Brand new blue and gold momma

[Dinosrawr]

Those are down feathers, which are kept beneath the "normal" feathers (aka contour feathers). They help birds keep insulated and regulate their body temperature. You can certainly offer her a bath more than once a week, and I find paying attention to their feather growth helps me determine how often they bathe. When they moult, I offer a shower at least every 2-3 days to help soften pin feathers and encourage preening. Others can offer their suggestions for birds who are regrowing their feathers though, as I've never dealt with a precious plucker.

You've received awesome advice and I do hope you stay! There's always so much to learn. Congratulations on your new addition!

 

[Birdman666]

Ok gotcha!!! She doesn't seem to be plucking anymore, should i offer her a bath more than once a week? She's getting plenty of attention now maybe more than she wants but it seemed stress and loneliness were her cause for plucking. She looks a lot better since bath! She had a lot of dandruff !! She is regrowing "fluffy feathers" now, not sure exactly what they are called.

That's usually what it is with big macs. They are very attention oriented, and they are pair bond birds. When they get the sense that someone they love has rejected them, they often will either get mad and start biting, or they get profoundly sad and start plucking...

There is nothing wrong with frequent bathing, and if your bird loves it, why not?! In the summertime mine get daily mistings and weekly soakings.
My conures used to take showers with me every morning, just because they wanted to. Both my macaws LOVE playing in the water.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Jess, it's much too soon to tell whether your new girl will ever regrow all or any of her feathers, and even too early to say whether she will stop plucking. Here, have a look at this thread, it's pretty awesome: http://www.parrotforums.com/behavioral/52217-plucking-search-answers.html

 

[Jessw931]

Great read! Thank you for that! How long does it take for them to regrow? She has regrown a lot of down feathers and some yellow ones, I try to check her over daily to see if she has new bald spots, I know that doesn't help much in stopping her, but I we try to log everything that goes on so we can see maybe what causes are happening, so far so more (keeping fingers crossed) I think she has quit for now. I do hope she grows back all those beautiful feathers!!

 

[Birdman666]

Great read! Thank you for that! How long does it take for them to regrow? She has regrown a lot of down feathers and some yellow ones, I try to check her over daily to see if she has new bald spots, I know that doesn't help much in stopping her, but I we try to log everything that goes on so we can see maybe what causes are happening, so far so more (keeping fingers crossed) I think she has quit for now. I do hope she grows back all those beautiful feathers!!

Regular bathing, attention, out time, activities, outside time, foraging activities, cardboard boxes stuffed with things, to explore, simple things like telephone books hung up, or set on the top or bottom of the cage, to use as shredder toys... those are the things that help with plucking disorders.

And a good preening toy. (When I worked with pluckers, I saved molted feathers, and made toys from their own molted feathers. Tried to get them to chew those up instead of the ones they were still wearing.)

 

[Jessw931]

Those are some awesome ideas!!! Getting that stuff together now! We have braided newspaper together for her to shred and she loves it now! Phone books a great idea!

 

[JerseyWendy]

Phone book fun.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYztDK1M3Ag"]Ripley - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Birdman666]

Yeah, phone books are kind of a universal parrot truth...

And with plucking disorders, you rule out a physical cause for them first, and then TRY EVERYTHING and hope something works. There are a few phsyiological reasons birds pluck, primarily things like exposure to heavy metals... and other toxic events. But that's usually not the case...

Unfortunately, I can't give you any more useful specific advice than what I've given you. Sometimes, it's just an I was bored and lonely so I did it.... and now that I'm not, I don't.

Sometimes (usually in CAGS and TOOS) it's a nuerotic OCD thing driven by irrational fears, or some sort of neurotic tendency...

Sometimes it's a seasonal/hormonally driven thing (female eckies) when a bird starts feeling "nesty"... and they line the nest with their own feathers.

So, it's a very, very complex behavior, and there is no one size fits all "protocol" fix for plucking.

"Keeping them busy" seems to help most "psychological" pluckers.

 

[1500]

Phone book fun.

Ripley - YouTube

I spent 3 hours this week making toys for Bonny. While making the toys, I found a phone book and put it up, took 5 min. So what does Bonny spend every day this week playing with? Yep the phone book.

 

[TokiesMom]

that is a GREAT idea......and we threw away about 4 of those small ones, when we moved from FL to here......I'll have to see if anyone here has an old outdated one.

 

[Jessw931]

Stupid question- what did you use to make the hole in phone book?

 

[Birdman666]

Stupid question- what did you use to make the hole in phone book?

A VERY LARGE MACAW BEAK!

I don't. All my other birds have playtops. And all I do there is set it down on top of the cage, and walk away. Two hours later I am knee deep in confetti. And they've worn themselves out...

Another way to do it is to take sissal rope, and tie it around the center of the spine, through the center of the book, i.e. make a loop to hang it from, then just attach a quick link to the sissal rope, and hang it up the same way you hang up any other toy.

Sssshhh... don't tell your bird it was free...

Another hot ticket are cardboard boxes, that you put stuff like broken toy parts, crumpled up paper to shred (I give them my junk mail), hidden food treats, etc. Just toss that box in the bottom of the cage and let him go to it.

Homemade foraging box, made from trash.