Chewing feathers?

Patrick · Post by **Patrick** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:09 am

Charlie Parker is almost a year old and we're dealing with his first big moulting with lots of pin feather scratching from both of us and frequent baths (once a day from me with the spray bottle, and sometimes three or four swims in his water dish. :lol:

) I'm wondering if anyone else's bird chews his feathers. He doesn't try to eat them, but if he finds one on the cage, on me, or even a down fluff floating through the air he grabs at them, catches them in his beak, then chews a while and spits them out. Is this just normal play or could there be any biological reason?

Bella · Post by **Bella** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:46 am

Billy has done it a few times with his big feathers. Maybe he is thinking ooooo one of my feathers needs cleaning hang on its not attatched :shock:

celtic_aura · Post by **celtic_aura** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:00 am

Our baby crow does this all the time. He actually hides his feathers so no one can steal them from him!

Melika · Post by **Melika** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:26 am

Hane and Tsume will do that as well. I think they just like to destroy anything they can get their beaks on. :lol:

inept · Post by **inept** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:07 am

Ruffle often does the same. He'll preen a loose bit of down out of his feathers or catch some out of the air and then play with it for a while. Roll it up into a little ball, nearly spit it out, chew it a little more, hide it in his beak, nearly spit it out, etc. Especially around bed time. When I try to take it out of there, doing what I think is a favor to him, he gets very angry! It's his and I figure he knows what he's doing so I just chuckle and let him play with it. :lol:

It's like birdy chewing gum!

Post by **Lauren** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:20 am

Yep, my 2 love to 'catch' each others down, well they mostly get angry at them. But if I pick up a fallen wing or tail feather, they both fight over who gets to 'preen' it first. I love how they twirl them around in their beaks hehe. Exactly like birdy chewing gum!

celtic_aura · Post by **celtic_aura** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:40 am

I asked my hubby about this (he knows more about birds and animals than I do) and he says birds will chew on their feathers during a molt to get as much calcium and nutrients out of the shaft of the feather as they can. So if you see your fids chewing feathers, it's a good thing!