Removing elizabethan collar advice

[emerillion]

Hello everyone! I posted here a while back about my green-cheek who had mutilated herself while incubating. As you know I removed the eggs and nestbox and my vet stitched the wound and fitted her with an elizabethan collar. The wound has healed completely with no scar and her breast is now covered in feathers -- you can't see the skin at all, though some new feathers are still coming down and are still quills 'in blood' at their bases (I don't know if that's the right term, but I hope you know what I mean!)

She's happy as anything and back to her normal self, and I'm hoping that the removal of the nestbox and cessation of all breeding cues will stop this ghastly thing from happening again. She never showed any signs of mutilation/plucking before this happened.

The question is, can I remove the elizabethan collar now? Or should I wait until every single feather is fully grown and the quills dried before I do so? The vet seemed to think I could take it off now, but he's not a parrot specialist. After a ghastly first week she adapted to the collar very well -- but I am sure she must be frustrated at not being able to preen properly/clamber about the place!

Any advice would be gratefully received! Helen.

 

[Mayden]

Hello everyone! I posted here a while back about my green-cheek who had mutilated herself while incubating. As you know I removed the eggs and nestbox and my vet stitched the wound and fitted her with an elizabethan collar. The wound has healed completely with no scar and her breast is now covered in feathers -- you can't see the skin at all, though some new feathers are still coming down and are still quills 'in blood' at their bases (I don't know if that's the right term, but I hope you know what I mean!)

She's happy as anything and back to her normal self, and I'm hoping that the removal of the nestbox and cessation of all breeding cues will stop this ghastly thing from happening again. She never showed any signs of mutilation/plucking before this happened.

The question is, can I remove the elizabethan collar now? Or should I wait until every single feather is fully grown and the quills dried before I do so? The vet seemed to think I could take it off now, but he's not a parrot specialist. After a ghastly first week she adapted to the collar very well -- but I am sure she must be frustrated at not being able to preen properly/clamber about the place!

Any advice would be gratefully received! Helen.

This would be a really tough call to make, because if I said to take it off now and she went back to plucking and mutilating, I'd feel horrific about it...

Personally, I'd probably want Merlin's collar off as soon as possible because they are horrid for them to be wearing and then to keep a close eye on any possible mutilations again. If you're sure it's because of the breeding/nesting behaviour and all stimulus for that has been removed then I don't really see why not...

BUT I'd be worried that the feathers growing in might still irritate her and she'd be inclined to pluck them out because of it...

SO... I'd say better to leave it on till they're all grown in and non irritating for the best chance at keeping her feathered.

Just my thought process, take from it what you will - I say keep it though, for the time being. Better safe than sorry

 

[emerillion]

Thanks for that! I realise it was a bit of a difficult question to answer -- *grin* but I'll leave the collar on for another week until the feathers are down. Thank you again! Helen.