please please help:(

[beatle23_5]

I know i havent been on in a while but i seriously need help!! Yoshi started plucking....I had to leave for the weekend, I was gone a day and a half........The usual person I have to sit my birds were gone as well, so I had to leave yoshi by himself. Well I got home and noticed he had plucked out about 20 or so feathers from around his legs...........Now even if i leave for a couple hours he plucks a little more. I just went today and for a few new toys, and I am going to start giving him extra treats when I leave. He is not too bad....yet....no bare spots....just thin around his legs and but......can i do anything else.....Im so distraught.....i can not stand to see this....I love my bird:(.......any suggestions or experiences are much appreciated.....




ps i have read that foraging toys and such are good for pluckers....i plan on ordering some more off the net for him to see....

Also, hes such a happy bird when I am here....and playful and healthy....he just seriously has seperation anxiety////// which is cute....but i just dont want him to pluck himself:(

[BeakerLuvsBunsen]

do you have toys for him to preen? It is good to keep them active and occupied
while you are not there to keep them company

[ttoilleecarg]

awh poor yoshi

have you seen the toys that are just a bunch of peacock feathers? apparantly theyre meant to be really good
also my Luca really like to shread any kind of rope, this has seemed to keep her ocupied instead of pulling out her feathers

[mighty mouse]

When I'm gone, mine love to chew and shred paper - I'll take plain computer paper, cut it into smaller pieces, hole punch it, and hang it in their cages. Keeps them busy for quite a while! Hopefully these ideas will help you out.

[Jackorama]

That is serious separation anxiety. I know for dogs and cat, vets will prescribe medication. I don't think there is medication for anxiety in birds. As others say, a lot of preening and shredding toys. Might want to try the Peacock feather as ttoilleecarg says. We leave a radio on with a plug in timer (has a battery back up if power goes out) to shut off at bed time and come on in the morning.

This is just an ideal, a last resort type of thing, I don't know if it would work. Do you have a digital photo frame? One with a speaker would be best and plays video as well. Put photos of you and recording of your voice or video of you on a digital frame. Put next to Yoshi's cage and loop it to play while you are out and see if this helps.

Another ideal if the anxiety is just being alone, but not tied to a specific person, place a TV next to the cage and get a dvd of outdoor birds or something. Play this on repeat while you are gone.

If you are gone for over night type things, you can use a plug in timer to turn on and off a digital frame. Playback is automatic on frame, but I don't think it would work for a dvd player.

BTW, we have a digital photo frame that will play full length avi (divx) movies. If you had a avi (divx) file of birds in the wild or something, that would work with a plug in timer.

What does everyone else think? Again, this was just an ideal and if anyone find fault with this, please let us know and why. Don't want anyone doing something that might be hurtful to their birds.

[beatle23_5]

He certainly does have seperation problems....If i even leave the room for a second he will flip and start doing his loud flock call...and will come find me if he can....

He seemed to be allright today while i was at work. I got some of those "honey treats" and he chewed the heck out of that thing... I also got some new shredders and put a spring of millet in there....i noticed alot of things chewed but he did not seem any more plucked thank God.

I am going to look into the peacock feather toy...that sounds great....i also like the digital picture frame....hopefully that would make him relax some...

Thanks for all the great suggestions and all your concerns....thankfully he isnt bare anywhere....hes just thinned himself on his butt and around his legs....I've been paying extra attention to him and he seems to be doing good...


On a side note....i can tell he feels something cos he now snuggles in my hair alot like he did when i first got him....he had stopped doing that for a while....Its so crazy how emotional animals/birds can really be

[enborgle]

You can also try threading newspaper through the cage bars for him to shred, adding some smooth, clean stones on top of his seed so he has to push them out of the way to find the food (very simple foraging, I do it for all my guys!). Preening swings and coconut toys with the outer fibers on the shell still attached also work really well. I am forever trying to come up with new ideas to entertain my plucker, I know how you feel!

[ttoilleecarg]

i found the peacock feather toy! i knew id seen it somewhere.
only thing is its in a uk shop, dont know what the shipping would be like.
but i bet you could find one over there some where
http://www.midlandparrots.com/fluster-duster-537-p.asp

[Bird Lady]

Wow!! You guys have some terrific ideas!! Charlie isn't plucking but I worry about it because he does do a lot of preening. He won't take a bath unless I put my finger underneath his water bowl so he can see it and he will start dipping and do a little flapping of wings but no actual bathing. He hates being misted... They amaze me- it didn't take but one try and Charlie figured out that my finger was under the bowl and he leaned over as far as he could to try and catch my finger from below... lol

[Cosmo]

They are very wise...it really is amazing how much so.

