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babbsiam44 · 03-30-2011, 01:23 PM

I found this for you. I too was a bird person one time in my life and owned cockatiels. parakeets and green cheek conures.

1) Malnutrition is the number one cause of feather picking that I see. These are birds that have been feed a seed diet containing large numbers of sunflower or safflower seeds. Parrots are exceptionally fond of oily sunflower seeds. However, a diet rich in sunflower seeds does not meet the bird’s nutritional demands. These seeds are too high in fat and too low in vitamin A and protein. With time, their skin becomes dry and flaky. Their cere (the area of the nostrils) becomes thickened and the nostrils small scaly, and irregular. Their body feathers lack luster and colour. They suffer from sinusitis as well as respiratory infections. Sometimes the areas surrounding the eyes become puffy and swollen. Molts often becomes irregular or incomplete. Many of these parrots begin to over-groom and destroy their feathers. Since individual feathers are retained too long in this condition they also become torn and frayed. These birds need to be gradually switched to a high quality pelleted diet ( see article on changing a parrot’s diet). However, the parrot may continue to pluck out of habit even when it is returned to balanced nutrition. In this case, the problem, though initially nutritional, has become psychological.
2) Psychological Stress is common among cage birds. When a bird is under stress, it often resorts to
excess grooming e.g. plucking its own feathers out. If the bird’s head is plucked, it is a cage mate that has the problem. One common cause of psychological stress is sexual maturity and the urge to bond and court a mate. If the owner is accepted as the birds mate and has the time to interact with the bird things go fine. If, however, the bird becomes frustrated, plucking often results this problem is worst in grey parrots, cockatoos and macaws but it occurs in all parrots. Parrots normally come in to breeding condition shortly after day length begins to increase. Birds under artificial lighting are more erratic. Another cause of psychological stress is too small a quarters or housing that lacks stimulating and interactive toys and objects. In the wild, a parrot spends 50-80% of its time searching for food. When the need for foraging for food is removed, the birds have an enormous amount of free time on their hands. One way to occupy this time is to groom the feathers. Some birds literally groom their feathers off for lack of other pastimes. The secret of success with these cases is to provide a stimulating environment for the bird. This should consist of toys, novel areas, raw branch perches of differing diameter that the bird can chew on, bells, hide-boxes, mirrors and any safe objects that the bird shows interest in. Radio and television is sometimes also helpful, as is placement of the cage near a window with a view. Adding craft paper bags for the bird to enter or a nest box for the pet to sleep in may also help.
Many of these birds that become veteran self-puckers have been doing it on and off for years and need medications to break the habit. Drugs that have been used successfully for this problem include the hormone Depopovera (medroxyprogesterone acetate injection of 5-25mg/kg every 3 months) which alters mood and mood-altering medications that work directly on the brain, such as Elavil (amitryptyline1-2mg/kg twice a day) and drugs that decrease obsessive-compulsive behaviors such as Clomacalm (chlomipramine HCl 0.5-1mg/kg once or twice a day orally). I have had the most success using a preparation of strawberry syrup and chlomipramine.

3) Parasites are reported to occasionally cause feather itching and feather plucking. Although many books on birds say that external parasites, such as lice and mites, cause a bird to pluck out its feathers, lice are extremely uncommon on pet hook-billed birds in which self-plucking is a problem. That is why moth-ball-containing packets (naphthalene and camphor) hung in the cage are worthless. If mites or lice are actually determined to be present, the best treatment is to apply a diluted mixture of ivomectin to the bird or give ivomectin orally at 200micrograms per kilogram of bird. A light dusting of rotenone tomato dust is also a safe way to kill external parasites. A microscopic protozoan parasite of the intestine, Giardia, has also been reported to cause itching and self-plucking in lovebirds. I have never had a documented case of this kind presented to me in approximately 35 years of working with parrots. If, however, a case occurs, the treatment of choice is to place the bird on metronidazole (Flagyl) at 10-30miligrams per kilogram twice a day for ten days. It is extremely bitter unless specially formulated.

4) Internal organ disease of a chronic nature, such as hepatitis or egg yolk peritonitis and abdominal tumors often manifests itself as self-trauma to the feathers. The cause of this is unknown. I suspect these conditions when an older bird housed under excellent conditions begins to pluck its feathers. Many of these conditions are incurable.

Birds with feather picking should undergo a thorough physical examination by an experienced avian veterinarian as well as laboratory evaluation to determine the underlying cause and most appropriate treatment.

New Developments:
The March, 2005 issue of Veterinary Practice News mentions studies on self-plucking in birds that responded to suplementation with 5-hydroxytriptophan or 5-HTP. This ammino acid derivative of tryptophan is important in the production of seritonin in the brain. Brain seritonin levels have been linked to obsessive-compulsive behavior in humans and primates. A dose is not given. I personally take 100mg of 5-HTP three times a day. You can use that dose as reference when adding it to your bird's diet.

