Parrot Cage, Parrot Toys, Parrot Stands

So your parrot is ‘over preening’.  Plucking is a depression type problem (self harm).

There are 3 main contributors to a parrot plucking itself:

-          Improper diet

-          Psychological problem

-          Illness

The cure involves both a proper diet, reversing the cause of the psychological problem or/and illness  However if the problem has gone for too long then the bird has accepted plucking was a normal behaviour and it is then more difficult to tackle.

Daily Diet

Lots of raw and well washed vegetables and fruits which are full of vitamins (for example: broccoli, carrots, red peppers, papaya), reinforced by additional purposed vitamins which can be added to the bird clean water such as ‘Feather up’, ‘Calcivet’ and ‘Spark’ (spark is a very gentle anti-stress type medicine).

You can also give your bird meat such as well cooked steak, it is good for them!

Psychological problems

Do you know what type of disturbance your bird’s life has suffered from, may be the lost or sickness of its partner, change of home, location of the cage, jealousy, lack of ‘things to do’, left alone all day every day would most certainly trigger this type of behaviour.

I have found that reading a book to your bird for one hour each day helps in gaining back the trust.

If you have no time for your bird then it is obvious you should try to find somebody who has, the alternative, if accepted by your bird, would be to get your bird a special partner, one of its own type and opposite sex, however this does not always work especially if your bird is a cockatoo.    Parrots are very much like children and you would not leave your child all day by itself would you?

There are, of course, other types of trauma such as a parrot used to fly free in an aviary then confined into a cage having to share a room with people it fears so much, in this latest case the bird would be better in an aviary with a mate.

Illness

A parrot feeling unwell might pluck itself.  It could also pluck when its mate is unwell.

Some of the illness might be due to breathing difficulties due to a dusty, smoky, perfumed, damp, very hot or very cold environment.

Though the signs might not be obvious an un-well parrot would look sad, not to confuse with the ups and downs of the breeding seasons.

If your parrot is not subjected to any of the above then it might be time to consult an avian vet.    Do you know you can collect the poop of your bird for analysis; it is less stressful for the parrot than been seen by a vet.

My own story about 2 plucking parrots

My tamed parrot: Max.

I purchased Max when he was only a baby.    By fear of losing him I had his feathers clipped which I know now was the wrong thing to do.

One morning Max, 3 years old, was sneezing, I got worried and took him to a vet.  The vet could not find anything wrong with him, but told me the stumps of the clipped feathers should be removed to allow the feathers to grow properly.  He was a vet after all so I let him pluck Max stumps.  Back home Max looked very tired and since it was late evening I closed the light and let him slept.  In the morning went into his room, he screamed not wanting to know me, he seemed very scared of me.  Things went to worst when Max systematically plucked any feathers as soon as they started growing.

I had lost the trust of my baby and turned to the web to get an answer of what to do. 

Purchased ‘feather up’, ‘spark’, lots of vegetables, gave him more ‘Calcivet’, sat in front of his cage every day reading a book to him for an hour.  During a very long three months period he refused to leave the cage, throwing himself in the bars of his cage, screaming at his shadows on the wall and wild birds flying outside.  Then he decided I could pick him up again but biting me quite hard.  I then had to work hard with him to stop his paranoia.  I had to touch the shadows on the wall of his room with my nose asking him to do the same saying ‘mummy touch, max touch too’.  More months went by, then little by little his state of mind improved, as he started to trust me again.   I then purchased a female of its own type (African Grey), semi-tamed so he does not get jealous and one year older than him.  I changed the cage to an aviary type cage built to my own requirements with a partition in the middle to house them both in the same place.    It took 6 months for my baby to stop plucking and to accept me again.  I am happy to say now, 7 years later, Max has not plucked any of its feathers.  He called his new friend ‘Picture’.  Picture and Max are not ‘the best friends’ but they do get on.

My wild African grey: Billy

A lady telephoned me to ask me if I would not mind adopting her 2 African Greys.  She purchased them from a pets shop, they had been taken from the wild but the pets shop owner assure her they would be ok in a cage in her living room.  Three days after she purchased them, she found a pack of feathers in the corner of the cage and the male without any feathers except for the top of the head.  I housed them straight away into my outside bird aviary.  One week after the female looked very ill.  I got her into the vet who had to put her down.  She apparently had suffered from a lung abscess.  I got the male another female increased the amount of ‘Calcivet’ I alternated with a good ‘Feather up’ dose and gave him (and her new female: Michelle) ‘Spark’ (a mild anti stress) and lots of vegetables.  It has now been 3 years since this incident, his feathers have grown back, he still does not fly and I keep away from them except for daily cleaning and feeding.  The start was very rocky as he was fighting with the new female, probably thinking his partner would be back very soon, but they are ok now and spend their time preening and feeding each other.  But those 2 greys are still very frightened of people and the male, Billy, will probably never recover fully from his ordeal.

The above just to show, sometimes and with lots of dedication plucking behaviour can stop.