Bird Grooming Poll - Page 3

03-22-2007, 03:20 PM

You know HOW MANY times we have pulled broken feathers out of poor Bob's butt! He hates me! and I am sure his butt feels the same way.

03-22-2007, 03:46 PM

LOL!

If only you could see him right this very second. One paw on his head, eyes almost closed, talking quietly in his sweet little voice--I'm almost CERTAIN he was saying, "Deb, come pull my butt feathers. Mom's laughing at me and calling me an AMAZON!"

:-).

03-22-2007, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Irish

I generally take the Goons to the Hut and have Deb do their nails when she's at work there. Sometimes she does it at my house--usually if it involves Bob, because he stresses out when I take him to the Hut. He's about due for some tail feather pulling, as his are ALL broken off short. I have a blue "amazon" at the house until new feathers grow out :-).

You have to get broken tail feathers pulled out? I onlyh ask this because Jasmine has like 5 of them....

03-22-2007, 04:12 PM

I voted that I do it myself at home. But it's really a combo of do it myself/I AM the mobile groomer/take to vet.

When we had the END epidemic/scare a number of years ago in San Diego, I started doing it myself. Tiki will let me use clippers or dremmel, I don't even have to have anyone hold her. She cartoon swears at me the whole time, but she is mad at the clipper/dremmel and not me; she's actually super nice during the process and I can do anything while she is standing on her perch with no assistance.

I go trim Niki the M2 for my friends that now own her, whenever they call me and say she needs a trim. Again, bird on a perch, no assistance needed. She's a bleeder though, no matter how little I clip, so I keep the flour handy.

RED on the other hand... well... he does not like to have anything to do with any of it and he hates me so bad after I did it once, that I now gladly pay $23 bucks for full service vet grooming. I can do his wings if I'm tactical about it. Beaks and nails, forget it! It is WELL worth the money to take him in.

03-22-2007, 04:16 PM

Missi, no, you don't have to pull them out. You can wait 'til they moult out naturally. With the Goons, though, they play so enthusiastically that if they break off too many tail feathers, they have difficulty balancing, and they fall off their play perches a lot. It was a real issue with Arthur when he had about 9 broken tail feathers, because he's so heavy, he'd fall like a rock and get hurt and scared. Bob is lighter, but he still has the same balance problems with all of his tail feathers broken off to where they're only about 3" to 5" long. So rather than wait months for the feathers to moult out, I usually ask to have them pulled out so they'll grow in more quickly, and I don't have to worry so much about them falling and getting hurt.

It happens a lot with Bob, as his best buddy, Arthur, tends to play roughly with him, and break his tail feathers. Arthur's look great--but he learned the first time to guard his tail religiously. Bob's obviously either a bit "denser", or Arthur is so much bigger that he just breaks his feathers, anyway.

03-22-2007, 05:17 PM

I groom my own birds at home so that is what I chose. I also go to a firneds house and groom their birds as well.

As for pulling tail feathers, I try not to do that if at all possible since it is very painful for them and may cause some follicle damage if done frequently.

I have a yellow collar at home now and he has every single tail feather broken - would love to pull a few, but I will just wait for them to molt out - much easier for him that way.