Goffy feather pulling!

Derek Mankelow

Derek Mankelow

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After 35 years our Goffy decided suddenly to pull a few cheek feathers. It was a month ago. It became a bald patch very quickly with ear fully exposed and though new feathers sprouted immediately he had a go at removing them too. He's only ever pulled a few new feathers from legs before. Not many at all. Usually in winter when heating comes on. The face feathers were never touched. Since I first tried to post this we have visited the vet and his health was found to be very good but a drop of painkiller was prescribed. New feathers are gradually filling in the gaps and he is presently letting them grow. Fingers crossed. Comments welcome.
 

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Aww lovely Goffy, I guess it's to do with the heating that affects him. Let's see what our member can advise.
 
Hi hun welcome to the forum and the Goffins family. I have two suggestions and those are room/house humidity and hormones. Make sure rooms are not too dry which they can be with central heating etc. Give him a warm spray using a scrupulously clean sprayer. Is Goffy feeling a bit of a sexy pants atm? Try and get him flying as much as possible if so. Is anyone in the household handling Goffy differently, should only be head skritches.

I must admit I am somewhat amazed he chose there. My girl is in her 20's and pretty naked except her neck and head which is beautiful LOL. Pretty much always been so.

Did you go to an avian vet hun? What did the vet say and what tests were done? What is Goffy's diet like hun?

Do you still have some pain relief as those new feathers/pins are gonna be murder for him.
 
Welcome from me glad to see you managed to get away from posting in the shout box lol
Errr can I say you can't pull cheek/facial feathers out they have to be rubbed off or itched off
Sit and watch see when it's happening or pop a camera up to video. That should give you an idea of what's going on for them to be removed
Keep an eye out if its one side or both as one of my birds got a loose feather stuck in the ear hole itself and that just about drove him batty trying to get it out
 
He pulled them, using left foot. I have it on video and it's hard to watch. He sometimes moves a claw up and fiddles a bit but nothing that serious at the moment. Looking better now with some growth.
 

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Ah hun this is pretty extreme, really wrack your brains and see if you can find a reason as to why this happened. Did something happen, did someone visit, I am sure you know that scented fragrances; air freshners and the like are bad!

I always make sure to have clean hands when fussing any of mine btw.
 
It started when we were out 5 weeks ago now. Then I saw him doing it on my shoulder that evening which I videoed. Nothing really different has happened and he's been in the same house for 7 years. And with us for 35. I thought there could be a disturbance but nothing he hadn't seen before. The only thing I relate things to are this time of year when the house warms up. I've seen him chewing the edge of his tongue. He has pulled a few quills from legs when preening, maybe one every couple days. I thought maybe over heating. But never this had we seen before.
 
Hi
I thought I had replied but maybe not ..damn technology.
We have done nothing different for years. Regarding hormones he is most frisky in spring summer and we have cuddly toys for that. We also keep his diet varied and playtime interesting. He is out a lot. He has seemed to be more thirsty lately but I could be imagining that.Hevwas sexed as male at his breeder and we had him from 6 months 35 years ago! No visitors, we do get cats strolling by and a sparrow hawk or Kites at the back occasionally but that's not new at all. I'm stumped and wonder maybe a dodgy feather that bugged him but it was a fairly extreme reaction we had never seen before.
 
Hi @Derek Mankelow thanks hun. So red flags to me in your text is 'more thirsty', 'out five weeks ago'?

Did you mention to vet (avian) that he possibly has more of a thirst? Do you know that birds hide illness hun? To me this is a sign something is not right with him and you are gonna need a good AV. Pulling at leg feathers I attribute to hormones/breeding season. This is not IMHO it is something more.
 
The AV gave him a clean bill of health except for the concern about missing feathers and possibly a sore cheek, but pulling feathers would cause soreness wouldn't it? As for the thought he may be thirstier than usual I wouldn't want to over play that. In all respects he is as well as ever! And crazy with it!
 

