Preening my Green Winged Macaw and picking pin feathers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2010
- This is another video of me preening my 16 year old Green Winged Macaw , Scarlett. After new feathers grow in they are covered by a waxy pin like shaft that Scarlett just loves for me to remove. These pin feathers can be quite itchy for birds when they are ready to come off. In the wild another bird would preen the pin feathers that are on the top of her head but since Scarlett does not have a mate she glady lets me do this preening for her. She loves this and returns the favor by preening my hand and making funny little contented noises.
I have never helped preen my lovies, sounds like fun!!! Hahahahahaha!!! I don't see a lot of pin feathers, but maybe I am not looking!!! but really never see too much, but you can really see them on Scarlett here!! Oh!! Good info!! I don't want to hurt my birds but I think I will leave it to them!! LOL
Such a gorgeous creature.
Thank you 🦜
I thot they preen themselves. Everytime I try I get bitten
Thanks, we all think she's a beauty queen for sure (and she knows it) ;)
You wont see many on your lovies because they preen eachother. My Lola and Houdini never have them which is good because Lola used to HATE it when I tried to preen his feathers! Since Scarlett does not have a buddy to preen her she gladly lets me do it, and I love to. It's kind of relaxing and fun for me (and her too)! ;)
Yep. I just had a nice long preening session with Chicken the other night. Since he is getting his adult feathers in he's got a lot of spikey pin feathers sticking out which are itchy. I only pick the pins that are ready, which are dry and cracking. Never pick the ones that still have blood feathers in them as you can hurt the bird and they can bleed sometimes. Most of our birds love having us pick the pin feathers but some birds dont like it. As long as you are gentle doing it most love it!
Yes! Scarlett is really enjoying this preening!!! Do you help the lovies with this too? :)
If your Meyer's is hand tame and allows you to give head scratches then preening would most likely be another treat they would readily enjoy. This type of preening for them does need to be handled with care as the pin feathers can be sensitive and you can only "pick" off the pins when they are ready which means the feather below is fully formed, not still a blood feather, and the pin covering comes off easily with gentle picking/preening. Hope this helps.
How do you pick pin feathers cos my caique has loads and i think it hurts her when i try ajd pick them??? Is it better when they are wet???
@andybudgie Yep, we love it too. The big birds have really BIG pin feathers so it takes a bit more work than the little guys, but they are fun to preen too. Glad you enjoyed our video :)
Thanks for your comment. Yes, birds do preen themselves but they have areas on the top and back of their heads where pin feathers are out of reach. Normally a mate or sibling would do the preening of these areas but a single bird sometimes needs a helping hand. Not all birds will allow their human moms or dads to perform this preening so, yes, a bite is possible. You need to know your bird's level of trust to perform this type of preening.
Yes, it can hurt if the feathers are not ready and they can be tender to touch. See my reply to Squeekstir11 above... btw, my Caique absolutely LOVES having his pin feathers preened and will "purr" contentedly when we gently remove the itchy waxy coverings on the new feathers when they are ready. Takes some practice but worth the effort in the end. Good luck and hope this helps ;)
Lovebird Loft if you still have him I wish you could make a longer video of this.