Molting Question

[stephend]

Right now Cricket is clipped, he came that way, and I want him to fly. He has regained 1 flight feather, but the rest are still short. The only method I know of to get the others to regrow quickly is to pluck them, but I believe that this would be a traumatic thing to do to poor Cricket, and so I will not do it. My question is, is there a healthy way to get the feathers to regrow?

 

[Oedipussrex]

Just keep him on a good diet so he can grow them in strong. if he has already regrown one he should start to grow them one or two at a time now anyway.

most birds (when flighted) moult the middle flight feather before the rest as its protected by those around it, and once its grown they moult the two on either side of that, and so on, working their way out from the middle of the flight feathers. just make sure that he doesnt accidentally break them as they dont have other feathers of the same length around them to protect them.