# How long for clipping wings to grow back?



## Kimberly_CA (Jan 5, 2008)

I took in a lost lahore pigeon today and his wings were clipped, very short and pretty roughly. I let my 3 birds out in the house every day, I caved...and I want him to fly so he can fully enjoy it. How long will it take, do I have to wait until a molt? If so, how long in between molts?

Thank you!


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

You will have to wait until the next molt, which may start around the middle of the year or later, depending on where you live.

If you pull the flights that are cut, the lahore will regrow them in eight weeks. Be sure to keep on top of the nutrition and garlic for healthy feathering. You can even try pulling every other flight, and that will give him some lift.

i myself would just wait for mother nature to take care of it, especially if the bird has been thru enough already.


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## Kimberly_CA (Jan 5, 2008)

Yeah I don't wanna pull any, poor thing was already so shelled shocked yesterday and I can wait.

Thank you  and you made me think of something. One of my other rescue birds had a severely injured wing a year ago when I found her. Over a month all the long wing feathers came out as she was healing. None have grown back. I am not 100% when it was but i think it was about 9 months to one year ago. Ya think it is possible she just has not gone through another molt yet? I would love if she could fly too.....


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## warriec (Feb 2, 2007)

It really does not hurt a bird much when you pull out the clipped feathers. Its actually more helpful for the bird to suffer a few weeks than suffer a few months


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Kimberly_CA said:


> Thank you  and you made me think of something. One of my other rescue birds had a severely injured wing a year ago when I found her. Over a month all the long wing feathers came out as she was healing. None have grown back. I am not 100% when it was but i think it was about 9 months to one year ago. Ya think it is possible she just has not gone through another molt yet? I would love if she could fly too.....



She will regrow new wing feathers if the others fell out completely, unless the follicles were damaged and/or she is on overload-which means she was suffering from nutritional deficiencies, health issues/injuries and sress all at the same time. The body cannot produce new cells for feather growth, when its burning all energy and expending all food sources on healing and other issues, stress and when on medication.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

warriec said:


> It really does not hurt a bird much when you pull out the clipped feathers. Its actually more helpful for the bird to suffer a few weeks than suffer a few months


I agree with you under normal circumstances, but if this bird is already under stress from injuries suffered or currently suffers from nutritional/emotional issues, he may not even grow any new feathers if they are pulled out. It takes a lot of nutrition and energy to grow new feathers, and this bird doesn't need to suffer the pain and stress of having the feathers pulled.


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*Are you giving vitamins?*

There are many water soluble vitamins available and during stress, moult or after an injury or illness, they can be very helpful. Foy's sells one called pigeon builder and it's been on the market for a very long time.

If the bird is in good flesh and not actually ill, I would pull a few of the cut feathers maybe once a week or every few days until the process is finished. It is best to alternate and not pull every one in a row. I've done it but it might not be so easy on the bird. I've pulled all the tail feathers out of birds when the feathers had all been chewed by rabbits. The birds did recover very well. A tail is not a wing though and the wing feathers are the strongest and hardest to pull, especially the first couple of primary flight feathers.

Before you pull any of them, make sure that they are hardened, mature feathers. Pulling a blood feather or one that is still growing can create problems, mostly infection and or bleeding. When you pull them (if you decide to do so), do it with a quick and firm motion. This way, you will be sure to actually pull it out, not just tug on it which would be kind of like pulling your own hair.

Here is something that I've noticed about clipped wing birds and letting them grow out naturally. They don't lose or replace very many wing feathers at a time on their own or they would not be able to fly. Having one or two long wing feathers among a bunch of stubs creates a new problem. They will try to fly and they are very likely to break or damage these one or two long feathers, especially the flights. If you pull them all over a reasonable amount of time (a few weeks or so) they will come in much more evenly. Try to think of it like building a new wing, which is exactly what you are doing. If all the feathers come in within a reasonable time, the wing will work better and the bird will adjust to it. I hope that makes sense. I can tell you that it works.

As to your injured bird, the fact that it lost all of it's wing feathers makes me wonder if there isn't some damage to the flesh, (necrosis or dead or dieing tissue) that would make it lose them all. They do not moult this way as they would not be able to fly. What was the injury to the bird?

Bill


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Kimberly, we got in a utility King this past summer with both wings and tail feathers severely clipped. It took 2-3 months for her to grow enough back in to fly to the perches in the aviary. We didn't pull the feathers - just way too many.


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## Kimberly_CA (Jan 5, 2008)

Thank you all u guys!  

Oh and th injury on th lame wing pigeon was she was attacked by something, dunno what. I found her walking down the road at like midnight and I picked her up and one wing was shredded and all bloody like something got it's jaws on her but she managed to escape....


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