Urgent Suddenly plucking; what could be the cause?

[Lu Roli]

Hello, please help
Charlie, severe macaw going to be 3 years next month, suddenly started to pick his leg's feathers.

The day before yesterday (11/19) after lunch he was sitting on my knees preening normally, when suddenly began to brutally preen, and wouldnt stop touching his legs, I realized he was picking some feathers. I tried to distract him but he was irritated, and just didnt stop picking.
I thought maybe it was something he ate? He had half a passion fruit (link), some slices of radish and some rice grains, all things he's used to having. Also had his pellets on his bowl.

Then I remembered the previous day (11/18) I gave him a couple sunflower seeds for doing some tricks, I dont know if that's too far from his reaction, but maybe he had some allergies?

The newspaper I used on his cage this day was somewhat old, even though he has no contact with it maybe it had some fungi? Maybe his flapping made hyphas fly up? I dont know but I tried to think about all things that were different.
That day I changed to recent newspaper, but yesterday he was still picking. Now his legs were naked, and he still looks irritated when preening. He picks on the naked skin too

Today i tried to bath him but he doesnt like bathing, just when he wants to on his bowl, I tried to convince him but it didnt work, I was afraid to make him more stressed so I didnt wet him.
I realized now he has a featherless area on his back too.

I didnt want to have to take him to the vet because he hates people and he'll be really stressed on his transport cage...

Thanks for reading

 

[Irishj9]

Lu,
Im sorry youre going through this traumatic event, but many of us have been here before, and I'm sure will have loads of advice. IMHO There are three main things you should check

Diet, ( moulting birds need more protein)
Disease ( like mites etc). A vet trip is a necessity.
Hormones ( 3 years old, reaching maturity?)
Other changes you made recently.

Read widely, learn fast. There is great help here on this Forum
I stopped my Igors sudden plucking - TWICE - by recognising the trigger ( a major argument I had beside his cage) and the solution - distraction - by giving him wide freedom and loads of toys.

Every case is different though....

Good Luck

 

[Holiday]

Hi Lu, Charlie is a beautiful bird, and I understand how stressful it can be to have a bird that suddenly starts plucking. It does look like there's some redness and irritation in the pictures, but I can't tell if it was there before he plucked or it's there now that he's been beaking the area. They will often start plucking their legs no matter what the trigger. My Hahn's starts there when he has an episode. As the previous poster mentioned, dietary allergies can cause plucking, and other causes that are common in mini-macaws include: not enough out-of-cage time, not enough light during the day, onset of hormones, not enough chewable items/toys, underlying health conditions like sinus problems, etc. I hope you can figure out what it is and get it stopped before he gets into the habit. It's so important to try to get them more comfortable as soon as you can.

 

[Lu Roli]

Thank you so much for the replies! I will keep trying to remember possible changes I still didnt think of.
About his diet, he eats variety of fruits, vegetables etc, he's not really molting but I'll see into more protein for him.
I've been reading about the problem and I'm gonna try to distract him while it's still a mystery. I'll see about new toys, he hasnt played much with the ones he has now, and if he doesnt stop, sometime by next week I'll try to get him a visit.. but it's gonna be very stressful, this vet isn't the most receptive one, we have to wait forever but she's the best vet around
Thanks again, I'll try to upload here with updates when I have more informations

 

[Monica]

If it was only the leg, I'd guess it was the leg band causing irritation.

The area on back is above the preening gland area...


Another possible reason for plucking is heart problems and skin/feather infections, although I'd expect some different plucking if this were the case.


I do recommend these two links, particular the starburst foraging toy on the first. May be of help.

DO-IT-YOURSELF TOY IDEAS

Feather Plucking, Feather Plucking Remedies, Feather Destructive Behavior, Pine Cones, Exotic Bird Food, Pinecones, Bird Toys, Feather Picking Solutions and Refeathering

Main thing about the second link is pine cones... which you can buy at other places. And last but not least, this link as well as the books!

Parrot Enrichment

 

[Lu Roli]

Monica, thank you for the links, they are very helpful!
At first I thought it was the ring too, but he also peaks the other leg, on his back there was a reddish part that seemed hurt, but I think it wasnt like this before
I bought him a new toy this morning and he's already playing, but I'll see if I can make some of these for him and for the other birds too because they seem lot's of fun for them to play
I tried to buy one of the foraging blocks but it seems to be miscalculating the shipping to my countrie, I'll wait to see what they say about the problem
Thanks again!

 

[Monica]

I didn't even see that you were in Brasil, so I guess the links will be a lot more useful to you, considering that many of those are DIY kind of toys!!!


Hope you are able to get the plucking under control.