Help! Moses is destroying his tail!

I have been debating whether or not to post about this because frankly it is FREAKING me out. Just posting about it is making it more upsetting! Moses who is 7 months old is destroying his tail. I thought at first he was just banging it around in his cage he is very clumsy and active. However I have come to realize that this is not the case. He has been "barbering" his tail to the point where there are 6 that have actually been snapped off. Not sure if all of these have been done by him or if some have in fact been from messing around in the cage. I shower him daily, he is on a good diet I give him lots and lots of toys. I am not sure what else I can do. He is in the midst of a big molt with lots and lots of new feathers coming in on his body, head etc. My breeder has said that this could be what started the whole thing either from stress or itchiness. He said that older feathers are dry and brittle and new ones are a different softer, slicker texture and that once the new tail feathers come in that he may leave them alone. I am sooooooooo upset over this, I am obsessing about it. It makes me so sad to think that at this young age he is already starting something like this. I also wonder what the future will hold for him, will he start plucking??? Ugh, I just don't know what to do!

I am not sure if this is the same, this might put your mind at ease, but when i got Fargo EVERY one of his tail feathers were ratty, just from being a baby, he was 7 months when i got him... There was not one 'nice' feather.. Most of the little ones were just 'barbered', and he snapped 2 of his tail feathers because they were weak..

He is now almost a year old, and has just finished molting, it was a very heavy molt, and he has no tail left!! He molted them all out except some short ones and a short/medium one.. It looks sooo weird comparing him to photos when i first got him, because his tail was incredibly long, and now its short! D:

He now has lots of tail feathers growing in, but its going to take some time before they grow to full length, but they will look amazing..

Could Moses just feel uncomfortable with his tail as he is going through a heavy molt, so there would be discomfort and there are new feathers growing in?

That's my GW's tail. He plays really rough in and out of his cage and breaks them. It's annoying but I don't think it's the end of the world. Some birds have beautiful tails and some don't. I think flaws are beautiful

Brian, I sincerely hope more folks will chime in, but I'd like to mention Niko's tail. For THE longest time he was missing tail feathers (quite a few) because he was SO accident prone and clumsy. And THEN he started barbering some of the remaining tail feathers, chewed them almost in half (length-wise). Now he's 3 and STILL over preens the old, brittle tail feathers, but takes good care of the new ones.

I do believe it could be an age thing, where Moses is simply overzealous with his tail. I wouldn't worry about him plucking. He's just a baby.

Thank you guys so much!!!! You have made my day! I feel so much better. I hope that he takes care of the new ones that he gets in! Not sure if he is gettting in any new tail feathers yet. There are tons coming in on his head and neck area.

Yea, the difference between ReaRea and Miri's tails is night and day. Rea's is beautiful and Miri's is pretty ratty and thin. I mainly think it's due to how "hyper" Miri is and also she flies 10 times more.

I used to have a Red Lory that would destroy it's tail feathers. He was 5 months old when we got him. I spoke to the breeder about it and she told me that it was very common for young Red Lories to destroy their tail feathers and it would probably go on for about 2 years.

She was right ... once he turned 2 yrs old, he began to take better care of his tail feathers and his tail looked very nice from then on.

I am truly hoping that this is just a "phase" he is going through! I feel better hearing from everyone. I was so scared that this would turn into plucking behavior! I felt he was so young to be starting this! He is very "energetic" to say the least. I would classify Moses as a bit hyper. He is very lovable, he likes nothing more than to play on the floor with me. He usually just wants to roll around and get his belly rubbed or have me help him with the pin feathers on his head. He has learned how to do a somersault and he realizes that I get very loud and excited clapping when he does it so this could go on for ever if I let him! I am looking forward to nice weather when I can get him outside and let him let off a bit of steam crawling around a grapevine sphere I have hanging outside! He bores easily of his java tree so I find myself a jungle gym most of the time!

I love it when they do somersaults!! My chattering lory will race after her hacky sack so fast sometimes, that when she pounces on it, she does a forward somersault over it... haha, reminds me of a gymnist!! I have a very playful birdie too, so I can relate. If you teach Moses how to play fetch with a ball, like I did with Sweet Pea, the game can go on for hours. Fortunately she likes to play with her hacky sacks on her own, and will run around the room, tossing them high in the air and running after them, lol

If memory serves me my GW molted his tail feathers this time last year. I think your GW tail feathers are bothering him because he is molting. When I saw my GW missing feathers and blood all over that area i was worried until i checked him out and noticed he wasnt bleeding any more. Mine must have been really bothering him because he yanked them right out and left the big holes where the old ones were and dried blood on his beak. Then so many days later i could see new shoots coming out. Really doubt he is plucking.

cd4565 said:

If memory serves me my GW molted his tail feathers this time last year. I think your GW tail feathers are bothering him because he is molting. When I saw my GW missing feathers and blood all over that area i was worried until i checked him out and noticed he wasnt bleeding any more. Mine must have been really bothering him because he yanked them right out and left the big holes where the old ones were and dried blood on his beak. Then so many days later i could see new shoots coming out. Really doubt he is plucking.

