What do you do with your birds feathers?

Nakiska

New member
May 30, 2011
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Washington
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4 Cockatiels 2 males Chicken Little & Charlie, 2 Females Chiquita and Sweet pea. Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure -Franklin and our now tame, rescued feral Pigeon - Belle.
Hey all,

I was just wondering what you all do with your birds feathers that he/she looses or molts. Some of us have some gorgeous birds with lots of colors so I was wondering...

Do you save them?
Use them for crafts?
Vacuume them up and toss em?

I've been saving most of them in a baggie, but now I'm like...hhmmm...what to do with them, why save them? Maybe I need to get in touch with my creative side. :D

Let's toss around some ideas!

Toni
 

Parrot Parent

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Feb 22, 2011
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My house
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R.I.P. Linius, my Sun conure
Tapa and Tio, Parakeets, Xander 3 month old sun conure
I'm saving tail feathers and collecting supplies to make some amazing earrings!! I also want use some of the down ones for the base of the earnings to hide the metal stud. I cant wait to make my first pair!!
 

Mayden

New member
Apr 22, 2010
2,540
12
UK.
Parrots
Merlin & Charlie (Senegals)
Hey all,

I was just wondering what you all do with your birds feathers that he/she looses or molts. Some of us have some gorgeous birds with lots of colors so I was wondering...

Do you save them?
Use them for crafts?
Vacuume them up and toss em?

I've been saving most of them in a baggie, but now I'm like...hhmmm...what to do with them, why save them? Maybe I need to get in touch with my creative side. :D

Let's toss around some ideas!

Toni

Maybe you can donate some for birds that need those.... implanted primaries for flight and stuff? :)
 
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Nakiska

Nakiska

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May 30, 2011
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Washington
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4 Cockatiels 2 males Chicken Little & Charlie, 2 Females Chiquita and Sweet pea. Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure -Franklin and our now tame, rescued feral Pigeon - Belle.
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Hahahaha! Too funny! Oled

I heard that Cockatiel Crest feathers are very unique as they are the only bird with a feather like it, I've been dilligently saving every one I find, so far...it's only about 5 of them, but I've only had our tiels for 4 months. :D

Parrot Parent - I've never made jewelry of any sort, perhaps you could post some pic's when you make your first pair.

Mayden - If only there was a way! Hhmm...emblishing the feathers onto little shirts for the plukkers... :D

Lots of bird toys are adorned with feathers...hhmmmm....would that be bad to put your own birds feathers on his/her toys??? LOL
 

IcyWolf

New member
Jul 5, 2011
1,542
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Etters, Pa
Parrots
~Alexandrine Parakeet~2 Red Lored Amazons~Blue Fronted Amazon~Black capped conure~4 Green Cheeks~4 Parrotlets~2 lineolated parakeets~9 American budgies~9 English budgies~ And lots of babies :)
Ziggy hasn't molted yet, but when we brought her home I trimmed her wings and I kept the feathers, they are just so pretty and I figured it would be neat to have them as kind of a souvenir from the day we brought her home :) I don't really have a plan for them, I like the earring idea but my ears are stretched so I can't really wear normal earrings and I think that having feathers hanging from my tunnels would look a bit silly :p For those that have really large birds, I have a friend that is an artist and she actually paints on bird feathers. She gave one to my brother for a wedding present and it has the most intricate painting on it, it's almost unbelievable that it's a real feather! And to parrot parent, if your earrings turn out nice I bet there would be lots of folks that would love to have earrings made with their birds feathers and they would probably pay you pretty nicely for them, and considering all it would really cost you is the time to do it and the metal part, it would be a great way to make some extra bird toy money :) If I were you I would take some pics of the ones you make(let us see first of course :) ) and put an ad on your local craigslist or something, you could even donate some of the profits to a bird rescue or something :)
 

Mayden

New member
Apr 22, 2010
2,540
12
UK.
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Merlin & Charlie (Senegals)
Hahahaha! Too funny! Oled

I heard that Cockatiel Crest feathers are very unique as they are the only bird with a feather like it, I've been dilligently saving every one I find, so far...it's only about 5 of them, but I've only had our tiels for 4 months. :D

Parrot Parent - I've never made jewelry of any sort, perhaps you could post some pic's when you make your first pair.

Mayden - If only there was a way! Hhmm...emblishing the feathers onto little shirts for the plukkers... :D

Lots of bird toys are adorned with feathers...hhmmmm....would that be bad to put your own birds feathers on his/her toys??? LOL

You can donate, maybe speak to your avian vet about donating, if your bird loses a flight feather or something then it can be used to help birds who've had bad clippings/injuries, etc. :)
 
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Nakiska

Nakiska

New member
May 30, 2011
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Washington
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4 Cockatiels 2 males Chicken Little & Charlie, 2 Females Chiquita and Sweet pea. Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure -Franklin and our now tame, rescued feral Pigeon - Belle.
  • Thread Starter
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Hahahaha! Too funny! Oled

I heard that Cockatiel Crest feathers are very unique as they are the only bird with a feather like it, I've been dilligently saving every one I find, so far...it's only about 5 of them, but I've only had our tiels for 4 months. :D

Parrot Parent - I've never made jewelry of any sort, perhaps you could post some pic's when you make your first pair.

