Habit plucking

[waal]

Hi all,

We have a approx. 2 year old quaker who we presume has become a bit of a habit plucker. She first started plucking when I begun a new job earlier this year and was not home as much as I use to ve. We brought home another quaker from a great family in a similar situation to us. We thought a second might ease some of her anxiety. While we have only had the second 2 months or so they spend the day in the same cage together and seem to get along relatively well.

Unfortunately she is still plucking as we are thinking this is now out of habit as we have read this can happen. Wondering what other peoples experiences were with this and if/how they were able to get it to stop? She has plenty of interaction and toys in her cage already.

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Plucking is VERY hard to stop. My conure, Charlie, is a plucker and he seems to stop when he molts then does it again during the summer and winter. It's really frustrating. However, I've Had some luck with foraging toys. I make mine by using a paper towel roll stuffed into a wire rabbit hay ball and filled with treats, or newspaper filled with treats and stuffed between the bars of the cage.

Hopefully you can break your girl of her habit!

 

[Free as a bird]

It's sad to see a parrot plucking it's beautiful feathers. There is a spray you can try which tastes bad and hopefully stops the behaviour. There is also a collar you can use that might help