Breaking bloodfeathers

[Buy A Paper Doll]

This is the second time Melody has broken a bloodfeather. I had been watching this feather grow in, but I hadn't cut it yet because it didn't look like it was ready.

Even though there was a bit of blood on the tip of the feather, there was no blood in the cage or on the bird.

Any ideas as to why one bird breaks bloodfeathers but another doesn't? Maybe she's more rough on her toys than Milo is and she caught the feather on something in her cage. (They have identical cages and nearly identical toys.) I didn't think it would be something in her diet because Milo doesn't break feathers and they eat the same food.

[bellarains]

Jennifer,

Lacey does the same thing. I have tried my best to figure out whey she breaks a blood feather and Bela has never broken one, but I can't find anything, and they are in the same cage????? She healthy as a horse at 62 grams, so I don't think it's a deficiency or any sort.

I did rearrange the perches in their cage so that she can get around without having too far to go from each perch, and cross fingers she hasn't broken one since. My thought was that maybe she was missing a jump and breaking one that way. I'm not sure though, so it is still just a guess.

[shylevon]

You may notice more broken blood feathers in Melody than Milo because lutino's and creaminos have more blood feathers naturally. Yellow feathers are more frail than darker feathers, just like blonde hair is typically finer than dark hair. The medula layer is thin or oftentimes missing all together and there is less structural integrity to the feather shafts. I have read that this improves with age, and is really bad the first couple of molts.

[Joanie Noel]

When Kirby and Colada were my only birds, they had lots of problems with breaking blood feathers. Scared me half to death more than a couple of times! It must be related to what Shy said, about it improving with age and just being bad around the first few molts, because Kirby hasn't had a problem with them in a long time. He is almost 1-1/2 years old now, and his feathers really do appear to be stronger/healthier.

~ Joanie