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Beautiful little sweetie!
5 weeks hmmm takes us back towards bonfire night....
Using foot against face is usually a "comfort thing" they like humans to touch the sides of the face wonder if he's just been over comforting himself with the foot .... Beaks and claws carry all sorts of nasties I have a mutilator (she bites chunks out of herself) doesn't do it as much as she once did but she got a condition called SCUD which really drove her batty and she just wouldn't leave it alone. Took a few weeks to get it cleared up. You should have seem the lab reports from the swabs of the affected areas they were mind boggling by rights she should have had a health warning label stuck on her! Have you had the area tested for SCUD?
 
I forget that not everyone has heared or read some of the weird stuff I read lol the below link is to a thread on forum about it

Superficial Chronic Ulcerative Dermatitis (scud)

Found and article the other day about SCUD (superficial chronic ulcerative dermatitis) in parrots - if anybody wants a read its on this link errr squeamish warning on some photo's there are some graphic open would views. I like to keep up with things out there regarding parrots that self...
theparrotclub.co.uk
 
All these responses are really interesting. All I would say about the SCUD condition is that it would seem visibly much worse than a bare patch of clear looking skin our bird had at the height of this issue. Another aspect that puzzles me is the timeline. He pulled a large batch of feathers and very soon new ones were sprouting, like after a week. These grew briefly then were also pulled when long enough making the bare patch including the ear even more prominent. Since then another growth has started to fill in the gaps and this is more lasting ...so far .. .... He is leaving them alone.

Exact dates:
This all began October 20th so more like 6 weeks ago. I know feathers grow all the time but since this date there seems an awful lot happening in a short while. The first re growth made him look like it was getting sorted November 2nd onwards. This was still looking good except for the bare ear on November 8, But by Nov 11 he cleared the new growth out from the cheek again! Since then he is allowing the ear to cover over and the cheek to be, mostly, filling back in. This seems a lot of new growth in a short while. But I'm just guessing here. Maybe someone knows more?
 
Quick re-growth is good, says positives. My Rubes had to have wing feathers plucked by vet for operation and it was amazing how quick her re-growth was. Made me very happy as she is a bird that was having Liver issues. A bird that was poorly nourished the growth would be slower, much weaker. The ear on a Goffins looks huge LOL. So it's great that new feathers are appearing at a rate of knots and as to why this happened maybe never know. Just be aware in case this is the first sign of something OK?
 
First of all I think your bird is in superb condition, feather condition is excellent and the eyes are very bright too, which is a indication of how well you have been doing over the past 35 years.

As you think it might be to do with the heating going on, what temperature is your room at where the bird lives? Personally I would recommend the room not getting any warmer than 21c in the day time and a minimum temperature of 18c at night.

One thing you could try is to place a large stainless steel dog bowl of water below the cage to let it evaporated naturally into the air to raise the humidity around the cage area to help the birds skin from getting to dry when the heating is on.

Once or twice a week you can give the bird a light mist with plain water, to help the feathers keep clean and in good condition.

I know you said that the bird is consuming more water than normal, which could be a indicator of a dry atmosphere, or a heath condition that hasn't been addressed yet. Before anyone says it's a Cockatoo, which come from hot and dry environments, there is a big difference between the dry environments that they come from and the dry air in our homes.

I would say keep a close eye on your bird and if there is any change in its behaviour or the current condition goes on for a prolonged time, then straight back to a avian vet.
 
Thanks all. Just to re cap and answer some more points- all very useful- we have put a bowl of water in his 'room' which is never that warm. Glass on all sides so even with heating at 20 + if he is in the cage it will be less than that. The downstairs is not as warm as my 'office' though he is there a lot, I keep a glass of water at hand and he will nudge me if he wants a drink. We spray him once or twice lately in the week. Sometimes he loves it, sometimes he tries to escape. But he remains bright-eyed and lively-he has just decimated one of the spray bottles and chased it around the floor (or his cage) for ages (as in the last photo, and carrying the spout everywhere - maybe a message?) Feathers continue to fill in the gaps though we are not counting our chickens yet....he is dozing on my shoulder as I type this!IMG_20251204_140829658.jpg
 
Aw, handsome lad.
And such pinnies! We'd all of us be bears with sore heads with pinnies like those.
 
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