opinions on feathers coming in?

[GreyNickels]

So when we picked up Pippi, they told me that she has never plucked while they had her. (8 years) but looking at her, I could see where pin feathers were coming in around her neck and the sides of her belly. And sure enough, in one week, what was a naked neck, is now covered in downy feathers, and I can even see a few grey pin feathers starting to come in. I even see a few feathers starting to grow around the sides of her belly. But she is NOT plucking any of them. She does seem to spend more time grooming these new downy feathers than she spends on the rest of her body, but I mean I might see her messing with them for 5 minutes, and she might only spend 2 or three on the rest of her body. It's not like she's spending all day grooming. I'm hoping that this picture shows the pin feathers coming in on the edges of her belly. I don't see any follicle in the middle of her belly trying to do anything though. Surely, if anything, the stress of moving should have cause MORE plucking if she WERE plucking, right?

Here is a link to the album, hopefully that works? http://s203.photobucket.com/user/2sell4andrew/library/Pippi

 

[GreyNickels]

I'll try to get a better quality picture later.

Edited to add: I added more pictures to the original post

 

[ToMang07]

I'm not seeing any pics.

 

[GreyNickels]

I'll have to get into photobucket later and check the settings, sorry. I'm not very tech savvy and I'm having blood sugar issues right now. I'll check it this afternoon. Thanks for letting me know they aren't showing up for you, because they show up for me lol

 

[riddick07]

Obviously they lied about the plucking. You won't know if it was the setting in the pervious home or just plain old habit for a little bit still. If the plucking stops with you it was probably setting or it could just be in a down moment right now. Some birds seem to pluck in cycles where they will let feathers come back in and then snap and yank them all back out in a day or two. Plucking is hard to predict...so while you would think a complete change would be bad and cause more it might not. If he wasn't entertained in the new home and overall is a confident bird the change could be keeping him occupied instead of stressed.

 

[Aquila]

It could be a lot of things, environmental change, better diet, more attention, or like Riddick said, in cycles. It also could have been recent which prompted the rehoming, like the loss of a family member or someone moving out. You definitely didn't get the whole story, but don't worry, any feather growth is good.

 

[GreyNickels]

Are pictures still not coming showing? I made sure there were set to public, and I even logged out of my photo bucket account, and refreshed this page, and I can still see them.

Here is a direct link to the album, does that work for anyone?

http://s203.photobucket.com/user/2sell4andrew/library/Pippi

 

[GreyNickels]

And she is definitely a confident bird. I can tell that she's cautious about everything, but curious. Within a few hours of being home, she had climbed down off of her cage and was walking around the floor here, checking out the living room. The next day she was venturing into new rooms.

And we definitely keep her busier than her old home. Although, it's hard to keep her busy enough. She's not terribly into wood, but loves paper and vine balls, so she can go through a toy pretty quick. We go through at least two toys a day here.

I started wrapping treats in paper dixie cups, and then stuffing those inside of a new to-go coffee cup with paper shreds and ice cream spoons, paper straws, etc. She loves shredding the coffee cups, plastic lids and all. But that whole concoction (3-4 dixie cups, and 3-4 ice cream spoons, and coffee cup.... won't last an hour LOL)

 

[riddick07]

Some ideas for you. It's good that she loves destroying things! Yeah toys never last long with my cockatoo Cardboard boxes, puzzle pieces, cards, roll of calculator paper not thermal, coin wrappers, finger traps, phone book, paper plates.....some ideas off the top of my head for paper like options that we use here.

 

[GreyNickels]

COOL! Thanks for the ideas !!!
Yea, finger traps get cut in half, stuffed with a peanut, and added to our to-go cups sometimes lol

 

[SilverSage]

A lot of good points have been brought up. I personally recently brought whom two badly plucked eckies, and both started to re feather as soon as I got them. I changed their diet, put them in individual cages instead of together, bathed them often, had them out of the cage daily, and gave them toys. And I don't have any parrots who are chronic screamers; A 100% change from a home where they got all pellets (bad for the eckie digestive tract), were forced to live together (I gave the, the option, they chose not to), never got baths, never came out of the cage (for 10 years), never had a single toy, and lived in the same room as a chronic screaming cockatoo. The female was fully feathered in two months, though sadly we lost her very recently to sudden onset seizures that just would not stop. The male is still plucking, but not nearly as bad as he was. Plucking is a complex issue, usually fueled by MANY things, not just one, even though one thing may be the breaking point that pushes them over the edge in the beginning. Keep doing everything you can and don't be shocked if your new buddy feathers up just be aware that it commonly becomes a habit, and don't feel bad if you never see him restored. As has been said, it can come in cycles.

 

[GreyNickels]

When we got her, we were under the impression that she was a plucker in her first home, and never did so in her second. We assumed that she would just be bald bellied for life. It wasn't until we took her to the vet the day after we got home that we had any idea that she might re feather. We weren't looking for a "pretty" bird, she just had the right personality for our family. It would be nice if she DID re feather just because we have cold winters here, and she hasn't taken to her heated perch at all

 

[SilverSage]

When we take in a parrot, our goal shouldn't be (and isn't for you or I) to have a pretty show piece. Plucking is a symptom of an underlying problem. We want our birds to feather because it would indicate that that problem is getting better. Some birds get in the habit and never stop plucking even when the problem is resolved. Some owners try for years to figure out the issue and solve it for their beloved fids and never can. It is a heartbreaking and complicated issue that many of us have personally dealt with. You know you will do the best you can for your baby. In the mean time it might be a good idea to start working on ways of keeping him warm in the winter.

 

[Sheeji]

I hope your baby feathers up soon and hopefully never goes back to plucking again. I feel like we're making some progress with Leo who recently started plucking.