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Frequent preening

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Starting in about March, my pacific parrotlet (born last year in April) has really, really upped the time she spends preening. At first I thought she was about to molt. And she seems... to be on a really subdued long molt? I don't really know. Occasionally she will shed some feathers and I can occasionally see a lot of dust around her from the preening.

She's been taken to the vet since: he greenlit her. She's in fine health. He even went out of his way to compliment her for how great her feathers look. Recently, she also had her yearly check-up: passed flying colors.

I did note that I was at times worried about her not getting enough enrichment; she tends to tire of new toys on the day itself. She likes to spend time with me and my girlfriend more than with her toys. Which is alright. Her favorite form of enrichment also seems to be training, specifically flight training. And I work from home.

But I still can't get over the feeling like the preening might be excessive and a sign of boredom.

Help?
 

Mizzely

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Well, birds do a few main things in the wild:

Fly
Forage
Socialize
Mate/Build Nest/Have Babies
Preen

So it IS possible that she has some boredom and is filling the gaps with preening, but they DO preen for a large amount of the day, so it may be nothing. Obviously the whole mating thing isn't something we can provide usually, but are there other aspects that you can encourage her toward?
 

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Well, birds do a few main things in the wild:

Fly
Forage
Socialize
Mate/Build Nest/Have Babies
Preen

So it IS possible that she has some boredom and is filling the gaps with preening, but they DO preen for a large amount of the day, so it may be nothing. Obviously the whole mating thing isn't something we can provide usually, but are there other aspects that you can encourage her toward?
Yeah see, I wouldn't be worried if there wasn't a sudden noticable increase in the behavior. But I also know that it's hard for people to judge through a forum. All I know is that it suddenly increased. Maybe it has to do with her maturing?

Maybe I'm just overly worried. The vet should have settled it for me.

I try to find new things for her to chew on and new ways for her to forage. She tends to like these only for a day or two. I'm considering offering all her food in bowls with shredded cardboard and paper to have her forage for her pellets more. I'm finally getting a decent carrier cage that will allow me to take her to more places when my girlfriend and I are out and about.

Edit: considering taking away my like from your post for failing to include 'pooping' in your list of things that wild parrots do.
 
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Mizzely

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It could be from maturing; is the air dry where you are? That can also increase preening activity as they need some moderate humidity. A carrier would be good as extra Vitamin D3 is never a bad thing when it comes from the sun :)

You could also try adding some red palm oil to her food, as healthy fats can sometimes help also if it is a dry skin issue.

Birds ARE constantly molting, but they do have a 1 to 3 "big" molts through the year that make it more noticeable.
 

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It could be from maturing; is the air dry where you are? That can also increase preening activity as they need some moderate humidity. A carrier would be good as extra Vitamin D3 is never a bad thing when it comes from the sun :)

You could also try adding some red palm oil to her food, as healthy fats can sometimes help also if it is a dry skin issue.

Birds ARE constantly molting, but they do have a 1 to 3 "big" molts through the year that make it more noticeable.
She fortunately also has a full spectrum lamp at the recommended distance. I always did intend to get her real sunlight too, but I focussed more on harness training.

It's fairly humid right now. I could see if the red palm oil makes a difference! Thanks.
 

Mizzely

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The bulbs do nothing for Vitamin D3 unfortunately :( They produce zero to extremely low levels of UVB which is what they need to D3 production.

There is a video here where they tested the bulbs: Vitamin D3 for Our Birds | Small Parrot Toys by Lil Monsters Bird Toys
In regards to the video

- He's a tad to quick resort to ad hominems to make his case (i.e: "vets" are just taking the word from manufacturers on their effectiveness of UVB lights -- he sounds a bit much like the anti-pellet folks here. Couldn't these vets be privy to information that he isn't?). Logical fallacies don't make someone wrong, but their use is still dubious.
- 2 bulbs from the same price range isn't really that thorough of a study. I don't think anyone doubts that there are bad products of any category on the market. But limiting it to 2 bulbs from a single price range really puts a dent in the external validity of his claim. At the very least, though. He did empirically prove that there are bad products on the market. And I think the video's biggest shortcoming was his lack of transparency there: if a product doesn't do as advertised, it's good for people to know.
- I think he's kinda fixed on a strawman. Perhaps some manufacturers are selling their full spectrum bulbs as accurately replicating sunlight. Which is of course false advertising. But I don't think most people who recommend full spectrum bulbs claim they're 100% analogous to sunlight.
- His claim that no study points towards the effectiveness of supplemented full spectrum lighting is plainly false. This study on African greys suggests that UVB light is helpful. Interestingly enough, this study does seem to suggest that dietary vitamin D from pellets is sufficient. Or at the very least, as effective of artificial full spectrum lighting when diet ISN'T in order. You could potentially draw from that that full spectrum lighting may improve vitamin D in parrots with lacking diets, but doesn't optimize it in either. But I feel like I'm not qualified to comment on that.

Some of the things he noted are down to misuse, though: leaving the lamps in for longer than 6 months, or placing them too closely to the bird (mine is at a distance of 40 cm). Which is the cause of cataracts. Not the lamps in and of themselves.

I understand that at the very least, not ALL evidence seems to suggest their effectiveness. Which is fair and something to keep in mind. I wouldn't say that I'm fully convinced either. But until I see a meta-analysis -- which I can't see happening for a long time -- or at least a thorough review of the available literature, I don't think I can safely conclude they're entirely ineffective in providing vitamin D to birds yet either.

Granted, I do not know how familiar you are with the African grey study or if there's a lot of literature I'm unfamiliar with. I tend to be pretty damn bad at finding studies on parrot husbandry.
 
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Mizzely

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There are some other studies like shell health on tortoises, and there are some threads here where people also tested their own bulbs. Enough for me to decide not to waste my time or money. I'll have to see if I can find them again but don't have time this moment. I'll try to check back later :)
 
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