Why is my African Grey plucking feathers after surgery? Parasites?

Birds will pluck due to infection (bacterial, fungal, parasites), stress or boredom. If Paco will allow, look him over for redness or scabbing. Clean and sanitize the cage, bowls, toys and perches. Discard anything that cannot be sanitized. Use paper towels or plain paper on the cage bottom and change daily. Provide a variety of toys and puzzle feeders to keep him occupied. Allow playtime and interaction outside of the cage daily. Bathe or mist him with warm water weekly to encourage preening and to promote healthy plumage. If he persists, have him physically examined by your veterinarian or an experienced avian veterinarian to diagnose and treat injury or illness.

Hello. I’m so sorry you are dealing with feather destructive behavior, but I’m glad your vet said he’s healthy. FDB is extremely frustrating and can have many causes. Illness must be ruled out first by way of a physical exam, blood work, X-rays, fecal tests. If those are all normal, then we usually do a feather and skin biopsy to see if there is an issue in the feathers themselves. After that, we consider the behavior psychological. Since you say this started during your cancer treatments, I suspect this is a stress response in your bird. Birds are extremely social and bond strongly to their person. If you were sick and stressed he likely picked up on that. If you had less time for him, thatvlikely caised him stress as well. Birds also are used to being in flocks and flying miles and miles a day. So just being indoors in a cage is stressful. As you can see, birds have a lot of cause t be stressed and pick feathers! There are many strategies to try but to be honest, once this starts it’s very very hard to stop. Special collars, vests and other things can be worn to prevent plucking. Medications for pain, itching, and antipsychotics can sometimes help. The best thing would be to see your veterinarian again, or seek the help of an avian specialist to work through the possible causes and implement a treatment and management strategy. This will be a long road, but hopefully will be worth it in the end. Good luck!

Ouch! Those areas look pretty irritated. A good first step is to bring your bird into a local avian vet so they can check for issues such as parasites, illness or infection, or even nutritional issues that could be causing the feather loss and dull coloration. Getting him on treatment can help improve his health. If he checks out healthy, looking for behavioral causes is a good next step. Boredom or stress can cause excessive feather plucking, so making sure he's kept in a stress-free area can help as well as adding in some enrichment to his environment. Toys that are interactable, time outside the cage bonding with you or on a playpen, and fun food and puzzle treats can help keep him interested. An Elizabethan (cone) collar can also be made to help with excessive feather plucking or scratching while the area heals.

Poor Guava! A good first step is a visit to your local vet to make sure there isn't an underlying issue such as nutritional deficiency, illness, infections, parasites, etc that are causing him to pluck feathers or preventing them from growing back in. Getting any health issues treated can help. Secondly, if he checks out otherwise healthy, feather plucking can become a behavioral obsession in birds, especially those that are stressed or underenriched. Making sure Guava has enough fun activities to do such as toys to play with, puzzles filled with treats, time spent together, etc can help enrich and prevent feather plucking. Making sure he's kept in an area that isn't too stressful can also help. You can also make an Elizabethan (cone) collar or place a "flight-suit" onto him to help obstruct his ability to feather-pluck and break the habit while allowing the feathers to grow back in.

If you are sure she is not actually pulling them out then here are some reasons why the feathers could just be falling out. 1. Dermatitis: skin infections a. bacterial, fungal or viral b. chemical (e.g., nicotine absorbed from the caretaker's fingers) c. allergic (unproven at this time). 2. Folliculitis: inflammation of the feather follicles 3. Malnutrition: nutritional imbalances are a common cause of illness in our pet birds. Seeds should compose less than 20% of the diet. A balanced pelleted diet like the Harrison's you are feeding should be fed as well. Hard boiled egg yolk, pancakes and cornbread, the tops of fresh greens, dairy products such as yogurt and cheese, fresh fruits such as apples, pears, melon, kiwi, and berries, vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, beets, asparagus, cabbage, sweet potato, and squash, and even tiny pieces of meat should be offered. 4. Environmental conditions: extremes of humidity, aerosol contamination and cigarette smoke. 5. Underlying medical problem: liver pathology, osteomyelitis (bone infection), pancreatic disease, renal disease, neoplasia (cancer), underlying abscesses 6. Reproductive activity/inactivity 7. Parasites: mites and lice 8. Stress I strongly recommend you get her to an avian veterinarian for an exam and some testing. At her age I would be worried about an underlying health issue (#5 above). You vet will need a thorough history which should focus heavily on the bird's interaction with its environment and the people and other animals around it. My guess is that some diagnostics will be needed in the form of blood and urine tests and whole body X-rays. Skin biopsy may also be recommended. Be sure to use a vet that is well-versed in treating birds. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Feather plucking is often associated with boredom, or other issues within their environment, but the cause of this problem is not always known and highly debated amongst avian experts. Making sure he is not bored is a good first step. One good way to keep your bird busy is by making them work for their food. Birds in the wild spend most of their time foraging for food. Instead of just putting food in their bowl, you can hide it, or put it in puzzle toys that require them to do some work to get the food out. I fed my parrot almost exclusively this way. Other enrichment options include putting a mirror in the cage and putting him in other environments. It's best to give your parrot as much possible space that you can to let her fly and roam around. You may consider getting perches or other cages for different rooms, or outside. If you can afford to have a flight cage built, this would be even better. Below is a link to some more information about enrichment ideas: http://www.parrotenrichment.com/ It's also good to make sure he is getting enough sleep. This is best achieved by keeping the bird in a dark room during sleep time. Birds should have 12 hours of sleep a night, so don't feel bad about putting him in a dark room for that amount of time. Diet is also very important. He should eat mostly a formulated pellet diet like zupreem. Make sure he is not eating a seed, or nut based diet as these are too fatty and can cause issues leading to feather loss. For more information about diet, read the article at the link below. https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/species/pacific-parrotlet/ Lastly, make sure he is bathing regularly. Dry feathers can itch, break and cause them to pluck. It's good to put a bird bath in the cage as much as possible (once a day would be best). I hope that helps and he gets better soon.

Thanks for reaching out about Bangaram and including a photo. Psittacine Feather Destructive Behavior is common in parrots, but the difficulty is acquiring a cause. Stress/behavior is common a nd can consist of breeding, nutritional or environmental stressors. Diseases can also lead to pulling feathers including infectious diseases (viral, bacterial), metabolic disorders (liver, renal), skin diseases and others. A veterinary visit is recommended to assess and try to determine a cause. Diet and husbandry practices need to be reviewed with a veterinarian experienced with birds. Some diagnostic tests will probably be recommended and necessary to come to a conclusion. There is no topical medication that is going to cure or even stabilize this condition. Good luck.