Help please

Marc weir

Registered
I've had an African grey in my living room for about 5 years. Last week we had a new sofa delivered which is bigger so mollie had to be moved into a different room. Unfortunately, she is now plucking her feathers out which she has never done 😟 also now on my shoulder is a lot of white bits like her skin is dry which she's never had 😟 is it the move or more serious
 
HI hun and welcome! We always advise to seek your Avian Vets advice and expertise hun and if Mollie has not been in a while it certainly will not hurt to have a check anyway. Please make sure the vet is an avian trained and experienced one though! Not sure please ask us?

It does kinda look like Mollie isn't so keen on being moved, try to think of things from her perspective. Can you make changes to allow her back to her spot? Is she showing lots of new pin feathers?

Would be useful if you can explain where in the room she was and where she is now please? Is she in a draft? Is it dark? Is she getting lots of disturbance from people walking by constantly.
 
It may be the move that has unsettled her, have you moved her far and is she in a place she can still see you and hear you as much? Some times just changing the position of the cage in the same room can affect a grey some are very sensitive to changes
 
:welcome:My guess is that moving her out of a room she's always known and been in the thick of things has upset her as it would any bird that has been settled. If it were me I would have to move her back in so she is where she is used to being part of the family. Many of us have had to do away with various pieces of furniture to make room for our birds as they become so much part of the family.
 
As plums mum said, maybe worth a check-up, but our grey will go off his food for a day if we move him within the same room, we recently moved our living room around to give him more space and get him in a corner, he didnt eat well for a day or so, i started to worry but then back to normal.

So im just saying that even a move to the others side of the room upset him, if you've moved yours to a completely different room, new sounds/smells etc may of upset him more than you think.
 
When we took on a 2nd macaw, we had an extension built to house them both. During the building work they had to live at my mum's, during that and for a little while after they came home, we had the issue of feather plucking too. Ours already had an issue with this (another discussion entirely), but the changes kicked it off. Now they love their room and some days won't come out of it if they can help it, and the excess plucking stopped.
 
I agree that it was probably the change of room that upset Mollie since the plucking started so close after. African Greys can be extremely sensitive to change. If the new sofa is a different colour you could use a temporary cheap throw similar to the old sofa colour. I have one on my sofa to protect against poops.
 
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