Mutha Plucker!!!
 

OK I need all you Parrot owners help :)

My 15 month old African Grey has decided to PLUCK! Ugh! I don't get it??? Does anyone have some suggestions for me? I of course belong to a few African Grey forums as well but thought I'd ask here too.

Nothing has changed for him. The only thing I can think of that changed was I had a litter of pups a while ago and was spending alot of time with them, as I was bottle feeding one. Other than that...thats the only change.

Since I've noticed I've move dhim in the family room which gets 98% of our action, added more toys and making sure he's getting more out time. He's healthy, singing, talking, everything he was doing.

I'm a first time parrot owner so any advice would be appreciated!!! :)

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.

Thank you I will read what you posted! Thanks!

I just totally watched him..not PULL a feather our...but he chewed it off and is now chewing it. He took a big one off his wing :(

Do you have a vet for him? Poor thing I wonder what's up.

Hi Breny...just wanted to let you know that there is bitter apple spray for birds. Hopefully that might help! Good luck!

Could he be molting ?...I know cockatiels do...they molt naturally, its a healthy things. it's also a sign of stress. Good luck.

Time to breed.... (the bird).... misting may help...

I know nothing about birds, besides the parakeets we had for my daughter years ago. But I just thought how cute that would be if you got Bo to make you the smallest Kiss E Cone Collar ever!:p
Truly hope he gets back to normal.

Welp no breeding birds in my future LOL. He was 1 in Dec. I've had him since he was weaned. (I'm calling him "HIM" but I did not have him sexed)
Can you tell me more on this?

Also Misting. He HATES it! I have no clue why but I am trying to everyday now to get him used to it. I even tried him in the sink today and Oh my he had a fit! So I am going to mist once a day and hope he starts to enjoy. How does misting help with the feather distroying?

Good luck, we used to have macaws and a umbrella parrot. The scarlet we had started plucking feathers, we had the vet do all sorts of tests, everything came back normal. This bird was crazy in love with my husband. The vet wanted us to take the bird to a phycologist (spelling) because he felt that she was acting out because she wanted to be with hubby all the time. We did everything we could, playpens, a zillion toys wood chews, (and our macaw ate seed, pellets, fruits, veggies twice daily), the vet said sometimes they start plucking for whatever reason, and with some it becomes a habit and they cant stop. When she was half naked we decided we needed to find her a home that no one worked, or spent time with any other animals. Last I heard, she still plucks but shes not naked. I hope you find the cause and it stops. Good luck.

I have nothing of importance to offer except to tell you extremely hard I laughed when I read your thread title and then the story. Not that there is anything funny about what your bird is doing cause I can see you are worried for this behavior. I'm sorry that "he" is doing this and I hope you find a remedy soon! Good Luck! :D

LOL the thread name is AWESOME!!!

I had a blue and gold but she never plucked. But the breeder she came from told me the first thing is diet. Do you feed veges,fruits, eggs, etc along with pellets? Have you changed the diet recently?

Other times it is pure boredom. These birds are actually social and live in flocks and need to be socialized. How much time a day are you spending with him? What type of activities do you do with him? Learning activities?

That is the best I can offer. Good luck and watch for blood feathers!!! Those are emergencies...

I currently have a yellow crowned amazon but have had birds all of my life. Fortunately, we haven't experienced feather-pluckers. I feed a pelleted diet with daily fresh food and there is a weekly or twice weekly shower to reduce dander etc. I think aside from disease or mites, it could be dietary but most likely behavioral.

I did find this link which might be helpful written by an avian vet.

The Basics of feather picking

From my two years working in the bird store for a breeder who bred and raised baby parrots: Onset of feather plucking can be as the bird is reaching puberty. As females pluck to line the nest, the hormonal change can bring it on. Breeding satisfies all that goes along with this time, comraderie with a partner, and the preparations to make a family.

It can also be caused by a host of other things, from parasites to diseases. A good place to start is by keeping a diary of when and where he's picking, and any foods that may trigger it, or if it's seasonal, etc. This site explains everything in detail: (Same link Cathy suggested)

The Basics of Feather Picking

I have two Congo African Greys, one is wild caught (to the best of my knowledge) and the other is a handfed baby, or was... it's much older now. The wildcaught is somewhat aggressive and a FP. The HF Baby I was able to hand feed from the time the owner brought it into the store till weened, when I took it home. She occassionally pulls all her red tail feathers out, but may be attributed to molting periods. She is very attached to her toys, especially the ones that she was first introduced to when she was a baby. (Plastic link chains). She gets very upset if I remove them from her cage, even just for cleaning.


Misting a bird helps to remove dust and junk from the feathers, and helps to moisturize the skin, which can tend to dry out and become itchy in the winter months with the heat inside that tends to dry everything out.
To accustom a bird to being sprayed/misted, start by using warm water (I boil cold water and add it to a bottle of cold water. Hot/warm tap water contains minerals and junk from the pipes) in a spray bottle that has a superfine mister on it. Newspaper in the bottom of the cage is best bc it's naturally antibacterial. Begin by spraying the paper evey morning, making it fairly damp. This will increase the humidity and help to keep the dander down. Every now and then, hide the bottle and gently mist over the top of the cage so the mist falls down on the bird like rain. This may be more accepting to some birds. I stand with my back to the cage, bottle in front of me, and aim to spray over my head onto the top of the cage. Just a couple squirts is fine as he acclimates to it.

You can also buy a shower perch for him. PVC pipe with big suction cups to stick to the shower walls. If he sees you getting wet, he may be more accepting of the idea....

Plastic Perches - Plastic Bird Perches

How is his sleeping? Does he get covered and have plenty of night time (dark room) for sleeping? I used to raise canaries and also had a cockatiel and they needed about 7 hours nightly in the dark as best I remember. It's been years since I thought about it. I had the light on a timer in their room. During breeding, the light was different. Not sure if parrots are the same. Just a thought.