poor thing. Thank you all very much. I was very scared. I feel better but will still remain very abservent

I don't want to be the party pooper, but i wouldn't let your guard down just yet. Loosing all the flight feathers on one side is extremely odd, al biet possible, but I think there are other causes that are likely more common that should be ruled out by a qualified avian vet, which none of us are, as far as I know. *Maybe* if he lost all his tail feathers, or if he at least lost all the flights at once.... Perhaps you can find an "Ask an avian vet" feature on the web? They are out there on some toy/food sites I've visited... I could try to find a link an PM you if you'd like. This could be a potential risk to all of your birds ( and you've got quite a flock!)

I have a 34 year old Mexican Redhead parrot named Winston. Over the last few months she has quit flying very much as she has lost most of her flight feathers. In the 32 years I have had her this has never happened. she can fly in a straight line but not good at turning corners. She does not seem sick now though she did have a very bad respiratory infection about 4 months ago. She is recovered from that but I wonder if it could be whe this is happening. It was very bad and I thought I was going to lose her. she is growing a few back in but then still losing others.

I would suggest taking Winston back to the vet for a check. Hard to know if her feather issue is related, but you may want to see if her respiratory infection has cleared.

sorry to bring up an old thread but I am curious about this dropping feathers theory. the primary feathers are imbedded into the bones of the birds. anatomically I haven't seen any type of release or expulsion system in case of attack. where can I read information regarding this?

jaysen said:

sorry to bring up an old thread but I am curious about this dropping feathers theory. the primary feathers are imbedded into the bones of the birds. anatomically I haven't seen any type of release or expulsion system in case of attack. where can I read information regarding this?

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I thought exactly the same thing when I read this post. I am well aware of birds dropping all of their tail feathers out of fear and to escape, and I actually saw it happen once to a green cheek conure belonging to a friend of mine. Her dog had spooked the bird, and when my friend got down on the floor to scoop her bird up and get her away from the dog, the bird let loose of every last tail feather she had as soon as my friend touched her tail. The poor bird was terrified and her tail feathers simply just dropped to the carpet without any help from my friend at all. It was very odd to see, and like I said, this green cheek didn't have a single tail feather left. They all grew back in eventually, and the bird was and is fine. That being said, I have never heard of any bird dropping flight feathers from fear at all, let alone all their flight feathers from one wing....I'll have to do some more research on this as I've never seen nor heard of this being possible.

That being said, even if it is possible and it was from fear, I really very much hope that the OP took their bird to an avian vet for blood work to not only rule out PBFD, but anything else it might have been, as this is a very uncommon occurrence even if it is possible.

"Dance Like Nobody's Watching"

I cant say what system it is that alloes this to happen if it is true and possible, but to me it doesnt really make sense. A lizard "drops" its tail to allow itself to escape from a predator, why would a bird drop its most essential feathers for flight, therefore potentially hindering their ability to escape? The only way I see this logically is if it is related to touch, like the poster above said and if the bird feels something has grabbed its feathers in a certain location, it allows them to be released, or releasing certain feathers to be a distraction for a predatory hawk, much like fighter jets send out dummy missiles to misdirect incoming missiles. If anyone has anything on the actual biological mechanism for this it would be a good read and also good to know should it happen to your bird.

@Loko - Here's a decent article regarding feather loss due to predatory stresses: Losing the last feather: feather loss as an antipredator adaptation in birds. It focuses primarily on rump, breast, and tail feather release.

Some birds naturally lose all of their flight feathers in one go during a moult, but very few parrots do this. It would be safe to assume that if a parrot in a home were to lose several primary or secondary flight feathers in a short period of time, it would be health or incident related.

Thanks, makes sense. To lose feathers on rump area makes sense because, like mentioned, that is the most common spot to be grabbed by predators, but also more importantly will not ground them, which would do the total opposite of the point the feathers came out. Ive never seen that happen in one molt either and agree it is much more likely to be illness or incident.

Once upon a time, the Rbird dropped half of his tail feathers within 12 hours. This was when he was an extremely reckless and crazy kid. The final guess was that he had landed hard on his BUTT, bending the feathers severely backwards, which I had occasionally witnessed when he put his brakes on too hard.

Loko said:

Thanks, makes sense. To lose feathers on rump area makes sense because, like mentioned, that is the most common spot to be grabbed by predators, but also more importantly will not ground them, which would do the total opposite of the point the feathers came out. Ive never seen that happen in one molt either and agree it is much more likely to be illness or incident.

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I am not aware of any mechanism that 'releases' feathers at or in advance of a Predator attack. Yes, feathers that are held will 'pull-out,' whether body, wing or tail. With Lizards, their tail acts much the same way, i.e. it is allowed to detach (weak connection points) to 'save' the lizard.

With a Companion Parrot, the very specific loss of all or nearly all the flight feathers on a single or both wings, at one time or in a very small time frame, is inconsistent with 'Nature' as the result is a flightless Parrot.

Either as a result of a fall or other error (heavy play) or poor Human handling from a physical event! Or, a specific infection or like regional illness of that or both wings.