Blood Feathers - Yellow headed Amazon

Question
I have a yellow headed amzon parrot about 30 years old. In Decemeber I took her to the vet cause there was blood in her cage and I have had her for 20 years and never seen blood in there. She had 3 blood feathers pulled on her tail. She has been fine since then and I can see new feathers are growing in all over her. Today I saw there was blood in her cage again and quickly looked her over and did not see blood where it was before. I am going to fully check her tonight.

My question is if a new tail feather is growing in where one of the feathers was pulled out could that be the cause of the blood, like the new feather poked through the scab?

Answer
Hi, Alexis.  Thanks for posting!

The only way there would be blood associated with a feather would be if a new feather shaft (a growing feather with blood in the shaft) was broken to allow blood to seep out.  An emerging feather has a blood supply (blood is contained in the feather shaft) until the feather is completely grown out, then the blood supply is shut off.  Feather shafts where the blood supply has been shut off will be white (these are the type of feathers you might find in the cage or on the floor).  Feather shafts that still contain a blood supply will be a dark color.  If a feather that is still growing (still has a blood supply) becomes broken off or cracked, there will be blood.

To answer your question, there should not be any blood associated with a new feather poking through the bird's skin.  With blood in the cage, your bird either has an injury of some sort or a blood feather is broken.

Chrys