Senegal Parrot Chewing Both Wings

[wildey1771]

Hi
I have had my senegal parrot for a few years now and after multiple trips to the vet and things to try he still stands on his cage or the window and chews off the feathers of his wings. He can no longer fly because of this. What can I do?

[Wolf]

With nothing more to go on than this, I would have to say that you don't spend enough time with him and/or provide enough mental stimulation for him. These are the most common reason for this behavior if there are no medical issues causing it.

[wildey1771]

There is times that he is sat with me being quite content and just starts to do it. Im not understanding this.

[liz]

If a dog gets an itch he will chew on it to scratch it. This will lead to a bigger itch and so on.

Wolf suggested aloe for the dry itchy wing on Lola.

Give him more picking things. The Amazons get bits of branches that still have fresh bark. I make picking toys for the Cockatiels. Their favorite seems to be dry corn husk. My little Lovie Tweetle picked all the time. He would even pick things loose from the side of his cage. Then find a string loose on his rope perch and keep after it.

I ignore Myrtle on me when I am busy or I will never get any work done. In the evening when I watch TV I am in constant contact with her. I tickle her feet or stroke her face etc.

It is worth a try.

[Wolf]

I don't have enough information to give you an accurate answer. You must be my eyes and ears into your birds world. Tell me in as much detail as you can, what time your bird gets up in the morning, what do you feed it in the morning, what types of light does it get, sunshine, incandescent light bulbs, flourescsent lights, how much time does it spend out of the cage, how much one on one time does it spend with you, do you do any training, what does it have to eat during the day, what do you feed it for dinner what time does it go to bed. Basically an average day in the life of your bird, with this information I can do a much better job of helping you and your bird.

[wildey1771]

I uncover his cage around 7:30 to 8am in the morning every day. For breakfast I feed him; Pomegranate, Grapes, blueberries and sometimes melon. He gets daylight from outside (windows) and spends around 11 Hours outside of his cage. During the week he gets around 4 hours human contact per day not including time spent talking to him across the room when hes in the chirpy mood. On weekends he comes and goes to people who he wants to be with as he can climb the couch to get to people. During the day he will go between parrot mix which i get from a trusted retailer and his breakfast. He also has some mixed nuts from the supermarket. For Dinner i give him Vegetables such as Sweetcorn, carrots, peas which are cooked. (I do take out his breakfast before this). I will then cover his cage between 7pm and 7:30.
Overall he seems to be a happy bird but he will be on the window ledge in the living room whistling and talking and then he will just switch to chewing his wings.

[Pajarita]

He is most likely hormonal and sexually frustrated from an inadequate light schedule and diet too high in protein. Put him on a strict solar schedule and change his diet to gloop with raw produce in the morning (one hour after sunrise -around 8:30 am this time of the year which is also when the artificial lights should be turned on -his cage should be uncovered at 7am) and a measured amount of budgie seed (about 2 heaping tablespoons) for dinner at sunset when the artificial light should be turned off so he can eat his dinner and go to sleep after (about 3:15 pm this time of the year). The artificial lights should be a good quality full spectrum (CRI 94+ and Ktemp 5000-5500).

[Paul Lewis]

Wildey, How often do you bathe the bird? A good soaking 2-3 times a week stimulates normal preening. Over bathing however may remove too much oil and cause dry skin, especially this time of year.
Will the bird chew on himself in front of you? Most people reward the bird unknowingly for chewing, shredding, plucking... by being over dramatic, giving attention, food or toy to chew on. Ignore it.
Like Liz stated give him plenty of stimulus, especially fresh green natural branches right off the tree, almost irresistable for them to not chew on. You are in a position for that bird to chew on anything and everything, that's safe, but itself.Keep it busy.
As far as the lighting goes full spectrum is great stuff, screw the schedule business though, I've never seen it help plucking or bad behavior, never. You have a bird to enjoy no need to put it to bed and not see it for most of the day. I believe nearly all feather mutilation problems are caused by over handling at an early age, it's hard not to. The birds get used to it and don't understand when your schedule changes, due to vacations, work, kids, no kids, ... I do believe you're setting yourself up for problems years down the road.
Interesting how one person says handle the bird more, which it would probably love and another says put it to bed at 3 o'clock and don't do anything w/ it until 7 the next morning.

[Wolf]

Actually Paul, I didn't say anything about handling the bird more, less or anything like that. I did suggest that maybe the bird was lonely and bored thus needing more mental stimulation and or time with the bird. I spend a lot of time with my birds without touching them.
Dry skin is a distinct possibility either from the drying of the air caused by heating the home or even not enough bathing or too much.
The bird owner could try training to provide more interaction and mental stimulation, they could also provide destructible toys, forageing toys and other things to chew on and make certain that the bird is shown how to use these toys.
I routinely spray my birds with an aloe and water mixture to soothe the skin and soften pin feathers. I also add it to their bathing dishes.
Food allergies are also a possibility such as that caused by soy products.
Personally, I don't like taking chances so I use all of the above approaches, as I took in a Grey parrot, a Parrotlet, and a budgie with plucking issues and have had very good results thus far.

[Pajarita]

Wildey, How often do you bathe the bird? A good soaking 2-3 times a week stimulates normal preening. Over bathing however may remove too much oil and cause dry skin, especially this time of year.
Will the bird chew on himself in front of you? Most people reward the bird unknowingly for chewing, shredding, plucking... by being over dramatic, giving attention, food or toy to chew on. Ignore it.
Like Liz stated give him plenty of stimulus, especially fresh green natural branches right off the tree, almost irresistable for them to not chew on. You are in a position for that bird to chew on anything and everything, that's safe, but itself.Keep it busy.
As far as the lighting goes full spectrum is great stuff, screw the schedule business though, I've never seen it help plucking or bad behavior, never. You have a bird to enjoy no need to put it to bed and not see it for most of the day. I believe nearly all feather mutilation problems are caused by over handling at an early age, it's hard not to. The birds get used to it and don't understand when your schedule changes, due to vacations, work, kids, no kids, ... I do believe you're setting yourself up for problems years down the road.
Interesting how one person says handle the bird more, which it would probably love and another says put it to bed at 3 o'clock and don't do anything w/ it until 7 the next morning.

Could you, please, state what your personal experience is with chronic pluckers, whether it happened to birds under your care or birds that you took in already as pluckers, what you did to correct it, how it turned out and how long it took for the ones that got better? I've had a number of them and I've had about 50% success (when they stopped plucking altogether and for good) but they all improved in different degrees (some reduced the area to just one spot, some became seasonal mild pluckers and I am still working on one).

Also, have you done any research on the avian endocrine system and photoperiodism? If so, could you please give us a link that proves that photoperiodism doesn't work?