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My sweet bird is plucking! Help!

Animallover_84

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Hi everybody!

It´s been a long time since I posted anything here…but now I feel as though I have to.

Long story slightly short: I could use your help.

Long story slightly longer (including some background information):

In February of 2019 one of my dogs suddenly got very ill, she went from being a completely healthy seven-year-old dog to a dying dog within minutes. All of a sudden, she had a massive seizure that made her foam around the mouth and she was twitching the entire trip to the vet (the taxi arrived after about 30 minutes and the journey to the vet took about the same amount of time). They took some blood etc. and then they rushed her in and put her in a medically induced coma (or whatever its ‘called when the dog is sleeping due to a bunch of drugs).

She was transported (still sleeping and monitored by an animal technician) to a larger animal hospital with more expertise the next day and she remained there for a few days. Her condition was extremely uncertain and I believed I was going to lose my darling. Against all odds they managed to slowly wake her up after she had been a sleep for about 24 hours (every attempt to wake her before that resulted in another severe seizure).

She had to stay in the hospital for a few more days (after waking up) and she had to be in an incubator to get extra oxygen, due to the fact that she had inhaled fluids during the seizures and had gotten a pulmonary edema.

She had trouble walking etc. and needed constant help and supervision for quite some time after she finally was allowed to come home. Thankfully she almost made a full recovery to everybody’s surprise (she has some minor issues with her balance sometimes) but she needed a lot of help initially and she still needs medication four times daily.

My dog required a lot of my time and attention for quite a while after she got home (since she needed help and supervision 24/7) and because of this; I unfortunately didn´t have as much time as I usually have for my parrot. Sadly, my beloved friend (my 11 year old Black headed Caique that is) didn’t cope well with not having me around as much and getting less time outside the cage than usual. I never thought a parrot in my care would ever pluck, but unfortunately due to the circumstances surrounding my dog´s near death experience, my parrot felt the need/urge to self-mutilate.

I´m doing everything I can to make my parrot happy again and to stop this horrible trend. When my bird started plucking, it quickly went from being a few feathers (and me asking myself if my bird was molting or plucking) to a huge pile of feathers on the cage floor and an almost naked bird. It breaks my heart to se my wonderful little friend like this and I sincerely hope that there is something that I can do to make this right, to make my bird happy again and to stop my bird from hurting itself.

If you have any tips regarding how to stop plucking behavior or how to distract my bird from hurting itself, I´m all ears. So far, I´ve (apart from obviously spending more time with my bird, since my dog is feeling better and doesn´t need constant supervision anymore); bought and made a lot of toys to keep my parrot busy, such as foraging toys, shredding toys etc. I´ve also invested in a parrot cookbook to get more inspiration regarding how I can vary my parrots’ veggies etc. more.

Since I first got my parrot (in September of 2018) I´ve been looking for another caique because I believe in having two parrots, due to there extremely social nature. I wanted to get my parrot a friend (obviously I am prepared to have two cages etc. if they don´t get along at all, or doesn´t become as good friends as I hope). Also, there is “kind of a law” in my country specifying that you need to have at least two parrots. They also state that the bird/parrot needs to be of the same family/type/species (it´s therefore not ok to have for example a budgie and a cockatiel together unless they have a budgie and cockatiel friend as well). So, it´s sort of (there are exceptions that I don´t fully agree with) illegal to keep only one bird.

Yesterday, I finally got my second parrot (the first caique living alone that I’ve found, since my first bird). . He (DNA tested male) is a White bellied caique and he´s three years old and absolutely adorable (despite the fact that he bit me the first chance he got, he he). For now, he´s obviously in quarantine (kind of anyway…he´s in another room and I´m doing my best to keep everything separate) but I hope they will become great friends later on.

I´m grateful for any advice you can give me regarding my poor little plucking bird, because my heart breaks every time, I look at my darling friend. This was never supposed to happen…but unfortunately, I can’t change what happened to my dog; or change the fact that my bird got depressed and started plucking. All I can do is try to make it right again and try my best to stop this terrible behavior from being even worse or continuing forever.

Please help. Thank you in advance.

/Animallover_84
 
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sunnysmom

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Sorry to hear that he's plucking. It does sound like it's probably behavioral but it's always good to rule out any medical conditions first.

This has some good advice: Feather Plucking in Pet Birds | Beauty of Birds

Does he get outside at all? I have heard of some instance where that helps but of course, you have to make sure he doesn't get a burned. Also, have you considered a soft collar?
 

Animallover_84

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Sorry to hear that he's plucking. It does sound like it's probably behavioral but it's always good to rule out any medical conditions first.

