Feather growth after molt, porcupine tail

[Cleopatra Opal]

I preen my cockatoo's head feathers, all the time. She can't reach those. Her casings are not difficult, though. I generally scrape the length of the casing on one side of the pin feather, which releases the tention enough to then de-glove the feather. Perhaps bringing a sharp file or even a knife in with you to scrape one side of the pin feather might help the process along.

The file is a great idea! Some of them are very tough, and I don’t want to injure her trying to break them up. Thank you!