tailsoflove
Sprinting down the street
So I woke up this morning to a pile of feathers in my Ekkie's cage. It looks like he had a busy night, picking all the feathers off of his chest. The only thing he left was the down feathers. All others..GONE! Now, he has gone through some picking episodes over the past year-year 1/2. And I've always pin pointed it to some change/emotional behavior. Like the first time he started picking in the 8 years I've had him is when we went away for over a week and a dear friend of mine watched him for me. He was so upset and angry that I had been gone, he not only pulled a bunch of feathers, but also tried to bite my face. Nothing has really changed here, except for the weather. It's gotten colder and I've been using the infrared heater that I use every year to add some extra heat to the bird room. Of course, it also makes it drier so I use a spray on him and also a humidifier in the room. I don't think this is an issue of being dry or itchy, because he did something very strange in addition to picking. He was sitting on the ledge of the food dish holder in his cage, in the very corner. He NEVER goes here..he is definitely a creature of habit and when I went in to say good morning, I didn't even see him at first..then I noticed he was in the corner sitting on this ledge..looked down and there was the pile. I am very upset and just want to figure out what is wrong with him. Last time he started picking I did have a bunch of tests and stuff run. Everything came back perfect. Should I have some tests run again? I'm racking my brain and the ONLY thing that was different that could have upset him was that I didn't bring him upstairs like I normally do at night for some tv, relax time. It was a bit of a stressfull evening and ended up being too late by the time I went up, so I just put him right into his cage. With him being as "emotional" as he is, I am thinking this could have upset him and this is why he decided to pick the feathers. He truly does get upset when he's out of his routine at all and I am hoping that is all it was. Any thoughts, suggestions, comments? Thanks everyone..