How can i stop my African Grey pulling out his feathers? He is almost bald all over his chest.?

Question

He seems to pluck on a night in his cage. He is pulling out the new ones that start to come through but has also started to pull out others. He is not in the cage through the day (he can get in if he wants) and there is someone with him most of the day everyday. He has plenty of attention, toys, human interaction,and free run of the flat etc. He has a diet of seeds, monkey nuts with lots of fresh fruit and veg and also like a bit of what i have, etc. He is 10 years old but has only started plucking in last year or so and nothing has changed that i can think off to start hi. His cage is same, enviroment, no one has had hime alone to mistreat him etc.

He did go to an avian vet who ran lots of tests but she said he was perfectly health. His peronality has not changed or anything but if he carries on i fear he will be totally bald.

I spray him most days with water and aloe vera juice, and he likes to get a bath now and again in a large bowl.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

try introducing new toys and taking out some of the others go to doctor fosters and make your own   if you have time because they have wood chips, colored plastics and paper objects that you can use to make toys birds love to chew and brake and color and noise get their attention sometime they get bored with the same old thing. after a couple of weeks rotate your toys to always seem new and find what your bird seems to go after bell, color,shape and buy similar new of someone with the same problem and was screaming a lot too  it helped her and she said her bird is doing much better.

Answer 2

Try reading the information in these links.

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww26evi...

http://theaviary.com/ag.shtml

Answer 3

Are you using any different cleaners? Any purfumes, sprays?  I wish I could offer anything but if the vet said he was healthy then there is nothing medically wrong, it has to be either stress or change.  I would provide him toys for birds that pluck, one toy is called the fuzzywuzzy or something liek that and my amazon loves to preen his.  There are may toys though for pluckers that allow the bird to take out their stress/anxiety/fear or whatever it is out on that toy rather than themselves.  I would keep spraying him every day witht he water and aloe, till he is drenched and keep him drenched most of the morning.  I would maybe call the vet and see if he has any remedies that you can use.  I've also seen birds wear "sweaters" or socks with holes cut in them to slip over your bird to prevent him from pluckign the new feathers.  YOu can google them and see how to make your own or buy some.  But with a bird that plucks frequently you may want to just use socks since they're cheaper.

Answer 4

my bird had the same problem my bird had fleas so we had to get this thing that made the fleas go away and there are some stuff that vets give to them to help that kill the fleasits not food its stuff that they put on its feathers to make the fleas go awaybtu you'll have to watch him to make sure he doesnt eat it.

Answer 5

i wish i can help you but i can't. i had a feather-picking grey and i gave him to my father to care for, and he still feather-picks, tho he does less then before.

for you, i wonder why he does this at night? maybe add a little quiet time to the birds day? does he sleep 10 to 12 hours a night in perfect blackness?

while cockatiels need night-lights because they have night-frights, maybe your bird needs perfect blackness at night. my dad puts blinds down in the bird's room, and then he puts on heavy black cloth that he made for the windows on top of that held by nails to the window frame to make the bird's room dark. (cage is not covered, but it is 100% dark in there).

otherwise i'm guessing that 10years old is maybe 17 years old in human years and it could be sexual picking. since nothing changes, maybe your birds wants a mate! dunno what to do about that tho.

dunno what to do about my own crazy african grey. just throwing out ideas just in case.

mine doesn't pluck tho, he just picks, which isn't as bad since he is not hurting himself. our's chest is just fuzz cuz he bites off all his chest feathers. but he does not pull them out. that's worse cuz that's like a teenager cutting themselves -- they enjoy the pain.

which also makes me think yours may just want a mate. i read about *lending* a grey to a breeder, but i honestly don't know if that's even possible or how long you'd have to lend him out for or what. that doesn't sound like something that would actually work but i read about it.

Answer 6

This tends to be a nervous habit of a bored caged bird,as i said tends to be may also be a proper medical cause or diet deficiency also. Try to let him out and exercise as much as possible vary his diet find some nuts and such he would have to work at to get into and eat place a large mirror near his cage and leave a radio on when your not there. anything to keep him busy doing other things,

Ps; no salted and try and stay away from sunflower seeds in his diet for awhile also birds have a tendency to get addicted to them