I have been doing some ptarmigan and grouse, the feathers when I am done with all cleaning and drying have a seperated look to them and they will not go back together. Plus the birds also have a real fluffly look to them. Thanks for your help.
Rob
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That's great cause then you know the feathers are clean. Now you can take a soft paint brush and brush the feathers down in a gentle motion. This will help lay them back plus close up the gaps. You can't close them after this and it's usually the wings use some steam on them.
Love them fluffy feathers make for a real livly looking bird!
Normally when feathers seperate like that. This is the cause, wash wellllllll.
When the vanes of the feathers split apart there are a number of possible reasons. The individual vanelets have little barbules holding each individual piece to another, i.e. kinda like little velcro pieces. If you manhandled the bird too roughly and damaged the barbules they cannnot always be "zipped" back together. Steaming can get back some of the original positioning and allow zipping. But if you used too harsh of a cleaning compound for the individual bird, the barbules can actually be damaged or even dissolved leading to widespread splitting in the feathers. Gallinaceous birds do not take washing as well as waterfowl and even these do not always wash well.