Navre and Friends in Boston

[Pajarita]

Awww, poor baby! I don't know how effective the Avicalm is but I still use it because I always think that even if it's the smallest difference, it's still help.

I don't think that more protein is the answer, we always feed more than enough protein in captivity, but I would make sure she is getting 'good' protein. This time of the year, I always doctor their seed/nut dinner with a bit of hemp seed and a bit of insect protein mixed in with their gloop once a week or so. If you can't find whole hemp seed by you, let me know and I'll send you some -I can get it at ABBA. As to insect protein, I use freeze-dried mealworms -fresh could have salmonella and too much fat- https://www.amazon.com/Tasty-Worms-Free ... B00L5PAZEA

You can also use quinoa in the gloop -I get the three colors combined together but any kind is good.
Oh, and add a bit of sesame seed to their diet, too -high in methionine, good for molting!

[Navre]

She seems like she gets little fits of being itchy. She pulls feathers out while she is sitting with me, then she pushes her head into my hand to make me scratch her head and cheeks.

She just seems itchy all over.

[Navre]

Some of the plucked feathers have a black ball at the end, like where it was in the skin.

[Navre]

She loves the tops. I have been giving her nutriberries figuring that they would probably give her whatever vitamins are missing in the TOPS. Maybe I should be supplementing more.

[liz]

Rainbow has a problem with her feet. They get dry and itchy until she pulls the dry skin off and sometimes makes them bleed. I have been keeping an Aloe spray and shooting her feet. It seems to relieve the itch and for a while it helps her.

[Navre]

Rainbow has a problem with her feet. They get dry and itchy until she pulls the dry skin off and sometimes makes them bleed. I have been keeping an Aloe spray and shooting her feet. It seems to relieve the itch and for a while it helps her.

I've heard of people using coconut oil on feet, too.

[Navre]

I think Ocean is just hormonal. She's clinging to me like crazy. Won't even leave my had to go to her favorite stand in the kitchen, or to jump in the sink to bathe.

[Pajarita]

She could be hormonal. The ones in Argentina do breed during the summer although the ones in Bolivia don't -but that's because of the dry/wet seasons there.

The looking as if the bird is VERY itchy is common in pluckers. Not all of them but some look for all the world as if they just couldn't stand the itch -Sweetpea is like that. It mostly happens right before he is supposed to get his dinner but he has like a fit and starts shaking his feathers and preening in a manic fashion... But there is no itch, it's just a way of externalizing anxiety.

And yes, plucked feathers will often still have the root at the end of the shaft.

[Navre]

And yes, plucked feathers will often still have the root at the end of the shaft.

This is the first time that any of the feathers looked plucked like that. Before they all looked like they were normally molted.

[Navre]

My friend is bird-sitting a pair of African Red belly parrots. What beautiful birds.