How To Clean Feathers For Crafts (5 Simple Steps)

Bird feathers can be great for crafting. But they often have dirt, parasites, harmful microbes, and bugs on them.

That’s why cleaning the feathers is necessary before putting them to use – to avoid germs making you sick, or bugs infesting your house.

But, how can you be sure you’ve cleaned them well? Before you get too creative, let’s take a look at how to clean feathers effectively.

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How To Clean Feathers: Step-By-Step

First, get rid of the mites and kill the germs in the feathers. Then, after the feathers are pest- and germ-free, clean off the dirt and debris. Finally, fluff them back up before storing them in an airtight container or Ziplock bag.

If you want the feathers to remain intact and pest-free for a long time, you can choose to preserve them.

There are many different ways to approach each step. But you can use every method listed in this guide to clean bird feathers. Whether it’s pheasant, chicken, turkey, pigeon, cockatoo, or even peacock feathers.

While you can use any method to clean very delicate feathers (such as ostrich feathers), delicate feathers can be challenging to “re-fluff” after cleaning.

For this reason, I recommend that you find a commercial source for getting your feathers cleaned if you have a very delicate collection.

With that out of the way, here’s how to clean feathers for crafts.

Tip: Know Your Local Laws On Feather Collection

If you have a coop, picking up attractive feathers is not something that’ll get you in legal trouble. However, laws in the US prevent you from harvesting the feathers of migratory birds and raptors. So, it’s risky to pick up a pretty feather you find when you’re out and about.

You can read more about The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) at the Animal Legal and Historical Center site. What you need to know about the law is this:

It doesn’t matter that you found the feather and didn’t pluck it off a bird. If you have a bird’s feather that’s protected under the MBTA, you will be charged with a misdemeanor violation. This will require you to serve a maximum penalty of six months in prison, plus a $15,000 fine.

Collecting the feathers of the birds protected under the MBTA and selling them is a felony violation. If the jury passes a guilty verdict, the felon must serve up to two years in prison and pay up to $500,000.

So, I recommend that you stick to gathering the feathers of domesticated birds! Never pick up a feather unless you’re sure it’s a non-migratory, legally harvested bird’s feather, like maybe a turkey taken with a permit in the season.

OK, let’s find out how to wash feathers.

Step 1: Remove Parasites & Mites From Your Feathers

Bird feathers play host to parasites such as lice and mites. It takes only a few of these to infest homes, so it’s important to remove them from the feathers before bringing any inside the house.

You can remove these parasites using a brush, by freezing the feathers, or sealing them up with mothballs.

Removing Mites Using a Toothbrush

A lot of DIYers use a soft toothbrush to brush off dust and insects from the grain of the feathers. However, this method is time-consuming and not consistently effective.

Removing Mites By Freezing

A popular way of killing off parasites in feathers is to freeze them. To do this, isolate the feathers you found and put them in a ziplock bag or airtight container. Then, transfer the bag or container into the freezer.

The temperature of the freezer should be at least zero degrees Farenheight or -18 Celsius. However, colder is better. You must leave the feathers in the freezer for 48 hours. Then, you can take them out for a day before freezing them for 48 hours again.

Freezing the feathers is the most convenient way of killing mites in feathers. However, if you think freezing takes too long or the feathers look badly infested, you could use a third (and I feel most effective) method.

Removing Mites With Mothballs And Sealing

Grab a handful of mothballs – the kind with paradichlorobenzene – and put them in an airtight container, then transfer the feathers you collected inside.

Make sure you do this outside the house – don’t bring the feathers indoors. Close the container, and store it outside in a dry place without sunlight for 24 hours.

It’s important for you to use mothballs with paradichlorobenzene since the chemical effectively removes mites and other parasites from the feathers.

You must also remember to store the container in a safe place since mothballs can harm kids, pets, and wildlife. After 24 hours, remove the feathers from the container, and get rid of the mothballs safely.

Step 2: Sanitize Your Feathers

sanitizing bottle with feathers and a face mask

After cleaning feathers and ridding them of parasites, sanitize the feathers with a 1:1 mixture of rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. Using this mixture is both convenient and effective, but if you don’t want to use chemicals, you can sanitize the feathers in boiling water or clean them off with dish soap.

