My wife and I just bought a new cockatiel, when we saw her we knew we had to have her. We were wondering -- her tail feathers look as if she pulled them out, will they grow back? How do you get her to come to us on her own? Any info would be helpful.
Thanks!

Assuming that your new cockatiel is hand tamed, once the bird has learned that it can trust you and that it is safe, it should begin to "blossom". Patience and kindness towards your pet will be repaid several fold.

Feathers do grow back. Once a feather falls from molting or if the complete feather has been pulled out, it takes on the average of 10 weeks for one of the long tail feathers to grow completely out.

This is more of a comment than a question. I have a male grey, six years old that has never had a tail. My female hatched him six years ago and although he looks more like a bat than a cockatiel he has never had any problems and even flies well. Wing clipping is almost useless because his wings are quite large and even when clipped he flies well. I do not know why or how he turned out this way. I do know we will be celebrating his seventh birthday soon. If you have any ideas as to what happened let me know.

Thank you,
Debra

Debra,

We have a couple of cockatiels that manage to keep their tail feathers broken off but can't recall ever seeing one that never had a tail. Maybe it is some type of congenital thing, however, if he's healthy and happy that's all that counts.