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Post by Alex on Mar 14, 2015 20:28:05 GMT -5
Need help! My 3 year old quaker start pulling his beautiful feathers 2 weeks ago. Now almost naked.
Will be very thaksful for any advice how to stop
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Post by easttex on Mar 15, 2015 5:13:46 GMT -5
Hi Alex. Plucking is one of the most difficult issues we have with bird-keeping. It's puzzling and painful to watch, but my first recommendation is to not show your own distress to your bird. Continue to treat him as the beautiful creature that he is, in spite of the nekkidness.  Before dealing with it as a behavioral issue, you need to eliminate physical causes. Take him to a good avian vet. In the meantime, put everything and every event surrounding your bird from about the time he started plucking under a microscope. Sometimes simple changes that we take for granted can be taken very badly by our birds. Make sure he stays warm and out of any drafts. Frequent mistings of distilled water with a little organic aloe juice added might be soothing to him. My grey was plucking when I first got her seven years ago. I changed her diet and she started getting a lot more attention than she was getting previously, but I don't know precisely why she started, and I don't know why she stopped. And it took two or three years. Sometimes they never do stop. I wish you the best of luck dealing with this. Please update us on your progress. |
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Post by Jan and Shah on Mar 15, 2015 15:21:24 GMT -5
You could also try her on camomile tea or Bach's Rescue Remedy (the one without alcohol). This will help calm her down if there is a psychological reason. My quaker is a mutilator but recently he started plucking as well. I sprayed the remaining feathers in the area he was plucking with that anti-plucking spray (dont know what it is called in your country - but I use Stop Pick). I only do it once every couple of days and I do a light misting - I cover his eyes and nose when I am spraying it and it never gets sprayed on any open wounds. If your bird likes bathing then organic aloe vera in with some warm water will help soothe the skin and wont hurt her if she ingests it. As Easttex says, dont make an issue of it. If you do, it encourages the bird to do it more to get your attention. I know it is hard to ignore. I would distract my quaker with games, etc., and would do this fairly frequently so he wasnt aware it was happening only when he was plucking. However, it is important to take your bird to an avian vet to get their opinion. Good luck and please let us know how you go.
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