[beatle23_5]

UPDATE:

I do not believe yoshi has plucked anymore since those initial two days. I went and got him alot of nice foraging/shredding toys. His favorite is this birdy pinata i picked up from bird fever. Its so great! Its a blue paper matchet? bird which is totally bigger than him lol. Anyway, there is a little thing in the back that opens up and i filled it with millet and oat groats. He hasnt made it to the treats yet but the tissue paper on the outside is getting a beating lol....oh and both the birds paper eyes are ripped off :).....I also cut some printer paper into strips and put it in his cage bars which he seems to enjoy alot.

For the time being, whenever I leave, I put a sprig of millet in his cage which he obviously enjoys. He also likes tearing up those 'honey treats'.

Another thing I decided to do was push his and the budgies cage together. (They were seperated by about five feet) Thinking that maybe they could keep him company being closer.

All in all he is still VERY clingy when I am home. He used to go off and play by himself.....now he HAS to be ON me. He can also fly now for the first time in his life so he can REALLY find me now. I am amazed at how precise he is. If I am on the phone he can fly across the room and land on the hand Im using to hold the phone. Or hits my shoulder or head everytime. I was really suprised how good of a flyer he is since he just now got his flight feathers in (they've been clipped since he was born and I have had him about 3 monthes now so hes a little over 4 monthes old).

ANyway, I'm relieved he is not doing it for now, but know i still have a long way to go:)

[ttoilleecarg]

glad to hear hes not plucking, fingers crossed thats the end of it.

Pickle is really clingy in the evening when we get him out, hell hunt you down just to sit on you, and calls me if i leave the room, even when hes sitting with my mum.
but when he comes out in the morning he doesnt want anything to do with any one!
strange birds

[beatle23_5]

i dont know if this could be relevant....but yoshi is molting which is probably the first time he has done so....he has pin feathers on his head which i have been helping him with.....another thing i have noticed is when he preens on me....there is like a white 'dandruffy' stuff left behind.....

i know i have heard that birds will pluck if their skin gets itchy....anyone know what causes it????

he bathes rather regularly on his own....so i dont have to mist him....

im sorry....im just stressing out about all this cuz i love my little guy:/

[ParrotletsRock]

The white dandruff is normal... it is the crushed up feather sheaths that are shed as he or you preens the feathers. They are a protective coating for the new feathers as they come in and when they mature into a regular feather are then preened off.

[beatle23_5]

So.....Here is what I am wondering....Yoshi is 4 monthes old....which means this is his first molt. Doing some research a site said not to be alarmed as your parrotlet will look "moth eaten" during their first molt. Now this is my first 'hand tamed' bird as my budgies arent overly people friendly....Could the thinning of the feathers around his legs just be a result of this molt. I just assumed it was plucking but maybe not? as i've never seen him doing anything unusual- just preening alot because he IS molting...... Insight?

[Mama2ManyMouths]

I have four p'lets (3 normal green males, and one blue male). Skyler has plucked since he was about 2 years old. Our vet has tried everything to no avail, but recently I read an article that Blues (being a mutation) are less tolerant of a high protein diet. So I removed the Harrison's pellets (which contain peanuts) from the menu and offer him lots of fresh foods including sprouted seeds. He improved tremendously within a month, but with the onset of hot weather and much brighter days, he resumed plucking and is in the throes of hormonal behaviours. I'm hoping that this will self-remedy in the fall with the return of cooler days and earlier evenings. :P

[beatle23_5]

I have came to the conclusion i do not think he is plucking. He wasnt showing the more obvious signs of molting at first (pin feathers etc). But now that he is it makes it more apparent that maybe the crazy look and loss of his feathers was a result of his first molt. From the research i have done it sounds like they look pretty ragged during their first molt. Experience?

[Jinx n Noodle]

It just depends on the molt... sometimes mine get a heavier molt and look very shaggy, othertimes it's a lighter molt and they don't look as bad.

[beatle23_5]

It just depends on the molt... sometimes mine get a heavier molt and look very shaggy, othertimes it's a lighter molt and they don't look as bad.


Hes definately molting....i've been helping him with his pin feathers on his head. He's already looking much better....It was just a coincidental thing....he happened to lose aot of feathers while i was gone and my worried mind went right the the thought of pucking!...Im so glad that this was the case....even though my fingers are getting eaten alive...