03-30-2011, 01:23 PM	#2
babbsiam44 YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Virginia Posts: 1,132	I found this for you. I too was a bird person one time in my life and owned cockatiels. parakeets and green cheek conures. 1) Malnutrition is the number one cause of feather picking that I see. These are birds that have been feed a seed diet containing large numbers of sunflower or safflower seeds. Parrots are exceptionally fond of oily sunflower seeds. However, a diet rich in sunflower seeds does not meet the bird’s nutritional demands. These seeds are too high in fat and too low in vitamin A and protein. With time, their skin becomes dry and flaky. Their cere (the area of the nostrils) becomes thickened and the nostrils small scaly, and irregular. Their body feathers lack luster and colour. They suffer from sinusitis as well as respiratory infections. Sometimes the areas surrounding the eyes become puffy and swollen. Molts often becomes irregular or incomplete. Many of these parrots begin to over-groom and destroy their feathers. Since individual feathers are retained too long in this condition they also become torn and frayed. These birds need to be gradually switched to a high quality pelleted diet ( see article on changing a parrot’s diet). However, the parrot may continue to pluck out of habit even when it is returned to balanced nutrition. In this case, the problem, though initially nutritional, has become psychological. 2) Psychological Stress is common among cage birds. When a bird is under stress, it often resorts to excess grooming e.g. plucking its own feathers out. If the bird’s head is plucked, it is a cage mate that has the problem. One common cause of psychological stress is sexual maturity and the urge to bond and court a mate. If the owner is accepted as the birds mate and has the time to interact with the bird things go fine. If, however, the bird becomes frustrated, plucking often results this problem is worst in grey parrots, cockatoos and macaws but it occurs in all parrots. Parrots normally come in to breeding condition shortly after day length begins to increase. Birds under artificial lighting are more erratic. Another cause of psychological stress is too small a quarters or housing that lacks stimulating and interactive toys and objects. In the wild, a parrot spends 50-80% of its time searching for food. When the need for foraging for food is removed, the birds have an enormous amount of free time on their hands. One way to occupy this time is to groom the feathers. Some birds literally groom their feathers off for lack of other pastimes. The secret of success with these cases is to provide a stimulating environment for the bird. This should consist of toys, novel areas, raw branch perches of differing diameter that the bird can chew on, bells, hide-boxes, mirrors and any safe objects that the bird shows interest in. Radio and television is sometimes also helpful, as is placement of the cage near a window with a view. Adding craft paper bags for the bird to enter or a nest box for the pet to sleep in may also help. Many of these birds that become veteran self-puckers have been doing it on and off for years and need medications to break the habit. Drugs that have been used successfully for this problem include the hormone Depopovera (medroxyprogesterone acetate injection of 5-25mg/kg every 3 months) which alters mood and mood-altering medications that work directly on the brain, such as Elavil (amitryptyline1-2mg/kg twice a day) and drugs that decrease obsessive-compulsive behaviors such as Clomacalm (chlomipramine HCl 0.5-1mg/kg once or twice a day orally). I have had the most success using a preparation of strawberry syrup and chlomipramine. 3) Parasites are reported to occasionally cause feather itching and feather plucking. Although many books on birds say that external parasites, such as lice and mites, cause a bird to pluck out its feathers, lice are extremely uncommon on pet hook-billed birds in which self-plucking is a problem. That is why moth-ball-containing packets (naphthalene and camphor) hung in the cage are worthless. If mites or lice are actually determined to be present, the best treatment is to apply a diluted mixture of ivomectin to the bird or give ivomectin orally at 200micrograms per kilogram of bird. A light dusting of rotenone tomato dust is also a safe way to kill external parasites. A microscopic protozoan parasite of the intestine, Giardia, has also been reported to cause itching and self-plucking in lovebirds. I have never had a documented case of this kind presented to me in approximately 35 years of working with parrots. If, however, a case occurs, the treatment of choice is to place the bird on metronidazole (Flagyl) at 10-30miligrams per kilogram twice a day for ten days. It is extremely bitter unless specially formulated. 4) Internal organ disease of a chronic nature, such as hepatitis or egg yolk peritonitis and abdominal tumors often manifests itself as self-trauma to the feathers. The cause of this is unknown. I suspect these conditions when an older bird housed under excellent conditions begins to pluck its feathers. Many of these conditions are incurable. Birds with feather picking should undergo a thorough physical examination by an experienced avian veterinarian as well as laboratory evaluation to determine the underlying cause and most appropriate treatment. New Developments: The March, 2005 issue of Veterinary Practice News mentions studies on self-plucking in birds that responded to suplementation with 5-hydroxytriptophan or 5-HTP. This ammino acid derivative of tryptophan is important in the production of seritonin in the brain. Brain seritonin levels have been linked to obsessive-compulsive behavior in humans and primates. A dose is not given. I personally take 100mg of 5-HTP three times a day. You can use that dose as reference when adding it to your bird's diet.