My conure nova is over preening

[Jelias93]

So I made a post about a week ago about my new little sun cheek GCC. She's brand new 6 months, female, and shared a small cage with 6 others.

She is still terrified of hands but will now eat treats with my hand on the cage but not super close to the treat. I'm working on trust with the hand on the cage first before getting my hand so close. But now she is starting to mutilate I think. She preens all day and her tail feathers are starting to get messed up.
I used to let her out of her cage but it proved way to difficult to get her back inside. So much that I don't think it's worth the pestering to take her out.

What Can I even do to help this? Anything?
I'm assuming this is happening because she went from being in a flock to alone instantly.

 

[plumsmum2005]

HI, Loads and loads of activity in her cage is a start. Preening toys, chewing toys, toys to beat the living daylights out of, swings, boings, . Give her a job to do, hope it helps.

Oh and some foraging toys, home-made is good - little treats to find.

If you have any other pointers that could indicate she needs to see the AV please take her.

 

[tlfisher]

Is honey safe for birds to eat? I want to make toys for foraging. I have no idea what I can use for glue.

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[tlfisher]

Elmer glue?

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[tlfisher]

So I made a post about a week ago about my new little sun cheek GCC. She's brand new 6 months, female, and shared a small cage with 6 others.

She is still terrified of hands but will now eat treats with my hand on the cage but not super close to the treat. I'm working on trust with the hand on the cage first before getting my hand so close. But now she is starting to mutilate I think. She preens all day and her tail feathers are starting to get messed up.
I used to let her out of her cage but it proved way to difficult to get her back inside. So much that I don't think it's worth the pestering to take her out.

What Can I even do to help this? Anything?
I'm assuming this is happening because she went from being in a flock to alone instantly.
View attachment 18093

What a beauty! Sunny agrees too.

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[plumsmum2005]

Elmer glue?

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Have a look through here for bird safe glue and perhaps some DIY ideas

Do It Yourself - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community

 

[Jelias93]

I added a mirror baby toy that I had spare from my 1 year old. It seems to be intriguing her more than all 5 other toys lol

 

[EllenD]

First of all, she is absolutely beautiful! What a gorgeous little conure! I'm sorry she's starting to overpreen, it's kind of odd at only 6 months old, so I agree it's probably a combination of being in a new place with new people, and being suddenly separated from her flock of birdy siblings/friends. Too much stress at one time, but as long as she's eating normally, not losing weight, her droppings are normal, etc. she should adjust fairly quickly.

Did you get her from a breeder or did you rehome her from a prior owner, or from a pet store? The reason I'm asking is that you said you have stopped getting her out of her cage because she won't go back in and this becomes stressful for her, and I was wondering if maybe she was used to being outside of her cage at her prior home, and this change may have also contributed to her mutilating. If she's terrified of hands though I doubt she was hand-raised or had much interaction with her prior people.

Good advice about many toys, and toys that give her a job to do in place of working on herself. Possibly playing music for her or leaving the TV on when you're not home as well, just need to try and keep her occupied all the time and get her attention on something other than preening.

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[EllenD]

I was thinking about this post (I'm sitting with my green cheek waiting to see the avian vet) and I'm wondering if one of the reasons she has started to overpreen (in addition to a new home, new cage, new people) is that she is not being allowed out of her cage anymore...So question #1 is where in your house is her cage kept? I would highly suggest that you move her cage to the main room of your house, the room with the most activity and where you and others in the house are usually at, like the living room, a TV room, den, etc. A lot of people put their bird's cage in a spare bedroom upstairs or away from where the people usually are, and the only way this works, in my opinion, is if they keep a stand or a play gym in the main room of the house, and the bird is let out and is in the main room at all times that someone is home. You've already said you're not letting her out of her cage anymore, so if her cage is not in the main room of your house this may really be stressing her out. She's not very tame to begin with, so moving her cage to the most active room of your house will help tremendously with many problems she has. Just having people constantly walking past her in her cage, sitting near her cage watching TV, hearing people talking, hearing the TV sounds, hearing cooking sounds, etc. will help socialize her very quickly, and she won't be stressing out from constantly hearing people but not seeing them, not being involved, being separated from everyone. When a bird is put in another room from where everyone is they feel left out, they want to be where their people are and want to be included. So not only would moving her cage help with reduce her stress and help to socialize her and get her used to people and sounds, but it will also help her become interested in playing with her toys in her cage on her own, which will stop the overpreening. Once she is put in the active room and can see and hear everyone and doesn't feel left out and stressed, she will be able to relax and become interested in playing with her toys. I would absolutely move her cage to whatever room you and others hang out in the most ASAP. And don't worry about nighttime noise, just cover her cage when it's her bedtime. They pretty much just go to sleep as soon as their cages are covered, and they are very good at ignoring the TV or people talking. So if her bedtime is 8:00 just say "night night" at 8:00 and cover her cage (or whatever bedtime allows her to get a full 12-14 hours of sleep every night, that's very important in keeping her stress down as well). So if you get up in the morning at 6:00, that means you need to say "night night" and cover her cage at 6:00 p.m. so she'll get 12 hours of sleep.



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[Jelias93]

Her cage is in the main room of my house and she also was never let out of her cage before me. But we bought a ton of mirrors and that seems to be doing wonders. She is also showing signs of trust with our hands as well.