Using Rubbing Alcohol and Hydrogen Peroxide

Bird feathers carry several pathogenic microbes, so handling them before sanitizing them can make you very sick. The best way to kill the germs on the feathers is to soak them in a 50-50 mixture of isopropyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide for 30 minutes.

Don’t add water to this mix since it will reduce the formula’s strength.

Doing this will get rid of all bacteria and render viruses inactive. The mixture will also brighten up the natural color of the feathers.

Some DIYers like to use bleach instead of making this mixture. While using bleach effectively kills germs, I found that it makes the feathers brittle. Soaking in this mixture is the best method of sanitizing bird feathers.

Sanitizing Using Boiling Water

Put a shallow pot of water on your stove and bring it up to a boil. Next, put the feathers in the water and leave the water boiling for a few minutes. This will kill off any germs on the quills.

If you notice that the boiling water has loosened up some gunk from the feathers, grab a soft cloth and remove the gunk gently. Then, place the feathers flat on some paper towels before moving on to the next step.

Sanitize Using Dishwashing Soap

Cleaning the feathers with dish soap liquid will remove dirt and debris from the feathers in addition to sanitizing them. You must pour some liquid into a container and dilute it with enough water to clean all of the feathers you have available.

Note: This is the method you’ll want to use if you have feathers that have been at the bottom of a cage and have spent seed husks or other things stuck on them.

You can use Lysol or ammonia instead of dish soap if you wish. Regardless of which sanitizer you use, however, remember to swish the feathers in the water gently.

Swish the feathers around enough for the soap to reach all parts of the feathers.

If you swish the feathers too hard, you may accidentally create folds in the feathers that aren’t fixable. So, if you have a lot of feathers to clean, I’d recommend sanitizing in batches.

Accidentally damaging the feathers because you cleaned too many at a time is not worth it!

Remember to rinse the feathers off with water at least twice to remove the sanitizer, too.

Step 3: Clean And Dry Your Feathers

After cleaning the feathers with the isopropyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide mixture, or sanitizing with boiling water, use mild hand soap to clean the feathers. Mild hand soap is potent enough to remove any remaining dirt, chemicals, or oils from the feathers.

If you used dish soap to clean and sanitize your feathers, skip ahead to the “Drying” section.

Mix in some hand soap with water in a moderately large container and swish the feathers around in the water. Don’t scrub or pinch the feathers. Instead, swish the feathers in the water till they appear clean.

Remove the dirty water from the container and rinse the feathers in clean water. Rinse the feathers twice (or thrice, if there’s a lot of gunk coming off), and then you can dry them.

Drying Your Feathers For Crafts

You have to dry your feathers off quickly. The longer they’re damp, the higher the chances of mold or fungal infestations will develop.

Some people dry the feathers off in the sun, but according to Dr. Chuck Trost, Emeritus Professor, Idaho State University, feathers lose color when exposed to sunlight. Soaking up the water and drying with a hairdryer is the best way to dry feathers.

Lay out a clean, dry towel and spread the feathers out on it. Next, grab another towel and lay it on top of the towel with the feathers spread out. Finally, gently press the towel down to soak up water from the feathers.

Next, spread out some paper towels on a dry surface, and place the feathers on them. Turn your hairdryer to the low setting. Hold the dryer just far enough for the feathers to not fly about. The feathers will fluff up a little in the process.

You can dye your feathers after cleaning them if you want to. Make sure you rinse the feathers off in cold water after dyeing before moving to the next step.

Step 4: Restoring Your Feathers’ Appearance By Fluffing

Now that you know how to clean your feathers, you need to know how to restore them to their former glory! Steaming your feathers is the best way to get them looking neat and smelling fresh.

You can use the steam from a tea or electric kettle and preen the feathers back in perfect shape, however, this takes time since you have to preen the feathers one at a time.

Using a garment steamer is a faster way to go about fluffing up feathers. You could also use a power steamer if you own one.

The vanes of the feathers you find will often be twisted up, making them look torn. Regardless of your steam source, you must dampen up the feathers and preen them back into shape with your fingers one at a time.

