Help any ideas would be welcome

AndrewPlester

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  1. Hi everyone i wondered if anyone can help or has any ideas. My grey charlie is plucking like mad. Hes always been a bit of a picker but not drastic but laterly hes picking like mad. Nothing has changed. Hes on pellet food and fruit veg, has plenty of toys and is out for hours daily. Been to the vet who deals with birds and hes given him prozac but doesnt seem to be making a difference. Hes very active. Doesnt really pick in the day but every morning theres a lot of fluff . Hes covered at night.
    Today at 11:39 AM
 
@AndrewPlester .
Where abouts is the plucking?
Chest? Wings? Neck? Legs?
Is it just the little fluffy white under feathers?
We've had very dry air try making the room more humid and as DianaT said misting more.
Is Charlie DNA sexed?
How old is your bird?
Is your vet an avian vet or a general or exotics vet?
 
Oh he is gorgeous, Charlie you soppy boy, leave those lovely feathers alone. I really do not know what to suggest, perhaps it is the extra hot weather, do you cover him right over when it's so warm maybe he gets too warm, I usually cover my ones only 3/4 of the cages with a sheet, but this weather only lay it across the top with just a tiny bit hanging down the sides. Once again anyone any ideas please??
 
Hi hun, vet gave Prozac :thinking: what sort of vet is this? Not sure it's avian vet hun. Mites is an educated guess LOL. My birds have some issues but never had Prozac mentioned. I feel a DNA sexing would be good idea, know if female or male for a start. I would have expected bloods to be taken hun.
So as mentioned by the lovelies here humidity is important, we have a clock on wall that shows temp and humidity, it's useful. A bowl of water on window sill helps if it's low.
Are you giving a balanced diet, should be higher in veg than fruit and treats and nuts, do you include sprouted legumes? Please have a look through our comprehensive section on food and diet. Which pellets do you use and how much do you feed?
Have you introduced anything new, anything installaled recent, had a new pet? Changed hair colour, nail varnish, decorated the room? Get the gist hun? If you let us know where you are perhaps can suggest a decent Avian Vet and have some bloods taken. There is a need to rule out if there is anything underlying and this is maybe the start of it that we can see? Birds do not show illness, when they do it's progressed some. Look forward to hearing from you hun and Charlie is lovely :)
 
We're in the same sort of boat. Long story short.... we had a young macaw who would pick a little and at 4 years old we adopted a 12 year old macaw who was a partial nudist due to skin issues and she's got anxiety. The 4 year old then began plucking and he's worse than her now! Numerous trips to the vets, lots of tests and discussions on diet, environment etc.. The vet basically said to ensure all of the things that have already been spoken about, and if all in place and the birds are happy then there's not a lot you can do unfortunately. Whatever started ours is now a self soothing habit. We just can't get them to break the habit. Youngest is now 12.
 
I'd just like say I also have the same issues as @MJGB - MikeJenGaryBeckyBoo, I have birds that are as far as possible to say are healthy but are semi nude. Factors are their past history; ill treatment, becomes habitual, they can and do get to like the taste of their own blood unfortunately, it can release endorphins that they like. Agree it does become self soothing, mainly happens at night. I have decided to just love them as they are, it is what it is and not something new. Something new definitely needs investigating because a bird will turn things, not very descriptive word but we don't know if there is any pain etc and this will be turned into themselves as one of the first signs things could be amiss.
 
Thanks everyone for you advice. He is 20 years old now and seems very healthy and active apart from his plucking. Hes out of his cage upto 4 to 6 hours every day and also has a tree in the lounge that he loves. I'm at a loss but as I'm already doing everything that has been suggested so looks like a case of living with it. Thanks again
 
AndrewPlester said:
Thanks everyone for you advice. He is 20 years old now and seems very healthy and active apart from his plucking. Hes out of his cage upto 4 to 6 hours every day and also has a tree in the lounge that he loves. I'm at a loss but as I'm already doing everything that has been suggested so looks like a case of living with it. Thanks again
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That is reassuring that you say you are doing everything you can possibly do but I would still recommend some blood tests hun.

Just to start plucking out of the blue is not normal and until some tests have been conducted how can you say it is just living with it?
 
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There is a solution named pluck no more and it can be effective but I know that sometimes it only reduces plucking behaviour or doesn’t work at all, I would consult with vet before using it though… I don’t have African grey but two Indian ringneck parakeets and one of them plucked once just when she was reaching adulthood, we did a lot of blood work at the vets and when it came back all normal we had a plan put together with our vet concentrating on environmental changes also changes to our interactions with her and we were to monitor her, if it didn’t help we were supposed to try hormonal implant, luckily she stopped and never done it again, our vet told me something along it’s bit similar to nail bitting, some people just can’t stop but that doesn’t mean they are failure, same as her plucking doesn’t mean you are a failure as owner
 
Ooh actually, the hormones exacerbating things is a good point.... Our hen bird, Bebe (the original nudist) is also currently not eating very much and trying to build a nest with whatever she can find (she's rubbish at nests, worse than a wood pigeon!) :lol: We keep having to take things off her and clear her stuff out once the foraging toys have been emptied. The weather has really messed with her head this time. She's been pulling out some really chunky pins too.
Gary has also been very 'nesty', so good chance of a broody time.
 
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