Heather F
Rollerblading along the road
@Solayan and I have had Frodo since he was 9 weeks old and he has always taken beautiful care of his feathers. Our other bird Mango goes through barbering phases but Frodo has always been fine.
A month ago we brought him in to the vet for a well bird checkup with bloodwork and he got a good bill of health. But within a few days of that, we noticed that he was worrying a bit at a spot on his upper back, picking at the down. We thought maybe that was where they did the blood draw and it was a little irritated but it would be fine in a few days.
Then we noticed some more down floofs floating around when he preened. Probably just starting a molt -- Mango certainly is dropping feathers all over the place.
Then watching him more closely when he preened I noticed him actually stripping the downy part off some feathers. And in the last few days I realized he's actually been plucking feathers off his chest. He's all of a sudden got a little bare patch. My beautiful baby bird is full on plucking!
Behaviourally speaking he seems to have been fairly normal, still eating and pooping fine. He was a little extra cuddly for a week or two after the vet and now seems to be a little hormonal (wandering into the kitchen to coo to the cutlery drawer etc) but other than that nothing really out of the ordinary, other than suddenly starting the feather destruction.
We have made an appointment to take him back to the vet later this week to see if maybe the stress of the visit might have triggered something medical. Or just a coincidence and something medical just happened to have started right after the visit. We've also tried putting one of his favourite toys that he likes to snuggle up to back into his cage from the rotation we did a couple of weeks ago. And we've stopped giving him a new cage mix that we started him on several weeks ago in case he might be reacting to something in it. We're being a bit more careful about quieting the room down and turning off the lights when he goes in for the evening. But we are so baffled and distressed by this sudden development.
Any advice?
A month ago we brought him in to the vet for a well bird checkup with bloodwork and he got a good bill of health. But within a few days of that, we noticed that he was worrying a bit at a spot on his upper back, picking at the down. We thought maybe that was where they did the blood draw and it was a little irritated but it would be fine in a few days.
Then we noticed some more down floofs floating around when he preened. Probably just starting a molt -- Mango certainly is dropping feathers all over the place.
Then watching him more closely when he preened I noticed him actually stripping the downy part off some feathers. And in the last few days I realized he's actually been plucking feathers off his chest. He's all of a sudden got a little bare patch. My beautiful baby bird is full on plucking!
Behaviourally speaking he seems to have been fairly normal, still eating and pooping fine. He was a little extra cuddly for a week or two after the vet and now seems to be a little hormonal (wandering into the kitchen to coo to the cutlery drawer etc) but other than that nothing really out of the ordinary, other than suddenly starting the feather destruction.
We have made an appointment to take him back to the vet later this week to see if maybe the stress of the visit might have triggered something medical. Or just a coincidence and something medical just happened to have started right after the visit. We've also tried putting one of his favourite toys that he likes to snuggle up to back into his cage from the rotation we did a couple of weeks ago. And we've stopped giving him a new cage mix that we started him on several weeks ago in case he might be reacting to something in it. We're being a bit more careful about quieting the room down and turning off the lights when he goes in for the evening. But we are so baffled and distressed by this sudden development.
Any advice?