Messy Tail Feathers

[ZephyrFly]

Photo of Pazu's tail is a few comments in.

Issue:
Pazu is slowly but surely molting, he's not lost any major flight or tail feather yet though. I've noticed on the shorter of his tail feathers, close to his body, concealed unless you turn his upside down (even then the messy feathers aren't the first ones you see as they're folded under others) his feathers look... messy? A bit tatty? Not stress bars, nor discoloured, just the fibres of some of his feathers loose.

Question:
Is this normal for parrots tail feathers, that they tend to get tatty closer to their bodies?

 

[Grraarrgghh]

Does he climb around on his cage a lot? Albert's tail feathers get torn and break off on his cage bars on occasion (he's missing ~75% of 3, and 2 others are tattered), and I would suspect a Conure, having longer tail feathers, would have the same problem if they are cage climbers.

 

[ZephyrFly]

Does he climb around on his cage a lot? Albert's tail feathers get torn and break off on his cage bars on occasion (he's missing ~75% of 3, and 2 others are tattered), and I would suspect a Conure, having longer tail feathers, would have the same problem if they are cage climbers.

he does climb around alot but I don't think it looks like that? I say that but I don't really know what it looks like. Photo to come, but he only stayed still for one shot.

 

[ZephyrFly]

Here is Pazu's tail. A couple of feathers around it are looking tatty but the main one in the picture is by far the worst. The rest of Pazu is fine, and I only noticed because he was preening, you can't see it otherwise.

 

[Kalidasa]

It's only one particular feather i see which I would consider raggedy. Within a short amount of time, I think you'll see that (and other) feathers will shed out and be replaced by fresh crisp feathers. Towards the moulting season, the feathers under the most stress look terrible. I wouldn't worry about it unless you see the majority of feathers, especially after a moult, looking raggedy.

 

[ZephyrFly]

It's only one particular feather i see which I would consider raggedy. Within a short amount of time, I think you'll see that (and other) feathers will shed out and be replaced by fresh crisp feathers. Towards the moulting season, the feathers under the most stress look terrible. I wouldn't worry about it unless you see the majority of feathers, especially after a moult, looking raggedy.

Thank you, that's reassuring to hear

 

[Grraarrgghh]

Here is Pazu's tail. A couple of feathers around it are looking tatty but the main one in the picture is by far the worst. The rest of Pazu is fine, and I only noticed because he was preening, you can't see it otherwise.

Yeah Albert has about a couple tail feathers that look just like that to go along with the ones he's missing. I've seen them get caught in bars/toys/perches and just tear up, especially on wood blocks that have been chewed a lot.

Seems pretty common for an active bird that gets a lot of cage time.