How long do feathers have a blood supply?

Jenlynn · Mar 26, 2012

Niles has 2 bloodfeathers coming in on his wings. They make me nervous lol. Plus he has some new feathers on the opposite wing so hes getting more brave and trying to fly. How long do they take to grow out and the blood supply stop? He flaps his wings and attacks his toys constantly, swings from them upside down, etc and Im so worried he will break one in his cage.

Pedro · Mar 27, 2012

When a new feather forms in the follicle, the live tissue has a central artery and a vein in order to supply nutrients to the growing feather. Once the feather has grown in completely, the blood vessels shrink and dry up as they are no longer needed by the fully formed feather. So a new feather takes about 6 weeks to grow out. Keep an eye on the new feathers the shaft will be a purple color once the vessels shrink the feather shaft will start to turn white or clear.

Spiritbird · Mar 27, 2012

My Rosie broke the first flight feather when she was flying. I live alone and have no help so I took her to emergency and the doc pulled it. It was traumatic to me and appeared painful to her. Luckily she clotted off on the way to the vet.

roxynoodle · Mar 27, 2012

I've been worrying about Pete. He is getting new feathers left and right, and did try to fly the other day.

How hard are they to pull out if needed? I have never done this, and the vet isn't close by. I've read about doing it, but that's it.

Jenlynn · Mar 27, 2012

i havent ever done it either. all the years with mango ive seen his bloodfeathers but they were much smaller and less intimidating. Niles blood feathers are huge. I always like to be prepared and was hoping for a youtube video but there arent any. i guess the last thing a panicked bird owner thinks about is grabbing a video camera in that stuation. thr closest thing i found was this video. she demonstrates it on a stuffed parrot. Bird Care - How to Pull a Blood Feather - MonkeySee

roxynoodle · Mar 27, 2012

I looked for one on youtube the other day as well. But, you're right, who is going to pull out a video camera during an emergency?

He tried to fly again today and got about 6 feet this time. It scared him though. But, I'm like, ugh, how do I protect this bird as he grows in new feathers right now? His previous owner cut all of them! I feel like I need a rubber room here.

luvmytooo · Mar 27, 2012

I ended up having to pull a blood feather on my own and I would not like to do it again , but at least I know I am cappable of doing it and not freaking out , lolol.
I havent had any avian experience , and it being my own baby , I was a wreck !
But I did fine and Rosie got through it just fine too

i wrapped her in a towel , found the blood feather , held it as close to the shaft as i could and pulled with my eyes shut. Rosie didnt even let out a scream , she just kinda yelped a little and that was it ! I held her in towel till she calmed down and practically fell asleep in my arms, her heart rate was fine too , at least it wasnt coming through her chest like mine was , lol.

Spiritbird · Mar 27, 2012

The problem I found was to get Rosie in a towel. She was so distressed about her feather hanging down. Rox you can look at the underside of the wings and see if there are bloods there. It is just one at a time per wing thank goodness. If you know there are blood feathers present then you can take precautions and not let them fly. Birds do fly with them though and have no issues.

roxynoodle · Mar 27, 2012

Spiritbird said:
The problem I found was to get Rosie in a towel. She was so distressed about her feather hanging down. Rox you can look at the underside of the wings and see if there are bloods there. It is just one at a time per wing thank goodness. If you know there are blood feathers present then you can take precautions and not let them fly. Birds do fly with them though and have no issues.

He is getting new ones. For 4.5 months he hasn't tried to fly and now suddenly he just goes leaping away without much warning. Usually you see them get into flight position first. I guess I need to learn what his signs are that he's going to attempt it. He's also, how should I say it? Kind of heavy and a bit overweight. Some birds glide better than others, but my Petey doesn't exactly have much grace. So yes, I'm worried that for the first time I'm going to be dealing with a broken blood feather.

It is interesting to watch his other new feathers coming in. His head and neck feathers are really big compared to my other birds, and I can watch them each day growing. They look like new plants coming out of the ground and slowly unfurling

Chrisja77 · Mar 27, 2012

My vet was talking about this just last week when we took Cody in for his check up. He said if one broke to take a bar of soap and stick the end of the feather in. That would stop the blood flow. Either that or put some flour or corn meal on it and that would make it clot.

roxynoodle · Mar 27, 2012

Chrisja77 said:
My vet was talking about this just last week when we took Cody in for his check up. He said if one broke to take a bar of soap and stick the end of the feather in. That would stop the blood flow. Either that or put some flour or corn meal on it and that would make it clot.

