Our baby is splitting his feathers

[StegansKenny]

Hi guys, we are new to the forum and we have an 8 month old Alexandrine and his name is Kenny. Kenny has recently started biting and splitting his feathers under his wings and his tail feathers. He is not pulling his feathers out at all, just biting and splitting the shafts. There is no blood on him. Has anyone seen this before?

 

[Jottlebot]

Hi, I haven't seen this before. It is obviously deliberate. He looks like he has a lot of feathers in his tail, but it could just be the photos. Is he molting usually? I'm wondering if for some reason his old feathers aren't dropping out, but new ones are still growing in?

Does he have plenty to do in his cage and when he's out? Also, are there times he does it and times he doesn't?

Do you shower or mist him? If his feathers are annoying him giving them a good soak usually helps.

It seems quite significant though and I'm afraid I'd get him to a good avian certified vet just to be sure everything is ok.

 

[itzjbean]

Good advice posted above....

when was his last vet checkup? I only ask because there may be some underlying medical issue we can't see that may be causing the behavior. A vet would be able to give him a wellness check and take blood to see if he has any health issues.

Aside from that, how often are you bathing him? Does he have plenty of toys in his cage?

Has he experienced any sudden big changes around him, as in new cage, new home, new people, etc.?

 

[Laurasea]

He looks like he has stress bars on featheres, and is a little thin. What are you feeding him? Is his cage large enough to move around without hitting his tail on the other oerches or cage walls? Welcome to the forums, we all are here to learn and share with each other

 

[EllenD]

He does look quite thin, and honestly doesn't look like he's all that healthy overall to me. If he's suffering from some malnutrition, undernutrition, etc. this could absolutely cause his feathers to become extremely fragile/brittle and to break...And he is definitely thin overall for an Alex...

What is his normal, daily diet?

 

[noodles123]

Take him to a CAV, make sure he is getting good pellets, eliminate junk, consider a supplement with veterinary consultation (you can OD them on supplements, but Nekton-S is a very good one).
How much sleep and lighting is he getting?
Try providing preening alternatives/fidgets if you think it is behavioral.
As a last resort, mine messes less with her feathers when they are wet. Don't spray as a way to punish, but sometimes the textural change can make a difference.
Also, make sure humidity levels and allergens are in-check. Dry skin can make birds more likely to mess with feathers.

 

[EllenD]

I agree with Noodles completely, and I really think that a visit to either a Certified Avian Vet or an Avian Specialist that includes routine, baseline blood-work is an extremely good idea here, because it will include all of the basic metabolic blood-work, and this will tell you whether or not he's suffering from any nutritional deficiencies that you need to work on, as well as whether or not his liver and kidney function is being effected by his past/current diet, and what you need to do in order to modify his diet to get him back on track. Alexandrine's are notorious for developing Fatty Liver Disease, usually due to an all-seed diet that includes sunflower seeds, and then little to no fresh veggies. It's perfectly fine and actually healthy both physically and mentally for parrots to eat seeds as a small part of their regular, daily diet (as pellet do not exist in nature), however the seed-mix should only be a small portion of his regular, daily diet, and it absolutely must be a healthy, varied seed-mix that contains many different, low-fat seeds, legumes, grains, and other pulses, as well as different dried veggies, fruits, etc., and it should NEVER contain any sunflower seeds or nuts, specifically no peanuts. And he needs to be given a large portion and variety for fresh veggies every single day, and the best way to figure out what veggies he likes (and the cheapest way too) is by trying different "Chop" recipes that contain many different fresh veggies. Once you figure out what fresh veggies he likes best, then you can make-up large batches of them, put them in single-serving baggies, and then freeze the baggies. Then you can just pull out a single baggie each night/morning and put it in the fridge to thaw out for the next day. And fresh fruits, while great as a very small part of their diet, need to be given sparingly, as they are all full of sugar, which is turned into fat and stored in the liver, just like the fat from sunflower seeds and nuts are.

I think if you can get him to an experience Avian Vet and get some routine blood-work done so that the Avian Vet can get an overall picture of his health, then you and your Avian Vet can work together and make a plan to modify his diet, his environment, his routine, his light and sleeping schedule, etc., and this way you can get his health moving in the right direction pretty quickly.