Neeed help not sure what do anymore 😕

parrotlove

parrotlove

Regular Member
Thank you very much for letting me join your group I am here to get some help about my Amazon parrot because I’m really at a loss what to do with her now and how to address the situation so any help and suggestions would be very much grateful please do not start judging me because I’m only here to get some help so here goes
 Hi sorry to bother you I was wondering if you could help me I have is parrot that is eight months I got home last year when she was 12 weeks well I little bit younger when she was about nine weeks old ever since I’ve had her she’s been pulling her feathers out from her wings her chest we’ve took her to the vets and the vet just said that she’s over bonded with me and it’s become behavioural And they have putbrace a collar on her to stop her doing this too herself as she is making herself bleed so something had to be done it’s been almost 2 weeks since she has had the brace and collar on and all of her feathers are coming back through and she is looking a little bit better and I did take the collar off the other day for about 10 minutes and she started pulling her Feathers out as soon as the collar off ...
so has she got a live with a collar on for the rest of your life.. ??
also when I go out of the room she starts screaming because I am not in the room and I have to say I am at a loss what to do with her now and I was wondering if you could help suggest what is thisAnd how I can deal with this issue because the vets don’t seem to be of any help all they say is it’s behavioural and do I deal with behavioural??? if you haven’t had this sort of thing before I hope you don’t mind me asking of this I have a Parrots and I have never had any of this sort of issues before and this is why I am on here asked him for help because I do not know what to do from here because if I take the brace and collar off she’s going to start pulling her feathers back out again and with the screaming what do I
do do I put her in another room where she can not see me 0r what sort of thing do you do for that sort of behaviour
also just too add my parrot has a lot time out the cage she lots too do we spent lots of time with her and when she in the cage she has lot things too keep her busy she fruit and veg every day she had showers Please don’t say get a second opinion from another vets because to vets look at her now
hope someone can answer the questions I’ve asked as well thank you for reading this and taking the time
 
Hello and welcome, we are not here to judge you but to help and guide you if we can. I do not think that she will have to have the collar on for the rest of her life, but it may of been a bit early to take it off her. next time you try to take the collar off try to immediately spray her until she is soaked. but in the mean time you should try to stick to a more regular times routine. train her to use foot toys and to learn foraging for food. I will tag @Roz for her suggestions
 
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This when they 1st put collar on. And as you can see she has a brace fitted too I had too cut the collar down as it was far too big but Because she had chewed straight through to other collars as soon as they was put on and bite the vet very hard and deep they put a Extra large one on just so she wouldn’t she chew it off again until she got use too it The brace restrictions her from moving too get too her feather but if you take the collar off or she get it off she work out how too get too her feather still I hoping the photo will upload with this post I will take a new photo of her in her brace and collar tomorrow but this is the second collar that she is chew through already Sinceour vet Visit ..
 

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yes we had blood work done they did them at the same time and And they find me With the result yesterday everything was clear and she has no underlying illnesses
 
Hi parrotlove! :) Glad you got bloodwork done. Is this the same Red-lored Amazon that shared a cage with a young Orange-winged Amazon? Both about the same age? How is that friendship going? Was she plucking when she shared the cage with the Orange-wing? Does she still share a cage with him/her? Just want to gather as much background info as possible about her.
 
parrotlove said:
yes we had blood work done they did them at the same time and And they find me With the result yesterday everything was clear and she has no underlying illnesses
Click to expand...
Do you know what they tested for?

Were pbfd, psittacosis, polyoma and giardia tested for?
 
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Roz said:
Hi parrotlove! :) Glad you got bloodwork done. Is this the same Red-lored Amazon that shared a cage with a young Orange-winged Amazon? Both about the same age? How is that friendship going? Was she plucking when she shared the cage with the Orange-wing? Does she still share a cage with him/her? Just want to gather as much background info as possible about her.
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Yes that right they don’t share a cage anymore as we thought the other was doing it too her so we tookHer out and she has her own cage now she has had for a long time and the issue still continued
 
What a worry, poor bird though having to wear that collar, in a way I can understand her pulling her feathers once it's taken off she must feel they need an extra good preen!
You say she is over bonded with you and screams when you leave the room, do you whistle to her or call back letting her know you are still around, she may well find that comforting to know you are about.
Do you have a routine so she gets time out with you many times a day. sounds like she needs reassuring you are there.
 
