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[Wolf]

I can't say for sure, but it does look to me like he may be over preening a bit. This may be because he doesn't have anything better to keep him occupied. Do you give him foraging type toys? They could be as simple as a small piece of nut wrapped in a piece of a coffee filter or unwaxed cupcake paper, or even some of the expensive reuseable ones. Of course if you don't currently provide them, you will need to teach him about them. Shredding toys are also great for them and most of mine love it when I give them a little cardboard box to shred or even a wadded up piece of newspaper.

[Curious Diode]

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[Wolf]

If you look closely you will see that there are quite a few feather that have a very ragged edge and look to be sort of squareish instead of as rounded as they should normally be, and this is what makes me think that he may be over preening, most likely from boredom. The one feather that I think that you are speaking of is really ragged and squared off and the black around the edge looks more like a shadow than anything else and that may be due to the lighting or the angle the picture was taken from or both. Either way I can't really tell anything more than that.

It is not unusual for birds that spend a lot of time in their cages with nothing else to do to over preen to some degree. It can keep you rather occupied with trying to come up with enough make work or play just to give them something to do. But the time spent in teaching them how to use these toys and such is or can be a lot of fun for both of you.

[Curious Diode]

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[Pajarita]

I've had four GCCs and none of them every played with toys. They are not even big chewers, actually. They would much rather just sit on your shoulder and lean their bodies against your neck or burrow inside your shirt than anything else... But, yes, there is overpreening going on. When the feathers don't have a perfectly smooth line but have a 'cog-like' look to them, there is overpreening. How many hours does he spend on you? Because mine spends two solid hours on me plus she has a mate of her own so, as you can see, she has A LOT of personal attention. GCCs are VERY needy little birds and the only way they don't bite, scream or develop any other undesirable behaviors is if you pay A LOT of attention to them, and that means hours and hours - not an easy thing to do.

[Curious Diode]

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[Pajarita]

Well, you might want to increase his one-on-one time to 3 to 4 hours and see what happens... they are really needy little things and some are more than others. Is he clipped? Because mine would never stay in their cage with a door open or on a perch, they would fly to my shoulder every chance they got.

[Curious Diode]

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[Pajarita]

Ahhhh, no wonder he is overpreening! It's from anxiety.

[Curious Diode]

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