A plucking macaw?

[Morgan]

Hi L Greeer,
yes my husband, who picked her up from her previous owner saw him handle her and have her step up onto his hand. I'm hoping it will only take a few weeks till she's comfortable enough with us to do it. I tried again today, only to have her edge away from me, so I wasn't going to push the issue.

 

[Morgan]

This is exciting, I was looking at Morgan today and noticed what I believe is a feather coming in on her chest! Now hopefully she won't pluck it!

 

[Desmo's mom]

Morgan,
In reply to your question about "eating" the coffee filter used as a foraging tool, your bird should just shred it apart to get to the treat inside. Any kind of plain paper (not printed on as I would be concerned with the ink...know what I mean?). The DVD I mentioned showed just plain white paper used to hide the treats in, but I have been told by my vet that coffee filters are good too.

 

[Morgan]

I did also get a foraging toy for her yesterday and put some treats in it. However, she hasn't touched it, probably because it is new. I noticed a few other feathers coming in around her legs...I've got my fingers crossed.

 

[Morgan]

Two weeks into having her and she still doesn't trust us a whole bunch. She has been geting more comfortable, I can tell, because she's saying more things. She still says hello, but she also barks like a dog at times, and she whistled yesterday night.
She doesn't do step up for us yet. She gets alot of out of cage time, as she has her cage door open whenever someone is home, which is most of the day. So far though, even if the cage door is open, she still spends alot of her time inside her home.
I've gotten her a foraging toy and a beak toy, as well as putting an unused recieving blanket in there for her to tear and destroy if she wants to. So far though, she hasn't touched anything.
And unfortunately she continues to pluck. The feathers that I did see are no longer there. How do I get her to play with her toys?

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Sorry to hear that she's still plucking, but it sounds like you are doing everything right. With all the effort you are putting in she will be much better off even if the old habit of plucking takes a while to go away.

Do you know when she plucks? Do you ever see her doing it?

As far as getting her to use the toys I do not know of many ideas, except for foraging toys: be sure to start simple and be sure she sees you put the food in them. The extreme simple end would be to put a good food item next to her and let her take it. Do this a couple times then place the food item there with a small piece of placed over it, perhaps the coffee filter, but do not cover it completely. Next, cover it completely but don't wrap it; then wrap it gently/loosely in the filter, etc.

Also it is best to limit her regular food a bit. This is easiest if you feed her her normal food at specific times of the day. Perhaps if you watch for when she eats regularly - does she eat at a particular time of the day - if so take her food away an hour or two before that regular time, then when her regular eating time comes start giving her the foraging options.

Getting a parrot to forage for food is making them work for food - working (a little bit) for their food is healthy, but if there is a constant supply of free food there then she will not work for it.