Fanon Hole: Do Pegasi have Oil Glands?

[Dawn Stripes 301]

Serious question for you bronies.

 

As the fandom, we seem to have decided as fanon fact that pegasi preen their feathers regularly. This makes perfect sense for any animal that has large, feathery wings, as evidenced by the behavior of all birds everywhere.

However, something else about all birds to note, is that all preening necessitates an oil, sometimes called preen, which is secreted by glands birds posses near the base of their tails. Without this oil, that is to say, 'dry-preening', would be almost impossible and not very effective.

 

So, the question becomes: do pegasi have oil glands?

 

This bothered me for quite some time today. I mean, the idea of oil glands doesn't quite sit right with the primarily equine nature of pegasi. Furthermore, physiologically speaking reaching their head all the way around to the base of their tail would be more impossible than licking one's elbow. Besides, pegasi don't have beaks or bills, they have wide mouths with molars. It would almost make more sense to say that their saliva has the oily properties required for preening, because in most fan-art when pegasi preen they actually appear to be biting down on their feathers. Which one would have to do to actually get the barbs together and clean out old feather sheaths and such. It's way more than a matter of nuzzling bent ones into place. But if this was the case, kissing a pegasus would be disgusting. And no one wants that.

 

I can see some possible outs. I can see head-cannoning that if you walked into a cloud-house and looked in the bathroom cabinet you'd see a jar of preening oil, and maybe one just holds some between one's teeth and goes to work on one's wings. But that doesn't really explain how pegasi got along for the thousands or millions of years before the advent of civilization and petrol-based products. Unless you have some really strange idea about the origin of ponies, that leaves logical holes.

 

I thought, maybe some other, external, naturally-occurring source? Such as how elephants depend on natural salt deposits that occur in certain places? Clouds come to mind,since pegasi deal with them regularly, but no matter how I view them they're somewhere between cotton candy, mist, and water vapor...none of which is even oily, let alone has specific properties.

 

So I was stuck for a while. But then Pinkie Pie broke the fourth wall of Fallout Equestria and made ghosty noises and whispered to me like Obi-Wan, "Sunshine and Rainbows, Littlepip...sunshine and rainbows..."

 

And then it hit me. Rainbows! Primordial pegasi preened their wings with liquid rainbow.

Problem. Feathering. Solved.

 

This is weird, and interesting. It changes Rainbow's house--maybe that rainbow is there for a non-decorative reason. Maybe some flight fanatics swear by the natural methods, although there'd definitely still be synthetic preening oils at least for foals--since, you know, reaching rainbows generally requires flying in the first place, and also, as we all know, rainbows don't taste very good. And there'd be bubble-gum flavored preen for foals, too. Just like toothpaste.

 

Other explanations? Thoughts? To any whose head-cannon / life I just ruined, apologies.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Dawn Stripes

[Silverhoof 2,844]

Equestrian pegasi go to the Cloudsdale boutique and buy various brands of feather oil for clean and healthy wings.

nuff said.

[Jadefire 2,798]

I didn't know preening worked like that. I would assume they'd have a preen gland at the base of their wings, or I'll go with your rainbow idea.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

This thread appears to be discussing MLP:FiM in some way, shape or form. Thus, it has been sentenced to Show Discussion.<br /><br />This is an automatically generated message, by the way.

[Dawn Stripes 301]

That's certainly another possibility. It makes just as much sense (I'd say more, except that MLP's universe isn't very hardcore on realism, and rainbows might actually fit better with its general vibe), but I dunno'--something just feels weird about that. Like I said, they're not actually birds.

 

Doesn't matter much. It's not like we're actually deciding the whole fanon here. I'm playing Rainbow Dash in an RP though--totally gonna' sneak this in somehow.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Dawn Stripes

[Scootalove 10,692]

There is a possibility about Pegasi having oil glands. Sweat glands, definitely. But oil glands, could be possible but I don't really know for sure.

[Argumedies 1,748]

I've actually wondered this before and I buy into the saliva/oil gland theory but not so much as an oil like birds but a secondary gland that produces the same effect

[Prince Midnight 817]

ill go with the rainbow idea, seems to be well thought out and it works for me, since im a pegasai wheres mah rainbow got some feathers to oil up.

[Mand'alor Dash 2,225]

I thought they just took baths.

 

Now I've got the mental image of Fluttershy reaching her mouth to the oil gland on her bum and cleaning her wings with her teeth. Thanks, internet!

[Veylon 255]

A quick check of the internet reveals that not all birds have preen glands. The ones that don't have specialized feathers that disintegrate into powder that does much the same job as the oil. So I'm going with this method for Pegasi preening.

[Nature's Spell 526]

Well Twilight said in her hot minute that Fluttershy told her to mimic hummingbirds' gentle wing-care habits for longevity. I wonder what those are? Don't forget Rainbow Dash's 200 wing-ups a day. :-) I'd expect the Pegusus need someway of keeping their wings dry, but moving clouds must get them wet a lot.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Nature Spell

[Love*Potion 575]

Interesting thought! I never actually thought about it that way before...

 

As for my theory I just figured they use Rainbows; it's magic, it's convenient, and it solves all the necessary problems 

[Dawn Stripes 301]

I know, right?

 

Did a quick check on humingbirds. They preen the 'usual' way, not with powder. Therefore...therefore whatever. (A part of preen as I understand it, BTW, is often waterproofing feathers).

 

So. Yup. This has been illuminating. As you were, gentlecolts.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Dawn Stripes