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GCC plucking/barbering her sister GCC

pawilliams

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Hi, I'm Paul and I'm new here on AA. I'm also a newbie bird owner with a bit of a dilemma.

I have two adorable GCC's named Merry and Pippen. Merry is a turquoise yellow-sided, and Pippen is a pineapple. Although they were from different clutches, they hatched about two weeks apart at the same breeder's last March (2019). I asked for them to be raised together, and bought them both, because I work an office job full-time and didn't want a solitary bird to be lonely while I was out. They were raised in the same cage until their flight feathers came in, then the breeder clipped them (without asking me), and she sold them to me once they were fully weaned onto a solid food diet. Until last week, they had always shared a single cage.

However, maybe two months ago, Pippen started chewing up the feathers that grew in from Merry's first moulting. Pippen also barbered the one flight feather Merry had partially kept from her first fledge until only the shaft remained behind; this was bad enough. But now she's apparently also started chomping Merry's tail and other flights so that they're ragged. I only observed this behavior about two weeks ago, when I caught Pippen going after Merry's new shorter flights. Usually they'd just groom each other in what seemed (to me at least), a relatively normal and reciprocal fashion. And Pippen never, ever, ever chews her own feathers - they're glorious!

Now, as background, a lot of changes started happening at home about 6 months ago. My daughter graduated from high school and began a "gap year" which (to her) apparently means doing nothing but sitting around at home looking at her phone/Switch/laptop. We moved into a new house much closer to my job, in a different school district. I got my daughter a rescue cockatiel we named Sam to be "her" bird, and the addition to our flock has gone...okay, I guess. Pippen and Sam don't really like each other and rarely eat together, but they're rarely overtly hostile. Merry is neutral to Sam and remains bonded to Pippen, following her sister everywhere. Starting last week after I saw Pippen chomp into Merry's flight feathers, the three birds sleep in separate cages, but they have essentially free range of the house during the days (at least, when my human child is awake). Usually, that means Sam hangs out by himself or on my daughter's shoulder all day, while Merry and Pippen sit on one of their perches together a little bit away, but right next to each other.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything useful online about one bird chewing/plucking/barbering another bird.

My local bird-rescue owner/parrot-whisperer said to feed both GCC's a high-keratin diet and the issue would take care of itself, so I've started making sure their chop has hard-boiled egg in it all the time (apparently a good source, and one they'll both eat). But it still doesn't make much sense to me: if the root issue was a nutritional deficiency, wouldn't Pippen attack her own feathers, now that I've separated her from Merry? And why would this behavior only start after we brought the two of them into a new home, when I haven't changed the pellet/seed mix that we've been giving them since gotcha day?

The only things that I can think of, is first that maybe there's something airborne in the new house that makes Pippen hungry for her sister's feathers. Or second, that the increased size of the flock along with the increasing distractedness of my daughter (as she becomes more and more a professional meme-scroll-through-er), has caused Pippen to start feeling increasingly less secure: feelings she takes out on her sister's feathers.

So any advice the experienced bird owners here could give would be great, because I'm going out of my mind trying to figure out how to keep Merry healthy and happy and able to fly, without making Pippen miserable and confined to her cage.

[edit]: I forgot to add, Merry and Pippen are both DNA-sexed female. Sam is of unknown gender and age.
 
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Cynthia & Percy

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Welcome I would separate the two birds and only have them together when they were watched during out time
 

pawilliams

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Thanks Cynthia!

I'll let my daughter know that they should be supervised/in-training/actively-engaged if she takes them out of their newly separate cages during the day. After I get back home from work, that's usually not a problem, because they expect it's time for dinner together as a flock, and then some cuddles before bed.
 

Zara

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Welcome to the Avenue :)

Maybe one is over preening the other due to immaturity. Either way, I agree with Cynthia; only allow the birds to be together when someone is watching them, not just when someone is home, but when someone is with the birds and can physically stop them barbering.
The barbered feathers will moult out and grow back in time :)
 

pawilliams

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Thanks for responding Zara!

Fortunately, I think I separated them before things got completely out of hand. Merry still does have all her tail feathers attached and mostly functional (if somewhat chewed and unattractive).

Honestly I’m most worried that Pippen just doesn’t understand just what flight feathers are supposed to actually be like. Reading up on things here the last couple days/weeks, it seems like the breeder clipped both their wings way too early.

But Pippen got that worst of all. I’m sure the breeder didn’t even give her half a week to try out her primary flight feathers when she first grew them out. It’s going to be a real challenge to teach her to fly.
 
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