Cons and Pros of putting a bird on Prozak?

[Sthere]

I've owned a Red Fronted Macaw for about 8 years. She plucked all the feathers off her chest this past summer and slowly worked her way now to the wings. I tried treating her for giardia, added lighting to her room it seemed to only help some what. If we are just hanging out watching t.v. she plucks her feathers. I noticed she doesn't play anymore with her toys. I have bought new ones, rearranged them, she doesn't touch any of them. The vet spoke of getting her foraging toys. Well I brought new ones of those she doesn't try to figure them out. I even show her how it's done and she does not touch it. I spoke to a parrot behaviorist who told me to make foraging toys out of paper towel rolls wrapped up in news paper, she only starts to tear into those and loses interest. The vet mentioned something about placing her on prozak, that maybe she has a mental imbalance. He does not see feather plucking as much on wild caught birds and like wise with macaws He was insinuating that she just might have a screw loose. Her clutch mate died b/c their parents refused to feed her and my bird was pulled straight from the nest as soon as she was hatched. He said maybe mother nature was telling them something..? What are the side effect of using a behavior modification drug? I am considering it.

[DanielA]

You have a Red Fronted Macaw!!?? Those are seriously threatened.
You'll have to ask someone else about that, I don't have plucking history. Good luck with your Red Fronted macaw

[liz]

Check with another avian vet.

I will spell this wrong, but some brains lack saratonan or have not enough. That is what is in prozac. My mother and I are both on it. Saratonan is a mood elevater. Most Bi-polars take it. That includes my son to control his depressions.

Check with another avian vet first. Always get a second opinion on something that weird. If there is no other in your area, go on line.

[marie83]

I would second the idea of getting another opinion before you decide. The previous poster is right in that they evevate serotine levels in the body (so called happy hormone). There are ways to increase this naturally, increasing access to sunlight, increasing exercise and certain foods are said to increase production of it too, but dont ask me which because I can't remember off hand so it could be something to look into- making sure they are parrot safe first of course. If your climate allows it try taking her in a cage outside for natural sun in addition to the lamp you have for her. If your budget and space allows for it an outdoor aviary might be a better option than a cage as it will provide more chance for exercise too. Teach recall if she is flighted and spend time encouraging her to fly across the room to you to increase exercise or chase balls across the floor, if she isn't flighted consider allowing her to become flighted.

Obviously none of this may help and naturally raising serotine levels isn't always enough for people so my guess is it could be the same for birds but definitely try and get another opinion as that may not even be her problem.

[GlassOnion]

I would suggest a product called Avicalm by Avitech. It's pretty much anti aggression/plucking/screaming product for birds. You can buy it online, I've heard great things about it. Look on www.mysafebirdstore.com and there's a section called 'Avitech'.

[Sthere]

Thanks for all the support guys. I was afraid I would get bashed for even considering it. How do you teach recall flight training for a bird?? I heard that can be dangerous...

[liz]

Thanks for all the support guys. I was afraid I would get bashed for even considering it. How do you teach recall flight training for a bird?? I heard that can be dangerous...

Recall inside the house.

[Sthere]

Thanks for all the support guys. I was afraid I would get bashed for even considering it. How do you teach recall flight training for a bird?? I heard that can be dangerous...

Recall inside the house.

I understand that, but how? She hates to fly, she does not want to fly on command.

And I tried rolling on a ball on the floor, she has no interest. Tried rolling it on a tabletop too, but no interest. She doesn't do much of anything but pluck, eat, and sleep. She enjoys music and tries to sing, but that's about it. Her calcium levels are in normal range, so she is not hormonal.

[liz]

Myrtle and Rambo love the make shift tree I gave them. They play all over it. When I put a fresh branch in the tree they chew on it.

Whatever enrichment you can come up with. Myrtle likes to play with plastic lids. I put a few Nerd candy in a cardbord box so they will forage. etc

[Andromeda]

Putting a bird on Prozac is pretty extreme. I'm not going to say that it's never appropriate, but in my opinion it's a last resort.

My brown-headed parrot is a rescue and he started plucking out of nowhere last October. Long story short we tried everything. My avian vet knows I take good care of him and she said, "Usually when someone has a plucking bird I can say, 'Their diet is poor or they don't get enough sunlight or they don't have enough toys or they don't have enough out-of-cage time.' I know that's not the case with your bird so all I really have left to recommend at this point is Prozac. Let me know if you want to take that route."

I went home and did some research and decided against it mainly because at this point in time it's unknown whether birds' brains work the same way ours do (in regards to levels of serotonin affecting mood and behavior) and Prozac is a strong drug with (potentially) serious side-effects. That being said, some plucking birds apparently have responded to SSRIs (like Prozac) but it's used so rarely that sample sizes are too small to determine how effective it is.

You can try a few other (less extreme) things first and if those don't help, you can always try Prozac later. Here's some things I tried with my bird, to no success, but I read that other plucking birds responded to this:

1. Bach Rescue Remedy Pet. This was recommended by my vet and is a "natural remedy made from flower essences. It helps restore inner calm." It is added to water.

OR

2. AviCalm. This is also added to water (or food) and is "an avian specific formulation using a compound found in green tea leaves for use in screamers, nervous, or aggressive birds."

3. Aloe vera sprays. Mix aloe vera juice (not gel) and distilled water in a spray bottle. Four parts water to one part aloe is a good starting point and it can be made stronger or weaker if needed. Spray your bird several times a day with this mixture. Sometimes this alone stops plucking.

4. Sunlight and/or full-spectrum lighting. Some birds pluck because they aren't getting enough exposure to UVA/UVB. If your bird isn't getting a "daily dose" of direct sunlight (windows filter out UVA/UVB) this could help.

5. A mop head. Some birds have stopped plucking when given a "substitute" object to mutilate, such as a mop head. Make sure it's just a plain, cotton mop head that doesn't have any fancy, deadly chemicals (some of the mop heads I saw had anti-microbial 'treatments' applied to the mop).

Now, last but not least, here is something that did help my plucker: clicker training. He does not know recall yet (I have been working on that with him for about a month and a half) but he does know how to target, turn in a circle, and wave. He hasn't stopped plucking, but I noticed an almost immediate, HUGE improvement in his plucking once I started training him every day.

Once your bird knows "click means treat" you can actually use this to try to address plucking as well. This doesn't work with my bird because he only plucks at night (when he should be sleeping) but since your bird is plucking during the day this could improve or stop the behavior: whenever you're with your bird, ignore the plucking. If your bird goes say, a few minutes without plucking, click and praise and treat. Throughout the day you'll want to periodically reward the bird when you notice that it's not plucking.

Additionally, you can use clicker training to try to encourage your bird to play with its toys again. You teach your bird to "target" and then you use the target stick to show the bird you want it to just touch a toy with its beak. Then you click and reward the bird when it touches the toy. Pretty soon the bird will figure out that if it touches a toy with its beak it will get a treat, so it should start doing this more often. The bird may eventually start to interact with its toys more often because of this, and if you see it playing with a toy you click and treat, etc.

Target Training Parrot Outside the Cage - Michael explains all there is to know about clicker training.

Flight Recall Michael demonstrates teaching flight recall to Truman.