Aww how sweet. My mother once punched me in the lip really hard (on accident). I had a huge fat lip for a couple of days. I got asked a lot of questions at school the following days. I got no doll.

You are NOT an abuser! You are one of the best owners I came in contact from the internet! I love your cage, your birds are so spoiled. And I am sure your daughter is very lucky to have you.

Im sorry if my post sounded offensive.

What I meant to say is that birds have the ability to drop their tails when someone (a predator) is grabbing on it. I have a friend that accidentally came off the bed and didn't notice their bird was on the floor and stepped on his/her tail, and he dropped it.

I'm sorry again if I sounded offensive.

I thought the tailfeathers were broken rather than dropped, although it's not really easy to tell one way or the other. It's very common for baby cockatiels to break their tails, especially if their wings are clipped. When the tail is dropped the feathers start growing back right away, but if they're broken they won't be replaced until the old feathers are molted out. So he might have a duck butt for a few more months.

I accidentally stepped on Squeebis's tail about a month ago and he dropped the whole thing. It's mostly grown back now, but he looked completely ridiculous for a while.

Here's what it looks like after a bird drops its tailfeathers. Look ma, no broken stubble!

I remembered when I was holding Mackenzie and she bailed off and I instinctively reached for her and yanked out her tail. Scared me to death. Although the brat did look funny with a duck butt.