Peggy + clipped wings: penned or not?

[new 2 pfowl]

Thanks Zaz!
Hmm...I think these photos might show his feather gaps a bit more clearly.
At least he's busy trying to get new feathers going!




(Actually, he also has 2 of those blue-black feathers but you can't really see them behind the barred feathers.)

 

[zazouse]

Thanks Zaz!
Hmm...I think these photos might show his feather gaps a bit more clearly.
At least he's busy trying to get new feathers going!




(Actually, he also has 2 of those blue-black feathers but you can't really see them behind the barred feathers.)

I say give him a try at the very least you and him will know if he has limitations, my cameo hen lost just about every flight feather and every tail feather when she flew down into the pups in training pen and I want you to know every night she was up in the top of the tree at night roosting with the others and I never had to pen her it took her 6 months to get them feathers back how she could fly I don't know but she got where she wanted without a tail and mabe 6 flight feathers

I will try to find a photo but I can't remember when it happens exactly so I got to find the file by looking.

 

[casportpony]

Mine can fly *okay* when their clipped wings get to that point, but I sure wouldn't want them to rely on them to evade a predator.

-Kathy

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Well, I just had a talk with Peggy's super wonderful vet about flight feather growth and thought I would share the info in case it might be useful to some other pea person.

Peggy still has four primaries cut (P1, P2, P9, P10). The vet said this isn't great, but he would probably be OK with this as he could still get liftoff.

The problem is that his first 5 secondaries (S1-S5) are also still cut. These are the "landing gear," and since Peggy has a bad leg, she said it would be dangerous for him to try to land with these - she said at most 2 missing in this group is safe. Keeping in mind that these guys roost 40 to 50 feet up in a pine tree at night.

The vet said that he would not normally start the molt again, and get these feathers, until February.

The options to speed this process up are:
1. Pull the cut feathers. New feathers will grow in 4 weeks. However, the primaries are rooted in the bone so this is a job for a vet (not that I would have even considered doing it myself).
2. She said that if I simulate Spring in his pen, it might stimulate feather growth. That is: rain, which leads to green stuff growing, which leads to bugs, which make a pea think there's plenty of food so they can spare the protein energy needed for feather growth.

I just turned the sprinkler on in his pen and gave him a bunch of mealworms.

 

[AugeredIn]

You might be better off than you think. Some of my birds molt primaries in the fall.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Thanks for that AuguredIn!
Does anyone have experience with pulling cut flight feathers (or having them pulled by a professional)?

 

[casportpony]

I cut one too short by accident and it bled for a long time.

-Kathy

 

[new 2 pfowl]

It bled after you pulled it, Kathy?
I don't think that any of these cut feathers could be blood feathers...but I have a lot to learn about feathers.

 

[casportpony]

I've never pulled the feathers, it bled when I clipped it, 'cause I cut it too short.

-Kathy

 

[Trefoil]

It must be one of those "when you want them to grow back they won't" deals because I cut the flight feathers on one wing so I could let them free range during the day and be able to herd them into the coup at night for safety. It lasted about 4 weeks before they grew back enough so herding didn't work anymore. I thought I would have a couple of months at least. Maybe because they were less than a year old?