Did the vet tell you how to pull it out? Or luvmytoo, did you use your fingers to pull it or tweezers or? I need to talk to my vet about this. I need to know how to do it. She's 40 miles away.

luvmytooo · Mar 27, 2012

Chrisja77 said:
My vet was talking about this just last week when we took Cody in for his check up. He said if one broke to take a bar of soap and stick the end of the feather in. That would stop the blood flow. Either that or put some flour or corn meal on it and that would make it clot.

Yes , the same for dogs if their nail is cut too short or if they break it somehow. I also read if a birds nail is cut too short to put some kwik stop or flour in a box and let the bird stand in it for a while....havent tried that last one though , thank God I didnt have too yet

Pedro · Mar 27, 2012

In all the years I have had my parrots i have never had to pull a blood feather. I have however had to deal with a cockatiel someone bought to me, although the feather broke off to close to the skin & all i could do was put corn flour on the tip & pinch the feather until the bleeding stopped.

If you can get the bleeding to stop there is no reason to panic. In most of the cases i have had It has been with the SC2 he sometimes just bumps a blood feather & I don't really know until i see are a few drops of blood in his cage. It really is only a bother for about a week until the feather is fully grown.

Roxy it's a good idea to be prepared though. Found a good link.

Avian Health

roxynoodle · Mar 27, 2012

That was a good article. That makes me feel better about this if I should need to do it. I was thinking needle nose pliers. I even have some tiny vise grips, and several sizes of needle nose. I like how it mentioned to spray the area with water to clean it up to be sure you find the bleeding one.

Hopefully I will never need to do it, but I've never had a bird with such a butcher wing clip before either. I do inspect him everyday to find out everywhere new feathers are coming in.

Now if only he would stop trying to fly until he has enough to actually do it!

Chrisja77 · Mar 27, 2012

roxynoodle said:
Chrisja77 said:

My vet was talking about this just last week when we took Cody in for his check up. He said if one broke to take a bar of soap and stick the end of the feather in. That would stop the blood flow. Either that or put some flour or corn meal on it and that would make it clot.

Click to expand...

Did the vet tell you how to pull it out? Or luvmytoo, did you use your fingers to pull it or tweezers or? I need to talk to my vet about this. I need to know how to do it. She's 40 miles away.

No, he just told me how to stop the bleeding...I never thought about having to pull it out...I just assumed to leave it in since it had stopped bleeding.

roxynoodle · Mar 27, 2012

The article Pedro linked says it should be removed. I had thought that, but wanted to be sure. Everybody here reading this thread could probably benefit from reading the article just in case you should need this information. Sometimes our vets are just too far away, or the timing isn't good for them to be able to get in the office and meet you.

luvmytooo · Mar 27, 2012

Chrisja77 , I used my fingers , i didnt have a hemostat handy , they were downstairs at the time ( figures )

And I was lucky to get the whole shaft. Check out the link that Pedro posted and the other links showing how to pull a blood feather . If your not ready to do this , i would find out the closest animal ER is and map it out just in case. You said your vet is 40 miles away , is that the ER or just a vet ? Find out what other vets are practiced in removing blood feathers just to have on hand just in case.
:white1:

roxynoodle · Mar 27, 2012

That's my vet that's 40 miles away. My previous one is really only a bit closer, and all emergency vet clinics are just as far (Toledo). I know my dog/cat vet wants nothing to do with birds. There used to be a vet once who was closer who saw birds, but he left years ago.

Pedro · Mar 27, 2012

The thing is they can clot & dry up you can probably safely leave well enough alone but a lot of the time it will start to bleed again if bumped. I would think if its a new blood feather they would be more proned to bleeding profusely & should be removed ASAP, where a feather that has almost grown out would have less of a blood supply so i would think would only bleed for a short time then clot.

Well thats how i would look at the situation. If i couldn't stop the bleeding the feather should come out.

luvmytooo · Mar 27, 2012

roxynoodle said:
That's my vet that's 40 miles away. My previous one is really only a bit closer, and all emergency vet clinics are just as far (Toledo). I know my dog/cat vet wants nothing to do with birds. There used to be a vet once who was closer who saw birds, but he left years ago.

Oops , sorry . That's some ride for you , wow ! I'm sorry there isnt one closer

But I guess that's how you became so knowledgable about everything birds

How long do feathers have a blood supply?

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What type of Parrot is this?

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