Silkie Feathers

[SarahFair]

I had to give my silkies a bath last night. While going through their feathers I noticed they had a lot of the plastic like wrapping still on them (I dont know what its called..). I remember the guy at the PetsMart (PetSmart?) told me when I bought my Parakeet told me to take the feathers between my fingers in a circular motion to help break it up. He said the birds also enjoy it.
I tried doing it with my silkies but it just seemed so thick that it couldnt have been comfortable.
They hatched out May 25 of this year. Could the feathers just be to young to break that seal on them? It didnt look to comfortable the way they all seemed so stiff..

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I just simply take my nail and run it along the feather to strip it off. I find tons of those on my young roos especially. It's just that tough surrounding where the feathers grow out of. They do look much better with those all off of of them though. I tried to look up some info on it through google to see if I was doing the right thing by stripping them off and I found a few that said they do take theirs off before showing the bird, I guess they were worried they would gets points off for that.

ETA I only stripped mine when they were away from the base of the feather and you could easily get behind it to strip it.

 

[SarahFair]

Alot of these are still at the base. I figured if they werent loose it was protecting the feathers.
So my silkies will not be any poofier with them off??