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I think the breeder didn't do you any favours by giving her to you at only 9 weeks old. Was she weaned by then? That is a lot of stress to go through to lose her first flock and home so young. Then because she was hand raised, she focuses on humans... which may be part of the reason why she has over bonded to you. To start plucking at 9 weeks old is extremely young. Has she always screamed when you walk out of the room or is that a recent behaviour? Is her cage with all your other birds including her Orange-winged friend? Do they play together when out of the cages? When did the plucking happen? Was it when you left the room too? I am guessing it might have been since you thought the Orange-wing was doing it.

It sounds to me like separation anxiety might be a big part of the problem which can take a long time to work on. Instead of her falling back on unwanted behaviours (because they serve a purpose for her), you need to teach your Red-lored (what's her name?) replacement behaviours. Work with her before she starts showing the anxious behaviours. Work to reinforce relaxed body language/calm. I am guessing your attention is highly reinforcing for her, so pay her LOTS of attention for acceptable behaviours... remaining calm, playing, etc. As Michael suggested, teach her to forage which takes the attention off you. Also with separation anxiety, often an animal is not used to change.... she has had a lot of change in her short life. So be predictable, get a routine going to lower her stress levels.

If she is very anxious, you can teach her, using a process called shaping, that you leaving the room is ok. Take a step towards the door as if you are about to leave, then come back again and reinforce her calm body language with lots of attention or even a treat. Take two steps towards the door, then come back again and reinforce her calm body language with lots of attention/treat. Take three steps etc. When you get to the door and open it, all in these teeny tiny manageable steps, try going out of sight for one second.... and come back in and reinforce her calm body language with attention and treats. What you are teaching her is that you are not leaving her. Then you can shape duration - the length of time you go out of the room before coming back in again. Pay attention to detail - these steps need to be done very carefully so that you are indeed reinforcing calm every time. If her body language changes, you have gone too fast. Break the steps down even smaller.

Another solution would be to change the scream to a more acceptable sound. Can she make any sounds that you can put on cue... like a whistle or hello? If you cue the more acceptable sound and slowly walk out so that you are either whistling back and forth or shouting hello back and forth she will learn to whistle or shout hello rather than scream. At the beginning you will have to keep running back to her to reinforce the more acceptable sound EVERY time (when teaching a new behaviour it is important that it is on a continuous schedule of reinforcement). That way it becomes more like a way of keeping contact rather than her having a melt down. Then gradually you can put it on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement... ie. coming back in to reinforce every second time, then every third time etc.

Teach her independence as a mother bird would. If she plays with your other parrots when out, that is great! If you spend your time cuddling her, then that is not so great as you are teaching her to depend on you.... which will result in unwanted behaviours if you try to leave her. I am thinking that you could also teach her something like targeting as another way of interacting with her and will be fun for both of you. Roy here originally posted a link to this video, which is one of the best I have seen:

 
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Hi sorry I haven’t been on for the last few days but I’ve just read your post firstly when we go our I amazons I was told that they were both fully weaned and yes are orange one was weaned but the red Lord one kept making noises like she wanted to be feed now I am not a breeder so I didn’t really know what she was doingI read up on it and she was asking to be fed so I phoned the breeder and the breeder didn’t really want to help she seemed very very hungry and all she kept doing is begging to be fed...Anyway I never really took any notice of the certificate when we got them and I really should of paid attention to that but I was just so happy and to be getting our Amazons parrots that I never checked the certificate so to cut a long story short the orange wing Amazon was the right age she was actually 17 weeks old when we got her so she was doing every think that she should be doing but when I checked I red load hatch Certificate she was born on June 6 and we pick them up on 8 th aug so she was only just 9 weeks So I took it upon myself to go and get some hand rearing food mix up and she took it as if she was starving she had this three times a day for about four weeks then she stopped asked for it she was pulling her feathers out the first week I got her I also told the breeder this as well once again she didn’t really want to know so now update she has had her brace and collar on for almost 2 weeks now and her feathers it up And her Behaviour is starting to change she’s realising she mustn’t do the plucking when I say no when she hasn’t got the collar on and just the brace and she realises that her itBehaviour is starting to change a little bit she’s realising she mustn’t do the plucking when I say no when she hasn’t got the collar on and just the brace and she realises that it’s wrong to do this aswell I think she does anyway.
 
Hopefully he will forget his past, but knowing what you have told us can be the reason he plucked so much. please keep us updated
 
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