Has any plucking parrot ever stopped?

[dollfish]

Here goes my cry for help. We took our 9 month old African Grey on a road trip. 5 hours drive to my mum's house, he was a little stressed but just fine once we got to the house. Then we drove back the next day, stressed in the car, then we decided to drop by a friend's house for 30 mins. There were two cats which my bird saw for 2 minutes but was really stressed and panted so much in his travel cage. Got back home and he plucked 2 feathers for the first time ever. We quickly put him to sleep in his travel cage in the dark at normal time in the other room so that he would quickly go to sleep and hopefully skip the preening. [we always do this and he goes in just fine].

We are devastated. My boyfriend and I cried so much. Has a bird on here only plucked a few feathers and stopped for good ever?

This week we are building him a 3sqm aviary in the house and he is going cage free forever. His vet bill is all clear, we had recently gone. I am so so so sad. All I ever want is to make my bird happy and I aspire to be a bird trainer. We do tons of research and put in a lot of time and effort but I can't believe how one mistake could lead to this.

I'm so scared to find Astro naked in the morning.

 

[Mizzely]

First: yes, some pluckers recover. Recovering depends largely on why they started (medical, behavioral, stress, etc), how quickly the trigger is resolved, etc. The longer plucking goes on the harder it is for a bird to stop, regardless of the initial reason for starting.

Now, Are you positive he plucked? Because those look like molted feathers to me.

 

[dollfish]

First: yes, some pluckers recover. Recovering depends largely on why they started (medical, behavioral, stress, etc), how quickly the trigger is resolved, etc. The longer plucking goes on the harder it is for a bird to stop, regardless of the initial reason for starting.

Now, Are you positive he plucked? Because those look like molted feathers to me.

He is 9 1/2 months old and I think that African Greys start a first true molt at 11 months of age. This and the fact that we had just returned from a road trip makes me think they are plucked feathers. Also, you can see that they have both been nipped close to the root because there is a little notch on both of their shafts. I don't want to believe this is true but sadly it is.

Considering he went through a one time stressing event and the trigger was resolved when we got home, how likely is he to continue? Has anyone ever experienced a one-time plucking episode here?

 

[JLcribber]

2 feathers is not plucking. They lose many feathers a day just from falling out.

Those also don’t look like plucked feathers to me either. The ends don’t have any blood on them And they’re clear and hollow.

 

[Mizzely]

While birds do have "big" molts 1-2 times a year and the first *big* molt might not happen until after 6 months of age, they do lose body feathers pretty regularly. It can be triggered by the weather, time of year, diet, and/or age. This time of year lots of birds are starting big molts.

If they pluck they pull it out of the follicle completely and you'll see skin or blood. Sometimes they'll pull out loose feathers that are ready to come out which makes it look like they plucked. If they snip or barber a feather, it will usually be higher up on the feather, not at the base.

If you're still convinced it's plucking then only time will tell if it's going to be a repeat event, but if it was triggered by stress then you'll just want to avoid the trigger.

 

[dollfish]

2 feathers is not plucking. They lose many feathers a day just from falling out.

Those also don’t look like plucked feathers to me either. The ends don’t have any blood on them And they’re clear and hollow.

While birds do have "big" molts 1-2 times a year and the first *big* molt might not happen until after 6 months of age, they do lose body feathers pretty regularly. It can be triggered by the weather, time of year, diet, and/or age. This time of year lots of birds are starting big molts.

If they pluck they pull it out of the follicle completely and you'll see skin or blood. Sometimes they'll pull out loose feathers that are ready to come out which makes it look like they plucked. If they snip or barber a feather, it will usually be higher up on the feather, not at the base.

If you're still convinced it's plucking then only time will tell if it's going to be a repeat event, but if it was triggered by stress then you'll just want to avoid the trigger.

I have never seen plucked feathers before so I am panicking so much. I had done research and thought it would be the best to take him with us instead of leaving him alone for 24 hours at home, and he is a well socialised, non-phobic bird. He was perfectly fine at my mum's house where he had never been before. (He was on his perch, we did recall training and he was very receptive.) We thought it was a nice opportunity for him to be introduced to a new environment.

