New Budgie From Animal Shelter Tail and Wing Clipping Horror

[joepa123]

We just adopted a budgie from the local animal shelter on Friday. The budgie was found “Wild”. The budgie, Sky, is missing its tail feathers. It looks like someone butchered it with scissors. Also one of its wing feathers were clipped/butchered. Budgie is understandably very scared of people and is unwilling to perch yet. Is there anything I can do about her butchered haircut?

[jolee]

Do the wings and tail feathers still have feathers attached? Have they been cut or does it look like they were plucked out?
When the budgie does a molt they should grow back if they were cut, if plucked they will grow back soon but it's been years since I've owned a bird and I'm new here to learn. Hopefully someone will be on soon to help.

[joepa123]

They were definitely cut with scissors. The feathers are there just chopped. Only one wing is clipped too.

[jolee]

Poor bird! When he molts they will grow back but it's a shame....
On parakeets most people who cut wings generally only cut one wing since they are so light and small, it keeps them from flying out the door or for long distances. When he tries to fly it will not lift him as high and it throws off his flight line so he goes back down to the ground.

[Hezz]

There is nothing you can do about the cut feathers except give this bird the best diet you can. The tail feathers may have been pulled out by a predator - tail feathers are designed to drop if caught in something - and if this is the case they should start growing back in straight away, although it will take a short time before you will be able to see new feathers. I don't know of any reason why anyone would cut tail feathers on purpose.

Regarding the wings, does this little one still fly at all? If only one wing is clipped and clipped badly, you may find that it flies in circles, if at all. All you can do is be patient and wait for the feathers to drop naturally during seasonal moults. It may take a full 12 months for all flight feathers to be replaced, although it won't take that long for the bird to become airborne again - they don't need all their flights to be able to fly.

[joepa123]

Thank you. The tail feathers have a “clean cut” so I think it was done by a less than brilliant human. Since the bird doesn’t yet perch we haven’t taken the bird out of its cage. It has a large cage 18 by 26. It can definitely fly short distances. We also haven’t taken it out of its cage because we have another budgie that flies around the room all day. The old budgie wants more than anything to get into the new budgies cage but we want the new one examined by a vet first which unfortunately is not until 12 days from now.

Our 1 year old budgie we feed Avicakes and Nutriberries. The new parakeet is getting a mixture of seeds as well as Avicakes and Nutriberries (transition diet). We also feed both budgies frozen peas.