New plucker. Is he afraid of his cage?

[Luvmyparro]

We have a Panama amazon hand reared. He will be 2 yrs old next month. Our previous parrot was a green cheeked amazon that we had for 30 yrs & had to say goodbye & the vet put him to sleep. So we got this parrot and he has had no issues until 2 months ago. I dont know if it is coincidence or not, but he hung himself with 1 of his toys. I saw it & rescued him immediately. It was one that had the 4 foraging cups & chains. He absolutely loved this toy, but I removed it from his cage. So he started preening & saw feathers dropping. I took him to the vet she stated he appears to be plucking & thought maybe it had to do with being hung. He is not stopping & has down showing under his wings & chest. Its patchy, but I want to stop this behavior asap. They ran tests & there is no medical issue found. I feed him zupreem fruit. Mostly fresh fruits & veggies. He has a cuttlebone, I change the toys out frequently. But he isnt playing anything like he use too & he will only eat every other day in his cage. He has a tall play tree he spends time on. I am usually always home & he is with me. It has been too cold the last couple months for him to have outside time. I took him for a ride yesterday & to our weekend place & he enjoyed the cage there. He likes his bath time. His primary cage is 24x36x40. I dont know if they make cages like that anymore, it's very sturdy. I moved his cage to a different part of the room, moved his perches, but he looks so sad in there. Is my only hope to get him a new cage? He also shakes & puffs up like hes cold its abt 75, he has the bird heater on the cage & a heated perch. It is 60% humidity inside.

 

[Mizzely]

Hmm I'm not sure! Sometimes a traumatic experience can trigger stuff, though. Did you give him a different foraging toy to replace the one you removed? Perhaps he was overly attached to it?

So hard to say :/

 

[PufF]

Maybe you could hand it somewhere outside the cage where you could see him when you take him out to make sure that he won't hang himself again? Or put the toy in his cage only when supervised?

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

As he seemed happy in his vacation cage maybe you should bring that to the house and put him in that one unit it’s smaller and put it back in the cage next to him until he gets better I don’t know what else to suggest

 

[Luvmyparro]

Those are good ideas I haven't thought of. This Amazon is a little larger than our other Amazon so my husband & I thought maybe this cage is too small for the heavy playing he use to do. Our other parrot was older when he was in this cage. I thought of clipping the chains to make them shorter also to be safer. The vet said to use wood toys with rope, but he is not very interested in them. Do younger parrots need more space since they play so rough? He loved to hang from his toys & spin. Which he has stopped all of that. What temperature is safe for him to go outside with us? A little sunshine without a window is so good. I have tried other foraging toys, so far he will sometimes play with a ball with treats & a drawer. The others we have tried, were destroyed quickly. He likes to go to the pub where everyone makes a fuss over him. But he would have to stay inside so it's a bit cramped. I tried natural bitter spray, it just kept me from chewing my nails.

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

Please do not try the spray it will only get him scared of misters which he needs for his bath

 

[Luvmyparro]

I put a humidifier by his cage & took him outside with me yesterday to get some sun. We stood near a heater. I put some of his toys back he really likes & made the chains shorter. His favorite toy I put on his tree so he can play with it most of the day when he is next to my desk. We kept him busy yesterday running errands with us. I wish I could get him back to playing like he use to play. Since the changes everyone recommended it looks like hes removed 2 med size feathers & just a few down feathers. I really hope he stops! I read that heavy preening could be he needs more calcium. I dont know why didnt think of that! My other parrot would never touch a cuttlebone, so I got one for him & he loves it! Most of the pieces are on the ground, but that's ok. I just know you dont want them to start pulling feathers, nor want it to continue.