Whining aside, the shafts seem a bit flattened to me, that's what worries me. But after reading your comments, I thought maybe he did preen a bit roughly with the stress and chewed on them but the feathers were about to be molted anyway so they did come out with little effort. Would the shafts be flattened like this with molted feathers?

 

[Leih]

With overpreening /chewing, you'll notice that they look obviously chewed. I'm going through this with my conure. He has chewed his belly contour feathers to a square edge. It is very distressing when you think your bird is plucking or any feather destruction but I agree with our veterans that those look like molted feathers.

 

[Imogena]

Maybe he chewed them a litle after they had fallen by themselves
My Edgar does this sometimes just for fun.

 

[dollfish]

With overpreening /chewing, you'll notice that they look obviously chewed. I'm going through this with my conure. He has chewed his belly contour feathers to a square edge. It is very distressing when you think your bird is plucking or any feather destruction but I agree with our veterans that those look like molted feathers.

Maybe he chewed them a litle after they had fallen by themselves
My Edgar does this sometimes just for fun.

Also I have been obsessively searching the internet and examining the feathers. These might be nape feathers where he cannot reach with his beak. Also just half an hour before, my boyfriend and I were giving him a good scratch on the nape. Maybe they loosened and then were easily dropped with some preening. Fingers crossed. I don't know how am I going to wait until his wake-up time in the morning. Lots of play and foraging for Astro tomorrow.

 

[Imogena]

I would also advice for you and your boyfriend to calm down because Astro will sense it and become nervous as well. I know it is easier said than done but maybe calm down as much as you both can.

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

Percy in the photo did not get any worse or better for 15 years after rehoming him he grew a few more feathers

 

[JLcribber]

I would also advice for you and your boyfriend to calm down because Astro will sense it and become nervous as well. I know it is easier said than done but maybe calm down as much as you both can.

Heed this advice. Your stress/anxiety/paranoia has a huge effect on these situations. They are emotional mirrors. You're stressed. They're stressed.

I think you need to relax. You're bird is way too young to have a plucking problem (other than medical)

 

[dollfish]

Okay, so it is finally morning here and I have just got him out of his sleeper, there is so much more fluff than usual and there was a lot of fluff yesterday in the house as well, a little more than usual and there was one normal feather in the sleeper cage. I know that he does play with fluff feathers in his mouth so I'd like to believe that he played with this one after it fell out, but the shaft does look chewed to me. What do you think?

 

[dollfish]

He has just dropped another one. He is chattering & preening. Do equatorial parrots molt at this speed?

Wow! And another one as I'm typing. He is currently chewing it and preening it. Here is a picture of the first one.

Edit: They seem to be coming from this area and I literally just watched him chew the shaft in his hand. So that is 5 feathers since last night.

 

[hrafn]

When my grey moults it's like a bomb going off. One day her room will be tidy and feather-free, and the next you'd think it was a frat house in the aftermath of an all-out pillow war. They can shed plumage like you wouldn't believe.

It's not abnormal for him to be playing with moulted feathers; parrots are mouthy and you have a baby who's innately inquisitive, so I wouldn't find it odd at all for there to be feathers with some chomp marks lying around. All of my birds do the same.

 

[JLcribber]

He’s moulting.

 

[dollfish]

I feel so relieved that he is moulting, I will take good care of him and keep the humidity high so he goes through moult easily. Thank you everyone for your comments, means so much to me.

 

[Mizzely]

Big molts are surprising at first. They can shed dozens of feathers a day. My Jardine's is getting started right now too and they are often from the same geographical location

 

[dollfish]

Thanks to everyone who has replied to this thread. Astro is moulting and he shed a baby tail feather a couple of days ago! This event started out by me being very nervous but now I am so excited everyday to see him slowly losing his baby feathers. I can even spot some pinnies here and there. Here is a happy picture to close off.

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

Thanks for the update