I can't figure it out. Whenever I got my male cockatiel, his tail feathers had been ripped off half-way down. He was in a abused home and the owner said that the cockatiel had been left out of the cage a pitbull tried attacking the poor bird. My boy flew up, and the pitbull bit the poor bird on the tail and ripped his feathers out half way. Anyway, I got him in November, and the tail feathers haven't changed or grown back. Its pretty embarrasing when I have my friends over and they see it. Is there anything I can do to make them grow back? They are not growing back on there own, isn't 4 months enough for feathers to grow back?

Thanks for reading!

The feathers will grow back with a molt. Your bird hasn't molted since that accident. I'm glad you rescued him

Feathers aren't like hair - they don't grow continuously. A damaged feather will stay that way until the bird molts it and grows in a new one.

I think the story about the pit bull is a bit sketchy. Birds can release their tail feathers to escape a predator, and if a dog had grabbed him by the tail he should have dropped the whole tail. Squeebis is completely tailless right now because he was sneaking around my feet when I didn't know he was on the floor, and I stepped on his tail and he dropped it. He looks ridiculous! Feathers that are broken halfway down are more likely to have been broken when a bird with clipped wings made a clumsy crash landing.

This isn't Squeebis, but this is what it looks like after a cockatiel has dropped its tailfeathers:

I wonder how they have that ability? It's something like a lizard, if you cut its tail off (I never tried it but I saw a few kids do it at elementary) it will still move...even if it's not connected to the lizard. I find it creepy

here is a pic of the tail. I don't think this could've happened by just running into something, do you?

Poor baby!
Just a bit more patience and you will soon see new beautiful tail feathers growing

That's a very typical way for the tail feathers to look when a bird can't fly well and makes a lot of crash landings. His wings are clipped, so this is probably how he broke the tail feathers.

Look at Mims' "rooster tail" in my signature. She has a beautiful long tail now, but when I first got her she was a baby and had broken all her tail feathers. Then Shodu (also a baby) shredded the remnants and gave her a very interesting look.

Wow our birds cause us some worry.....
Im sure all will be well once he has a good molt.

How much longer before he will molt? Is it like every 4 months or something?

It varies. Some birds will have a big molt once a year (usually late summer or fall) and others will several small molts throughout the year.