Cockatoo help!!! ?

Question

I have a goffin cockatoo namd Baby. She is a very hyper and entergetic bird, except she plucks her feathers. Is there anyway to get her to stop?

Answer 1

give her food

Answer 2

She could be stressed. Give her some comfort food, as well as fresh food and water every day. Maybe start giving her some vitamins as well. Give her her favorite toys also. And make sure you are giving her plenty of attention as well,.

Have there been any recent changes in your lifestyle? Maybe furniature rearrange ment? Someone new in the family? Moving houses? A new animal?

Answer 3

Well, sometimes (if you are lucky) plucking is caused by medical problems, so I would take her to an avian vet.

Then there are times where it is behavioral. Common with cockatoos. Mytoos.com and forum is a great spot for help, but be warned they are kind of a rough crew. They mean well though.

Now, How old is she? How many hours is she out of the cage (pics of her and the cage would help a ton, plus a playstand if she has one)? Does she have a microchip? How long has she been plucking? What is her diet like? Has there been any major changes recently? Do her parents pluck?

Sorry for so many questions but you ask a complex question. Often if the problem is behavioral or medical rather than psychological you can help. Now with cockatoos, there is a reason I dont believe they do well in captivity sometimes never stop plucking.

Also what types of foraging activities do you engage her in?

Answer 4

Cockatoo's often do pick and pluck and barber and chew their feather's

and some mutilate themselves.

All goofy goffins are high energy birds-:) Silly, fun, funny and sweet.

Goffin's need large cages with 3/4" bar spacing. Lot's of safe and fun toys of different types. Three perches, wood,rope and I like a Sandy brand perch in all my birds cages. ~ they cost more, but don't break, easy to wash in soap and water, rinse, pat dry with thick towel, or put in dishwasher, last forever. Also several Foot toys and help for plucker's are shredable toys like pinatas.  http://www.motherpluckinbirdtoys.com/

Good avian diet is needed for all birds, but for plucker's lot's of clean, fresh vegetables daily, chopped or chunked. Leafy dark greens like kale, watercress,dandelion greens, bok choy and broccoli, yellow squash ( peeled) sweet red pepper's,corn,green beans, green pea's, celery, carrot,..and more along with alittle fresh fruit. * No apple SEEDS or fruit PITS ever. Avocado, caffeine, chocolate, scented candles, over heated teflon cookware and heating units with teflon parts are Toxic to birds.

Don't feed grapes without cutting in half and inspecting for mold, mold kills birds fast. No sugar, salt or milk.

Cooked and cooled Sweet Potato, Yam and hard boiled egg should be included in the diet weekly.

Buy a new water spray bottle, fill with water and sray well into the sink and dump, re-fill with water and holding high up and over your bird spray so that the water drifts down and onto the bird.

Bird feather's need humity and only spray a bird with plain water.

This helps the feather's, skin and feel's good - in warm weather or warm house.

Hormonal times often start a bird plucking, so don't rub under the wings or tail area when a female bird is hormonal.

There is no magic bullet for stoping birds from plucking, but keeping them happy and fed well and suppling with lots of fun and interesting and safe toys does help.

Also teaching them new words to say helps also, anything to keep them busy and the mind off of plucking. Sing to her, dance around and be silly, my cockatoo's love that.

Make sure she can entertain herself alone in a cage for several hours each day, other wise you become her source of entertainment and you can't always be there so then they scream or pluck or both.

Trust me, I know how darn hard it is to keep the hands off of these TOO's, but for them, we must train them to entertain themselves inbetween the attention we give them.

You might want to read on this web site, is big and very informative, bookmark it.  http://www.birdsnways.com/