Best UV Lighting for Birds, Self Mutilation, NEED ADVICE! Please

[KatieKess]

Hey everyone! I have a cockatiel named Marvin, and he’s been struggling with self mutilation for the past year. I have actually taken him to the vet 7 times, and we still have no luck in getting the issue resolved. He’s been in collars (which absolutely depressed him), on various medications, and i’ve evaluated ALMOST all areas of his life/care. He has a large cage, plenty of high quality foraging and shredding toys, at least 2-3 hours of outside of the cage time everyday, and everything else that I can think of. He’s a very loved and spoiled birb! The only issue I have had, is getting him to eat his vegetables. He is offered fresh greens everyday (and I have tried almost every veggie I can think of) but he rarely takes more than 1-2 tiny nibbles. Because of his extreme pickiness, his diet is mostly made up of Zupreem natural pellets, nutriberries, and of course a small amount of seeds/millet for treats. He is also very attached to me, and he shows very little interest in anything that doesn’t involve me. He very rarely plays with his toys, and he just seems to be very anxious when I am not home. Even when I am home, if I leave the room for a second he will scream until I return. The only things he enjoys playing with are things he sees me using, like hair ties for example. Sorry for the extreme details, I just really need help figuring out how to solve this problem for my baby. I am going to be buying Harrison’s high potency pellets, and I was thinking of getting him one of those bird UV lights. I had never even thought of it before, but he really isn’t able to get much sunlight through our windows, and it’s hard to take him outside as I live in an apartment complex with dogs constantly running around and don’t want him getting spooked. So perhaps the light may help him absorb more nutrition, if that is why he’s mutilating? I really just need some advice, any advise at all!! Thank you so much in advance! (Also I really am not able to buy another bird right now, as I live in an apartment and the noise could really become an issue… he is noisy alone! LOL. And also I honestly don’t think he would like another bird, I fear that would stress him out even further)

Thank you!

 

[Hankmacaw]

If your bird is on a pellet diet, you don't need to worry about him getting enough Vt D. Both the Zupreen and harrison's pellets have Vit D inthem in good quantities..

 

[Sparkles!]

Is your bird fully vetted and do you have a really good bird store near you?

Not ideal, but sometimes the smaller birds who belong to large gregarious flocks in nature will cease plucking if that plucking is related to nervous insecurity once they’re habituated to a larger commune. The best way to do that is integrating more flock to your home, but sometimes that’s not an option-So birdie daycare has been a successfully implemented tactic used for years. There’s risk of disease if the Store doesn’t do appropriate vetting, but that’s why I asked if you had any good stores close.

Some individual birds can like humans, but a mere human will never be enough for them. They need and crave the security of a large dynamic avian flock.

 

[Ripshod]

I found with fussy eaters probably the best thing you can do is eat veggies with them. As he's so bonded to you make it a daily social event.
UV lighting is indeed pretty useless. A good dose of everything a bird needs can come from a little smashed boiled egg once a week. Everything else can come from pellets, but tiels are granivores and need some seed in their daily diet.

 

[tka]

Something to look carefully at is your bond with him. My older parrot barbered her feathers and the only thing that has made a difference is getting her off my shoulder and guiding her into being much more independent. She spent a lot of time on my shoulder and this made her think that we were a bonded pair, and then she got increasingly hormonal and frustrated that I couldn't be the partner that she so wanted. I had to go cold turkey in getting her off my shoulder (and knee, and head, and sitting with me on my desk chair) and redirect her to play with her toys. It's been a couple of months and the improvement has been dramatic.

The pair-bond sneaked up on me - I didn't think there was one because she didn't regurgitate for me, and I was always very careful to only scritch her head and never touched other parts of her body. However, no one told Leia that. Bonding so strongly to a human does seem to be a source of stress. We just cannot fulfil the role of a partner for them.