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I am really hoping that this is the case! Today he looks HORRIBLE! He has broken off so many tail feathers! It's killing me, I feel so helpless. I do hope that this is the case. I do notice that he is scratching his head alot, there are many pin feathers there! He loves to lay on the ground while I help him with those! He has lots of pins down the back of his neck and into his back, these are blood feathers and I try and not to mess with those! In fact the other night, I noticed that he had some blood on himself back there. I found a small blood feather, after a little freaking out (on my part). I googled and tried what was recommended for a small blood feather, I put alot of corn starch on it and kept an eye on it. It worked and it is growing out more every day! Ugh, so much stress with this baby! I always worried that if I got a grey it would pluck, well it's not my grey that is keeping me stressed it's my big "lug" of a macaw!

yep they keep you worrying but it's like a woman with her first child. after the first one they pretty much know what to expect the next time around and dont worry as much. after this first molt you will be like a pro on the next one. doesn't mean let your guard down just to relax and take a deep breath and that more than likely it'll all turn out ok.

It's pretty normal for many young parrots to have horrible tail feathers. For the smaller species, it can take 1-2 years before the birds will learn to take better care of their tail feathers. Some birds even use their tail feathers as landing gear!

For a young playful macaw, it could take up to 4-6 years of age before they start really taking good care of their tail feathers. I hear if you have more than one young macaw, and said birds are mischievous creatures, they might use each others tail feathers as climbing gear! LOL


He may look bad now, but just think of him as a young infant constantly bumping into things and bruising himself up or as a teen who doesn't care how bad the bed hair is! As he matures, he'll learn to take better care of it!

Mango only has two in-tact tail feathers left He has completely destroyed the rest while playing and trying to fly. They are all broken off at a variety of lengths, so he looks absolutely ridiculous. He plays very hard and likes to stick his butt everywhere. He will be a year in March. He does flips and summer saults in and on his cage, and he jumps off of things and lands butt first. We are letting his feathers grow out (he came clipped) but its taking some time. He broke one while adventuring in my sweater. They hang all crooked for a while, and he preens and puts them back, but eventually they fall off. I was worried about it too, and asked the vet. She said its not uncommon for birds to break tail feathers. Mango has broken most of his, which is a bit abnormal, but he was on seed when I got him, and underweight. He was a little bit nutritionally deficient, so she guesses that his feathers arent strong from poor feeding before we got him. He is much better now, and hopefully after this molt all will be replaced and much stronger.

Does this extend to young parrots shredding thier feathers as well?

goalerjones, tail feathers yes, flight feathers and/or feathers around the rump (where flights would rest) *maybe* if the wings are clipped, but not to any other feathers on the body. It's one thing to have a young parrot that doesn't know how to take care of his or her own feathers and bathing can help, but it's another to have a young bird with feather destructive behavior...


Megan, allowing his flight feathers to grow out may help, but again, I think it's still just an age thing! Hopefully, it wont be too long before he sports a gorgeous tail!

Moses is down to one long tail feather and that one is pitiful looking! I am hoping that it is due to an overzealous baby that doesn't know how to properly care for older dried out feathers. He is close to a heating vent (which we put a can of water on for increased humidity) I bathe him almost daily hoping that the increase in water will help him feel better. I am so sad every time I look at that raggedy tail!

brianlinkles said:

Moses is down to one long tail feather and that one is pitiful looking! I am hoping that it is due to an overzealous baby that doesn't know how to properly care for older dried out feathers. He is close to a heating vent (which we put a can of water on for increased humidity) I bathe him almost daily hoping that the increase in water will help him feel better. I am so sad every time I look at that raggedy tail!

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Each bird has its own set of idiosyncrasies. Take Zaffer, for example... He becomes terrified of his own feathers (the larger ones) when they fall away from him. He'll sometimes become so startled when a flight feather or a tail feather falls out that he'll leap into the air and fly across the room to quickly get away from it. And he will NOT crack the sheaths off of his newly emerging tail feathers. If I fail to crack away one of his tail feather sheaths for him, the sheath will become 6 inches long - it will look as if he has a Dixie drinking straw hanging down back there. I try to keep up with removing his sheaths since it can ruin the feather barbs when new feathers remain in their sheaths too long.

So those are just a couple of Zaf's peculiarities

As long as there are no underlying medical issues (including certain skin conditions or otherwise damaged follicles) new feathers will eventually replace ratty ones.

plax said:

brianlinkles said:

Moses is down to one long tail feather and that one is pitiful looking! I am hoping that it is due to an overzealous baby that doesn't know how to properly care for older dried out feathers. He is close to a heating vent (which we put a can of water on for increased humidity) I bathe him almost daily hoping that the increase in water will help him feel better. I am so sad every time I look at that raggedy tail!

Click to expand...

Each bird has its own set of idiosyncrasies. Take Zaffer, for example... He becomes terrified of his own feathers (the larger ones) when they fall away from him. He'll sometimes become so startled when a flight feather or a tail feather falls out that he'll leap into the air and fly across the room to quickly get away from it. And he will NOT crack the sheaths off of his newly emerging tail feathers. If I fail to crack away one of his tail feather sheaths for him, the sheath will become 6 inches long - it will look as if he has a Dixie drinking straw hanging down back there. I try to keep up with removing his sheaths since it can ruin the feather barbs when new feathers remain in their sheaths too long.

So those are just a couple of Zaf's peculiarities

As long as there are no underlying medical issues (including certain skin conditions or otherwise damaged follicles) new feathers will eventually replace ratty ones.

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That's pretty common for hyacinths I noticed that they don't take the sheath there tail feathers. 2 hyacinths from 2 different owners today came in for grooming and had the sheaths on the tail feathers when the feather was fully grown

Jlong1989 said:

That's pretty common for hyacinths I noticed that they don't take the sheath there tail feathers. 2 hyacinths from 2 different owners today came in for grooming and had the sheaths on the tail feathers when the feather was fully grown

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Interesting! That's something I didn't know. I wonder what might explain it And why don't the owners help them remove the sheaths like I do for Zaf?