Young Caique Barbering - Solutions???

[WBCaique]

Hi everyone, I have a few questions regarding our white belly, Dino. He is about 9 months old but in early January he started barbering the feathers on his belly. Now most of whats left on his belly is the grey fluff that is underneath feathers and he has done the same to much of his back, in between his wings.

When this started we took a lot of steps to try to fix whatever was causing it but he still barbers some of the feathers on his back so we don't think the problem has been fully corrected. We have gotten new toys and switched out old ones, added a full-spectrum light, taken him out more, given him more baths, and added more foraging toys. He doesn't seem stressed out or unhappy so we are really baffled by what could be causing this. When he is actually picking at his feathers it seems compulsive.

We are looking at possible options and one of them is maybe getting another caique to keep him company while we are not home. Any thought on this? We don't want to cause him anymore possible stress by going that route. Our biggest concern is that he is so young and already barbering.

Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thank you!

Camilo

EDIT: I should add, he has a fairly large cage and is on a pellet diet but refuses anything fresh, he is a very picky little guy.

 

[Birdman666]

What do you have in the way of preening toys for him?

 

[WBCaique]

We had one on his cage that looked like a small mop head so he would play with the strands. Now he has a type of swing that is made out of rope and had loose rope on top for him to preen but he never really paid much attention to those. He rather preen my girlfriend and I when he is on our shoulder lol

 

[Birdman666]

When I had a plucker in the house, I made preening toys from sisal rope, just bunch some up, and unravel the ends so that it's coming out in all directions, and another from molted feathers. (With 11 birds in the house, feathers were easy to come by.)

Then you get the bird interested in preening those things...

Also increase bathing. Double check for paracites... make sure there isn't an underlying physical cause.

 

[WBCaique]

Thanks for the tip birdman, I'll get some of the sisal rope to make him some toys. I gave him a macaw feather to play with and within 5 minutes he broke it in half. Is it really helpful to put Feathers in his cage? I can see how it could benefit him by only breaking the Feathers given to him instead of his own but at the same time could that encourage the barbering if he find breaking the Feathers to be fun?

We have increased bathing even though it's not his favorite activity. How many times a week should he getting baths?

Thanks!