Mayden - If only there was a way! Hhmm...emblishing the feathers onto little shirts for the plukkers... :D

Lots of bird toys are adorned with feathers...hhmmmm....would that be bad to put your own birds feathers on his/her toys??? LOL

You can donate, maybe speak to your avian vet about donating, if your bird loses a flight feather or something then it can be used to help birds who've had bad clippings/injuries, etc. :)

Really???? I seriously did not know they could use flight feathers that way. Learn something new every day....Thank you!

Toni
 
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Nakiska

Nakiska

New member
May 30, 2011
787
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Washington
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4 Cockatiels 2 males Chicken Little & Charlie, 2 Females Chiquita and Sweet pea. Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure -Franklin and our now tame, rescued feral Pigeon - Belle.
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I suppose they could also be used to adorn dreamcatchers, key rings and such...
 

Spiritbird

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I take a bag of feathers to my bird club meeting and they in turn give them to a native American tribe that does make jewelery.
 

Parrot Parent

New member
Feb 22, 2011
212
0
My house
Parrots
R.I.P. Linius, my Sun conure
Tapa and Tio, Parakeets, Xander 3 month old sun conure
Hahahaha! Too funny! Oled

I heard that Cockatiel Crest feathers are very unique as they are the only bird with a feather like it, I've been dilligently saving every one I find, so far...it's only about 5 of them, but I've only had our tiels for 4 months. :D

Parrot Parent - I've never made jewelry of any sort, perhaps you could post some pic's when you make your first pair.

Mayden - If only there was a way! Hhmm...emblishing the feathers onto little shirts for the plukkers... :D

Lots of bird toys are adorned with feathers...hhmmmm....would that be bad to put your own birds feathers on his/her toys??? LOL

I dont think it would be bad to let your bird play with them. I let Xander play with his broken ones that wont be good for earrings. Tapa and Tio give me really nice ones so they dont get them back often lol :p
 

Bright Star

New member
May 28, 2011
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Colorado
Parrots
Keats (budgie) born Feb. 18, 2011, and Raphael (budgie) adopted July 3, 2011. Finn, a Brown-Head Poicephalus, born January 4, 2010, has also joined the family!
I have two envelopes for feathers, one for Keats' first molt (which he is in now) and one for Raphael, who at 2 years, is an old pro at molting. It's his first molt with me, though, and his feathers have lovely colors.
 

Mayden

New member
Apr 22, 2010
2,540
12
UK.
Parrots
Merlin & Charlie (Senegals)
Hahahaha! Too funny! Oled

I heard that Cockatiel Crest feathers are very unique as they are the only bird with a feather like it, I've been dilligently saving every one I find, so far...it's only about 5 of them, but I've only had our tiels for 4 months. :D

Parrot Parent - I've never made jewelry of any sort, perhaps you could post some pic's when you make your first pair.

Mayden - If only there was a way! Hhmm...emblishing the feathers onto little shirts for the plukkers... :D

Lots of bird toys are adorned with feathers...hhmmmm....would that be bad to put your own birds feathers on his/her toys??? LOL

You can donate, maybe speak to your avian vet about donating, if your bird loses a flight feather or something then it can be used to help birds who've had bad clippings/injuries, etc. :)

Really???? I seriously did not know they could use flight feathers that way. Learn something new every day....Thank you!

Toni

When I have more time to stay online I may make a thread about it in the forum to maybe encourage people to send off their feathers so they can help abuse/neglected/unfortunate birdies who need some donor feathers :).
 

andrea.faerie

New member
May 16, 2011
751
1
North Carolina
Parrots
My lovely little Black Cap Conure, Lucy (in the sky with diamonds) <3
I'm saving Lucy's for now, I have 2 tail feathers lol the little down feathers are just too tiny to get before they land in seed and poo in the tray on her play perch or cage :p I'm thinking of making a shadow box :) That or giving them to my boss for her art, she LOVES painting then adding real world elements to make it 3d
 

AmazonServant

New member
Jun 24, 2011
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0
I keep the feathers I find in a jar on my desk. Sometimes I'll give one or two to people, like if someone comes over and is really interested in the bird and comments on how pretty she is. Sometimes I'll include one inside a letter or card I send in the mail. Just a way of saying "the bird says hi too!." I'm planning on making some dream catchers with my stash, using other found/recycled materials. I was also thinking of tying/hot gluing them to a long string and hanging them up on the wall.
 
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Nakiska

Nakiska

New member
May 30, 2011
787
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Washington
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4 Cockatiels 2 males Chicken Little & Charlie, 2 Females Chiquita and Sweet pea. Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure -Franklin and our now tame, rescued feral Pigeon - Belle.
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Atwee921

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Apr 22, 2011
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Maine, USA
Parrots
Sprite the cinnamon green cheek conure.
I know I really want one!!!
You should try and make some :)
 
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samanthabe1

New member
Jan 1, 2011
60
0
Arizona
Parrots
Two sun conures Skittles and Buddy.
I'm saving ours to press like a flower into a picture frame. I would have a few done by now but i tend to get lazy on collecting feathers and I lost my first baggie :(
 

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