Any hope for a habit plucker? Parrotlet woes.

[MonicaMc]

A blue bird cannot be split yellow.... when you remove yellow from a green based bird you end up with blue birds. When paired with other blue birds, they will 100% produce blue based offspring. If the parents were green, then both were split blue. If one parent was green and the other blue, then the green parent was split blue. The only way for him to produce yellow based offspring would be if you paired him to a green or yellow bird.


Have you tried covering the food dish with paper then poking a hole in the middle of it???? You might be underestimating him and not properly teaching him how to forage within his cage.

 

[RockysMom]

if your looking for something foir him to wear until you figure this out what about a sock buddy , I have a cag that plucks his feathers and I have ordered a sock buddy to start using on him , u get 2 to start with and some directions on how to make them , to me it's worth a try , he will be living in a sock buddy for a long time probably a good 6 months or so , heres the link for the sock buddy
Home

 

[Folkeye]

Okay, today I put a paper towel over the food bowl. For now it's got a nice big obvious hole in the center so he doesn't have to do too much work, see how he does with it. See if he avoids the food bowl or not.

Putting a cover on him will help the feathers grow back, but if the underlaying cause isn't fixed he'd probably pick himself again.

 

[MonicaMc]

Hopefully he figures out the dish thing! I've done this with one of my conures and as long as there was a hole in it, he'd rip it apart to get at his food!

My other conure has recently figured out that if she rips apart a mini muffin cup (with food inside and twisted together to 'close' it), there's goodies inside! Took her a bit to figure this out even after I made holes in it! But once she understood, she's ok tearing them apart!

 

[Folkeye]

Hopefully he figures out the dish thing! I've done this with one of my conures and as long as there was a hole in it, he'd rip it apart to get at his food!

My other conure has recently figured out that if she rips apart a mini muffin cup (with food inside and twisted together to 'close' it), there's goodies inside! Took her a bit to figure this out even after I made holes in it! But once she understood, she's ok tearing them apart!

Well surprisingly enough my budgie has no problem with the idea of attempting to rip open paper for a goodie. I bought the unbleached coffee filters to try to make toys for Jacky and he will hopefully learn there's stuff inside eventually. For her on the other hand, put a little millet stick inside, wrap it, tie it off with some sisal rope and she'll entertain herself for hours getting at the junk food inside.

With Jacky I just need to keep trying and go slow. When I made him work for all the food once (not in a difficult way but work none the less) he got mad and plucked. So it needs to be a fun thing, not a punishment. Parrotlets are such moody things.

 

[MonicaMc]

You could always try hanging a piece of millet to a perch? Keep the string short at first so it's easy to get to, and slowly lengthen it to make it harder?

 

[Folkeye]

You could always try hanging a piece of millet to a perch? Keep the string short at first so it's easy to get to, and slowly lengthen it to make it harder?

Sounds good for the budgie. Jacky on the other hand isn't excited about millet. When I do hang it in his cage, I'll put it so he has to climb for it. He ignores it.

Figures, this IS Jacky. Pain in the rear he is. He's gotten good at saying 'Nuisance' lately. Cracks me up.

 

[MonicaMc]

HAHA! Tomi Girl, one of my tiels, didn't even know what millet was the first time I gave it to her! She just stared at it! Wasn't interested in eating it, let alone investigating it! She didn't start eating it until she saw other birds eating it and realized how good it really is!

Monkey see, monkey do.... it can definitely help when it comes to getting birds to eat better! As well as having the "better" food in another cage that the bird isn't allowed to be in! LOL

 

[Folkeye]

Jacky seem to be doing okay with sticking his head into the large hole for food (after all he has no hesitations doing that to the paper towel roll on the counter which has nothing in it). So I'll keep working with that.

I can tell that during the day he's not a very interesting bird, no matter what's presented. His dropping still mostly remain under where he sleeps. He's got a little fleece tent he can crawl under that he loves, he'll snooze under my hair in the evenings sometimes so it's a similar spot for him. I wonder if I should remove it, or how mad and even more plucky he'll be. There were a number of fuzz/feathers around that spot yesterday. Don't know what set him off this time.

 

[MonicaMc]

It's a start! Go from easy to more difficult.

If you think the tent is causing issues, then remove it. If it's not, leave it.

