Plucking issues

[paulo.hanashiro]

Hi.

I'd kindly ask for your help with this issue, as I never got it this way.

My male Blue&Gold macaw lost a lot of feathers from the back of his head.

So I'm assuming he isn't picking his own feathers, but the female is doing it (Can he pick the small feathers from behind his head using his foot?).

They have a nice 2x2x4 meter cage, with a lot of human contact (actually, the female is the chosen one for both my wife and my kids. Therefore, she has a lot more affection than the male (as he is aggressive with everyone but me).

BTW.: The male is 2,5 years old and the female is 2 years old, and the female were introduced in the cage with 4 months old, and this issue started about 6 months ago.

What could be happening? Any kind of stress? couple issues?

Sorry about my english.

Thanks in advance.
Paulo

 

[FeraeNaturae]

Hello! Have they been checked out by an avian vet?

 

[Kalidasa]

Maybe hormones are beginning to surge, I'm not sure when macaws become of age for breeding, hopefully some macaw owners will chime in soon keep a close eye and find out if indeed it is the female or if he's rubbing them off himself. Some parrots have mastered the art of plucking with their feet, so he could reach back there. Maybe set a camera nearby and see what comes up.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Welcome to the forum.

They are too young to become hormonal. Has anything changed in their environment lately?

Are they related to each other? Are you 100% certain that you have a boy and a girl???

 

[paulo.hanashiro]

First of all, thanks for all your comments.

FeraeNaturae
I'll call my vet for another visit, good call!!

Kalidasa
I'm keeping them apart (A smaller cage inside the main cage (Or aviary? I don't know), so every other day I have one of them caged), I started this procedure 3 days ago, and will keep this way for 2 weeks in order to check feather growth.

JerseyWendy
About having a boy and a girl, both were DNA tested. Can DNA gender tests be wrong?

About changes, I noticed the feather issue 6 months ago, 4 months ago, I finished their main (cage/aviary) 2x2x4 mt (6.5 x 6.5 x 13.1 ft) and moved them. I was thinking this new cage would fix this feather issue, but it didn't.

All...
Any other ideas? What else can I do in order to diagnose and fix this?

Thanks again!!
Paulo