This has some good advice: Feather Plucking in Pet Birds | Beauty of Birds

Does he get outside at all? I have heard of some instance where that helps but of course, you have to make sure he doesn't get a burned. Also, have you considered a soft collar?
Thank you for replying!

I will look into the links you gave me, thanks!

No unfortunately I can´t take the bird outside. I´ve tried to teach it to accept a harness but so far, no real luck in that department (previous owner claimed it was harness trained…but I don´t believe that the harness was put on without force in that case). My bird got scared when I couldn´t get the loop (around the head) off fast enough (after giving the reward while clicker training). If I have a very big loop there´s no problem, but the actual “head-loop” doesn’t work (not yet anyway, it´s a Aviator harness). Same thing with the travel cage…well kind of, it doesn´t seem to like going in (probably because the owner before me, might have forced it by “toweling” it). I have tried to put treats in the cage and tried to have the bird on my hand and moving it towards the opening to put the bird on the perch…but it won´t let me. I have no trouble putting my parrot back into the actual cage, only the travel cage.

I´m not familiar with a soft collar, do you have a picture/link to one?

/Animallover_84
 

Animallover_84

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Wow. Over how long of a period of time did he do that? Has he been vet checked?
Not as long as you might think. It was a very quick transformation from having plucked a few feathers (I wasn´t even completely sure it wasn´t just molting) to being almost naked. There was literally a pile of feathers on the bottom of the cage one morning. It was a complete chock, and at first, I didn´t understand what I was looking at. I saw the pile of feathers before I saw my bird... The night before there was a few feathers missing from the chest area…and then…well as you clearly see in the pictures…

Unfortunately, I don´t have any avian veterinarians anywhere even remotely near me, and I can´t really travel anywhere due to an injury that makes traveling extremely painful for me. I´m not sure a “normal vet” could do anything/would know what to do:what:? Plus, I´m as sure as you possibly could be that this is my fault, my “neglect” (during a very stressful and difficult time for me) while caring for my dog, that led my bird to do this to itself. I´m to blame for this terrible scenario and that´s unbearable. My poor little (nearly) feathered friend:crycry2:


/Animallover_84
 
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sunnysmom

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Thank you for replying!

I will look into the links you gave me, thanks!

No unfortunately I can´t take the bird outside. I´ve tried to teach it to accept a harness but so far, no real luck in that department (previous owner claimed it was harness trained…but I don´t believe that the harness was put on without force in that case). My bird got scared when I couldn´t get the loop (around the head) off fast enough (after giving the reward while clicker training). If I have a very big loop there´s no problem, but the actual “head-loop” doesn’t work (not yet anyway, it´s a Aviator harness). Same thing with the travel cage…well kind of, it doesn´t seem to like going in (probably because the owner before me, might have forced it by “toweling” it). I have tried to put treats in the cage and tried to have the bird on my hand and moving it towards the opening to put the bird on the perch…but it won´t let me. I have no trouble putting my parrot back into the actual cage, only the travel cage.

I´m not familiar with a soft collar, do you have a picture/link to one?

/Animallover_84
Here's a link to a woman that makes collars to help with plucking. Protective Parrot Petals by Pam - Home | Facebook
 

Cat The Great

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Could you introduce foraging toys for your caique, if you haven’t already? That may help keep your parrot’s mind stimulated and may distract him from plucking as much feathers while you wait to get a collar for him. Other than that, I don’t have any other suggestions than what the others suggested. I really hope these help your parrot stop plucking.
 

Zara

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I can´t really travel anywhere due to an injury
Do you have a friend of family member that drives? Maybe offer them some cash for petrol and see if they will take you to the vet.

101 for a plucking bird is to see a vet. I hope you find a way to get there!❤

I´m very sorry that your bird is going through this.
 

janicedyh

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I agree with others saying you NEED to get your bird tested.There are many things that could lead to a bird plucking and until you rule those out its guess work. You may not have a Avian vet but I'm sure you could find one that could take blood and send it to a lab. Sunnysmom, I have one of the collars made by Pam and they are excellent. First you MUST go to the vet! Call all the vets offices to see if they at least have a vet who specialized in exotics or sees a lot of birds. Showers do help with the itchiness, I give Doby 2 or 3 per day. Don't spray anything on your bird...like aloe spray or the ones you see on the market for pluckers. First thing is ruling out health issues, allergies to foods, deficiencies etc. If nothing is found you need to be diligent, collars, foraging, lots of time with him. Hopefully he has not been doing this very long, the habit is almost impossible to break.
 

janicedyh

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I posted this picture on my thread about Doby but thought it may be helpful here. This is one from the person Sunnysmom posted about
 

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