Thought I had stopped my bird's feather mutilation =/

[khaiqha]

So my bird's last chewed up tail feathers molted out today. He last stopped chewing on his tail back at the end of March. I had narrowed down his tail destruction to me ignoring him when I work on the computer (I edit photos on the computer, can take as along as 4-6hrs at a time).

I tried multiple solutions. I've tried letting him be on my shoulder the entire time. It didn't help, he would just chew his tail while on me. I've tried taking breaks to play with him for a few minutes. I've also tried locking him in his cage and surrounding him with toys.

What seemed to work was the combination of being surrounded by toys and frequent breaks. I thought the feather destruction was done with and was just waiting for the new ones to come in.

Then today I noticed that as he stretched his wings that his two longest primaries on his left wing are chewed up completely to the shaft. The end part is fine, so with his wing at rest you can't tell, but the part that gets tucked in has all the feather part completely chewed off.

It's just so frustrating trying to get my bird to not do this. He had a concussing back in Jan or Feb and sometimes I wonder if my bird got brain damage. Other times I think he's just never learned to preen properly, as even before the concussion he looked confused every time he's preened. If I could I would move my computer away from my room, but I live in an apartment so that's just not feasible. I'm just at my wit's end trying to get my bird to stop messing up his feathers.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I'm so sorry to hear you are having this problem. My galah is also a plucker, she plucks out her blood feathers.

Are you able to move the cage to where your computer is? even if it's only for when you're editing photos? I keep both Rosie and Kenji's cages in my room, Rosie's cage is just 2 feet away from my computer desk.

Rosie came to me as a plucker(she plucks out blood feathers), here's what has helped me greatly lesson her plucking. Sorry if some of these are repeats of what you have already.

• foraging toys
• home made toys
• lots of veggies
• Harrison's pellets
• Rain topical spray
  
• trick training for mental stimulation
• lots of socializing and having new experiences
• being fully flighted

That's all the things I can think of at the top of my head.



-Foraging toys keep them busy, so they don't have as much time to destroy their feathers. And home made toys goes with this, you can make toys that you know your bird really likes.

-Veggies are just great for them, lots of good nutrition to make them feel better.

-when Rosie started eating Harrison's pellets she started improving so fast in terms of health(she had been very ill before), her plucking was much less after a few months in them.

-Rain topical spray is something I started using recently when Rosie was molting heavily and plucking a lot, after the first use Rosie seemed less frantic about having bald elbows.

-trick training, socializing, and new experiences is all just about keeping their mind occupied, entertained, and exercising their brain.

-being fully flighted. This is controversial. The idea to this is that a bird who flies often has a use for their feathers, and will therefore want to take care of them. I can't say if this is true or not, Rosie is fully flighted but she only flies when I ask her to, or if she is startled.


With persistent pluckers/chewers you just have to keep trying different things until you find what works best for you bird. And always see a avian vet to make sure it's not a health issue that is causing the feather destruction.
Hope this has helped some

 

[khaiqha]

Thanks for responding. His cage is two feet away from my desk, it's just me being there and giving something else attention is he hates. He is fully flighted and actually doesn't live in his cage. He's got full range of my room all the time, and living room when I'm home. I mean, his feather issues aren't that bad and it's getting better, it just makes me feel awful that he does it. I used to self-harm and that just makes me think about it (though I know I shouldn't project on a bird).

 

[MonicaMc]

Parrots can have FDB issues for some of the same reasons that humans self harm. Sadly, it can be hard to completely stop. I've never dealt with plucking before, I just had two birds that mutilated themselves. That was frustrating!


I don't know if any of the ideas in the following thread may be of any help.
http://www.parrotforums.com/behavioral/35127-pluckers-refeathering-kit.html