My lovebird is plucking feathers. What can I do when nothing works?

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.

Feather picking is common in birds and is usually related to behavioral issues like stress and Boredom. I recommend trying to increase the amount of toys and interactions through the day. Also keep in a low stress area of the house. If that does not help I would recommend taking him to a veterinarian for medications to try and stop the behavior.

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!

The other bird could indeed be preening her excessively. It is possible she could be starting a milt also. Monitor her for feather loss in other areas. Ideally, she should be examined by your veterinarian or an experienced avian vet to diagnose and treat any medical causes. If medical causes are ruled out, you will need to address behavioral causes such as stress or boredom. If the behavior persists and you confirm the other bird as the culprit, you may need to separate them temporarily. Don't worry, they can be caged next to one another. Feathers will grow back wrapped in a sheath. These are called pinfeathers. The sheath will be removed by preening and the feather will unfurl. You can bathe or mist them once or twice a week with warm water to promote preening and healthy plumage.

If you suspect a parasite such as mites most pet stores carry a commercial mite spray that can be used on birds to treat mites. Placing an Elizabethan (cone) collar on Sky is also a good idea to keep her from picking at the spot while it heals (Google has tutorials on how to make bird-sized ones at home) If the problem persists, it would be good to have her examined by a vet. If you're having trouble affording care, this site may help give you some ideas to make vet care more affordable so Sky can get the help she needs: https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/having-trouble-affording-veterinary-care

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.

The bumps could be new feathers trying to push through that are being picked right away and preventing Nemo from regrowing them. If he is stress plucking, making sure he is kept somewhere that is less stressful, such as a quieter room, and that he has enrichment such as toys, perches, time with you, etc can help. In some cases, plucking becomes a habit that needs to be stopped, and something such as a birdy flight-suit that covers the chest or an Elizabethan/cone collar (Google has tutorials for making tiny bird sized ones from objects at home) can block him from picking and allow the area to heal.