 

[GaryBV]

Hi Folkeye - I think I'd like to weigh in on this. Earlier this year I got a male parrotlet that was a heavy plucker. He had no feathers on his back, no tail feathers at all, or wing feathers. It just broke my heart. But now, he's fully feathered and beautiful and I'm working on getting him to fly. What I did is I used the plucking behavior to my advantage - meaning, I gave him seed covered pinecones (he liked them), the Wesco kabobs (love them), I gave him paper boxes with treats in them, and corn on the cob, leaving the corn ON the cob. I also feed him a lot of vegetables and soaked seeds and sprouted seeds - he loves them, as well as scrambled eggs. Other thing I gave him is I hung a millet spray holder from the top center (so he had to work to get at it) and filled it with organic millet, nutri-berries and avi-cakes. The common theme here is it is a bunch of stuff that he had to pick at and work at. I did also get a female parrotlet that had been a lone bird, like he was. They bonded very quickly. If I was you I'd move your parakeet cage next to his, so that they are in close proximity but not close enough to beak each other. The diet you are giving your bird is excellent, but I would add some scrambled egg (about twice a week) and definitely do try out soaking seed and sprouting seed - try Higgins soak & sprout, or Higgins Sunburst soak & sprout - my birds LOVE it, racing to the food dishes when I give it to them, and it's soooo simple and easy to do, even just soaking the seed mixture in water overnight is good as the seeds plump up and gain many nutrients; and in a couple days they sprout and if it goes well you can get yourself a seed sprouter - very cheap on Amazon. I know I'm being very detailed here but this is an issue I'm passionate about because self-mutilation and plucking just tears at my heart. If these things fail then I would collar him, or jacket him. One thing I find very interesting is that birds in the wild never pluck, only birds in captivity. A plucking bird in the wild would not survive very long. Anyways... try some or all of these things, search Amazon for the Wesco Kabob, and Higgins soak & sprout - all are easy to find if you just look. I think your bird is just so beautiful - he is exactly what I wanted - I love that blue. Mine are both wild-type green, but I love them dearly. If you do get him a female you will 'lose' him to her, but that might be just what he needs - I found it to be a good trade-off (the female HATES me lol). But the fact is that 2 parrotlets is not much more trouble than one, although they are pigs when they eat for such little birds, they definitely eat more than my larger lovebirds, I often call them piglets rather than parrotlets Good luck.

 

[keikoasmom]

Are you going to a certified avian vet, or a vet who just see's birds? A experienced avian vet can take blood easy from a small bird. You want to make sure it's not a health issue causing this.

What type of toys do you have? Rosie is a plucker, and I've been able to decrease her plucking a lot since her early days with me. A few things that help her are

Making sure the skin doesn't get dry, this is especially true in winter when the heater is turned on. And toys that keep her distracted. Rosie loves eucalyptus that she can spend hours pealing the bark off. Planet pleasure have a lot of good toys for pluckers too, I love their toys.

I need help, too. Where do you get the eucalyptus? My Goffin is getting way out of hand, I will try more distractions, good advice.

 

[SoCalWendy]

What part of SoCal are you in?

 

[keikoasmom]

Hi Folkeye - I think I'd like to weigh in on this. Earlier this year I got a male parrotlet that was a heavy plucker. He had no feathers on his back, no tail feathers at all, or wing feathers. It just broke my heart. But now, he's fully feathered and beautiful and I'm working on getting him to fly. What I did is I used the plucking behavior to my advantage - meaning, I gave him seed covered pinecones (he liked them), the Wesco kabobs (love them), I gave him paper boxes with treats in them, and corn on the cob, leaving the corn ON the cob. I also feed him a lot of vegetables and soaked seeds and sprouted seeds - he loves them, as well as scrambled eggs. Other thing I gave him is I hung a millet spray holder from the top center (so he had to work to get at it) and filled it with organic millet, nutri-berries and avi-cakes. The common theme here is it is a bunch of stuff that he had to pick at and work at. I did also get a female parrotlet that had been a lone bird, like he was. They bonded very quickly. If I was you I'd move your parakeet cage next to his, so that they are in close proximity but not close enough to beak each other. The diet you are giving your bird is excellent, but I would add some scrambled egg (about twice a week) and definitely do try out soaking seed and sprouting seed - try Higgins soak & sprout, or Higgins Sunburst soak & sprout - my birds LOVE it, racing to the food dishes when I give it to them, and it's soooo simple and easy to do, even just soaking the seed mixture in water overnight is good as the seeds plump up and gain many nutrients; and in a couple days they sprout and if it goes well you can get yourself a seed sprouter - very cheap on Amazon. I know I'm being very detailed here but this is an issue I'm passionate about because self-mutilation and plucking just tears at my heart. If these things fail then I would collar him, or jacket him. One thing I find very interesting is that birds in the wild never pluck, only birds in captivity. A plucking bird in the wild would not survive very long. Anyways... try some or all of these things, search Amazon for the Wesco Kabob, and Higgins soak & sprout - all are easy to find if you just look. I think your bird is just so beautiful - he is exactly what I wanted - I love that blue. Mine are both wild-type green, but I love them dearly. If you do get him a female you will 'lose' him to her, but that might be just what he needs - I found it to be a good trade-off (the female HATES me lol). But the fact is that 2 parrotlets is not much more trouble than one, although they are pigs when they eat for such little birds, they definitely eat more than my larger lovebirds, I often call them piglets rather than parrotlets Good luck.

This is good advice. I will try similar for my Goffin.
Someone also mentioned dry skin? My Bubo has pretty dry skin, I think.
She is nearly naked on her entire front.
I have several sprays, but she doesn't like any of them.