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In Reply to: Re: Growing flight feathers posted by Stan on January 13, 2010 at 03:27:17:
My GCC's new emerging flight feathers are also a little twisted & deformed while they're growing in, but completely "unfurl" when they reach maturity--so that's probably normal.
I do what I think is named a "show clip." The outer one or two flight feathers are left intact so they look like they still have their full wings when they're sitting still, but the interior primary feathers are clipped. They can still fly, but it takes a lot more effort so they don't go far & they can't achieve lift. Horizontal flying (about 20 feet or so)is still possible before they get too tired. It keeps them from getting into too much trouble because now they'll only fly if they're startled or think going someplace else is worth the effort. My boy is a stronger flier so I had to clip all but one primary feather on each wing this last time. I was worried that it would make the one feather more prone to breakage but it's been no problem at all. My girl can get away with leaving the two outer primaries on each side. I always have to do some experimenting to see how many feathers I need to trim to achieve an acceptable balance between freedom & safety. Sometimes they're much stronger fliers than at other times.
Good luck at the vet.