Garment steamers release steam faster than most – they’re ideal for the quickest results. Electric kettles are your second-best choice since a traditional tea kettle takes longer to heat up. You can also use a power steamer to repair feathers.

Periodically steaming your feathers is a good idea to keep them looking fluffy. Additionally, regular steaming will prevent your feathers from getting too dry and breaking.

Step 5: How to Preserve and Store Bird Feathers

Rubbing citronella or cedar oil on your hands and massaging the feathers is a great way to preserve them. You can also cover the feathers with boric acid and clean them off to protect from insects, and to help them remain intact.

You can then store the feathers in an airtight container, in a safe, dry place that doesn’t get any sunlight.

Preserving Using Citronella Oil

Massaging feathers with citronella oil works great because of its anti-fungal and pest-repellent properties. Rubbing a few drops on your hands and coating the bird feathers will keep them pest-free for months.

A quicker way of going about it is putting a few drops of the oil on a clean cloth and putting it in the bag or container where you stored the feathers.

Preserving Using Boric Acid

To treat the feathers with boric acid:

Put all your feathers in a large envelope.
Sprinkle boric acid into the bag. Cover the feathers with the powder.
Fold the bag closed and shake the contents for 30 seconds.
Rotate the bag horizontally and shake the contents a couple of times. The contents must settle down horizontally inside the paper bag.
Let the feathers and boric acid sit in the paper bag for three days. The boric acid will kill the parasites in the feathers and prevent future infestations.
Remove the feathers from the envelope one by one and flick each feather gently to remove the boric acid.
After flicking, grasp the feather by the quill in your left hand, then preen it by rubbing it from bottom to top. The fibers of the feather will adhere like they’re supposed to.
Put the feathers away in an airtight container till you want to use them.

Storing Your Feathers For Later Use

Regardless of which method you use to preserve your feathers (or even if you don’t preserve at all), keep in mind the following tips for storage:

It is best to store feathers in an airtight container.
Put the container in a humidity-free area that doesn’t receive any sunlight. Sunlight causes feathers to fade, and storing them in high humidity can lead to mold growth and decomposition.
If you’re worried that the feathers’ storage conditions are too humid, you can put some hygroscopic crystals in the container.
Storing your container in a cupboard or drawer if you have a cedar chest is ideal – as cedar repels insects.
If you don’t have a cedar chest, you can put small cedar planks in the container or use cedar mothballs.
You could put some flea powder in the container instead of cedar, too. It kills mites and beetles, but the powder is toxic, so I don’t recommend you use flea powder unless you’re using it temporarily in a pinch.
If you see tiny holes or loose fluff in some of the feathers, remove the affected feathers and freeze them as instructed in the section above. You can then put the feathers back into storage, preferably in a separate container.

Tip: How To Clean Lots Of Feathers Together Quickly

Going through the aforementioned six-step process isn’t possible every time. If you’re looking to clean, sanitize, and dry your feathers in one go, you can put all your feathers in a cotton pillowcase and toss it in the washing machine.

Make sure you only fill the pillowcase halfway and tie a tight knot to keep the feathers from falling out. Use anti-bacterial laundry detergent, and when the pillowcase spins dry, transfer it to the dryer and turn it to the “air” setting.

The feathers will dry off and fluff up in the dryer.

Note: Using this method comes at the expense of less thoroughly cleaned feathers.

Conclusion

Let’s quickly recap on what we’ve learned. Before starting don’t forget to make sure you are not breaking the law with the feathers you collect!

Get rid of any mites using a toothbrush, putting the feathers in a freezer, or put mothballs with the feathers into a container.
Sanitize and clean the feathers using rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, or boiling water.
Dry the feathers carefully using a hairdryer.
Use steam to fluff the feathers – you can use a steamer or the steam from boiling water.
Preserve your feathers using citronella oil or boric acid and store in an airtight container.

Most of the time it takes to clean feathers properly is getting rid of the mites. In my experience, the quickest way around this is to put the feathers in an airtight container, in your freezer – and leave for 48 hours.

Once that’s done, the rest should be doable within an hour – so don’t be disheartened! It’s worth the process to get nice, clean, fluffy feathers that are safe for you and your children to use in crafts! Try it yourself – it’ll be second nature in no time.