new feather shafts

Question
what is the best way to assist my pearly conure,(Boomer), with new feather shafts he/she cannot reach on his own? A worker at the petstore suggested squeezing the light colored ones to releive the pressure and irritation. Is this a good idea? If so what is the safest and best way, simply because i tried a minute ago and it seemed to hurt Boomer, so I dont want to try again without another opinion. He seems to enjoy the scratching around the feather, but if I touch it he turns and bites. Boomer is around a year old. Thnx, and sorry for the novel

Answer
This is exacctly what Sidney my Jenday is going through right now. If he doesn't want you to touch them then leave them alone he will let you know when he is ready. It is good that you are scratching his head for him he will love this! So what I do is with your fingernails pinch the sheaths this will make them fall off if you pinch in several locations and rub off the dried sheath. for the smaller ones closer to his head just scracth around them. The ones I pinch are usually the big ones in his neck area. Hope this helps and don't do anything he doesn't want you to (they will eventually fall off but if he wants help getting them off sooner as would happen in the wild if he had a flock) he will let you know by his body language.