Feather barbering help!

[Taylor Zaugg]

My eclectus is a year and a couple months old. He wont let his tail feathers grow sometimes they will break off or hell bite at them so just the shaft is left on his tail feathers. With his wing feathers he bites the shaft so its broken off and his wings don't grow. Hes only let one wing feather grow out. How do i help him?

some background information :
morning diet: papayas, mangos, kale, broccoli, bell peppers, melons
dinner: brown rice, quinoa, sweet potato, corn, beans
pellets: 10 zupreem pellets a day.
treats: 5-6 treats a day (almonds, seeds, peas, etc...)

Sleep- 11 hours a night
showers- once a week

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[Shinobi]

What mental enrichment is he getting?


This is some of the foodstuff we give henry. Apples, pears, peaches, carrots, dragon fruit, chillies, bean, peas, papayas, mangos, almonds, pine seeds, dandelion, kale, nectarines, bell peppers, melons, rice, quinoa, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, sweet potato, corn, figs, silver beet, bottle brush flower, grevillea flowers, eucalyptus gum nuts, plus some egg and chicken wing bones.

 

[Taylor Zaugg]

He has plenty of toys and i give him new ones often. He has foregoing drawers that I’ll put stuff he likes in there. He’s gotten that down though so i defiantly need to get more foraging toys. When he’s out of his cage he likes to walk around and explore with my supervision of course. I talk to him a lot and he loves to learn new words.

 

[JLcribber]

A bird that young should not be destroying its feathers. I would lean heavily towards something medical going.

Ekkies have a pretty specialized digestive system. You need to take extra caution that they don’t get much if any fortified food (pellets) because it’s known to cause issues. Too much goodness for these birds is not necessarily good.

You really need to do some medical investigation for such a young bird

 

[Mizzely]

Any unfiltered sunlight?

How big is the cage? Is he perhaps getting his tail stuck in the bars or anything?

I'm not an expert in Ekkie diet but I certainly would get a check up done regardless.

 

[Shinobi]

because no one understands why they do this There are NO experts. However, there are people with vast knowledge on feather destruction. Only your veterinarian can determine if it’s a medical reason and that must be the first step you take. When health and diet have been ruled out, then it’s most likely to be the environment the bird is in.

This is everything, from the phone ringing to family members. What is being watch on TV or the vacuum cleaner. It might be where the cage is positioned. Temperature, length of Daylight hours. How long the bird is awake for or asleep for. There will need to be a process of elimination to determine the cause in the bird’s environment..