Suddenly plucking after 16 years

[allys]

This is my first time here and I'm hoping someone can give me a hand as I'm getting desperate...

A little bit of background on the problem:

I acquired my "baby" 16 years ago. He's a male red sided eclectus. When I bought him he was just over a year old. His original owner had neglected him so he had begun to feather pluck. He was sold to a woman who rehabilitated him with the intention of pairing him with a single female she had. He did not take to the female, preferring human companionship, so she sold him to me as she had no need for another "pet." I am his third owner and all of this transpired over the course of a year.

It is now 16 years later and he has been in perfect feather for the entirety of that time. A few months ago my husband and I noticed that some of the feathering around his neck was getting slightly sparse. We didn't think much of it at the time as occasionally when he moults, the old feathers fall out before the new ones are ready to come in and he tends to get a little bald patch for a span of a few weeks (usually on his forehead). We presumed this was the case. However, as the weeks went on we realized that he was actually ripping out all fresh pin feathers before they had sprouted from their shafts. This has been going on for several months now, since November, and it continues to get worse. His neck is now completely bare and a bit of his back is getting thin too.

He’s been to the vet twice who said my bird has dandruff. He’s been taking for a couple of months now, Laefeber medicinal vitamins in his water each day, in addition to a concentrated omega supplement. The vet suggested that we extend his night time hours to 14 but we noticed he just plucked more when he was in his cage covered. So, we’ve now shortened his night time hours waking him at 6:00am and putting him to bed at 8:00pm. When he’s not in his cage, he doesn’t seem to be plucking. However, once we uncover his cage each morning, new feathers have been plucked (as evidenced by the feathers we see at the bottom of his cage).

For all intent and purposes, he is a very happy bird and has been so for many years: he has free reign of our apartment when we are home and actually likes his cage (he enters and exits it freely and willingly). The second we get home from work or during the weekends, the cage door is always open. Sometimes he likes to just “chill out” in his cage, other times he likes to follow us around the apartment, sometimes he’s happy to observe us from a corner in a particular room, sometimes he nips at our toes until we pick him up and carry him around or cuddle with him for a while. He talks a lot, has a good diet (Hagen pellets, fresh fruit or vegetables each day)… nothing about his routine has changed recently.

Last night we tried to collar him, only to find him awake at 2:30am, trying to eat his way out of the collar. Hearing him growl in the darkness then uncovering him to “free” him from the collar was gut wrenching.

At this point, we’re at a loss. We refuse to collar him again so we fear we may end up with a totally plucked bird, but at least he’ll seem happy…

Do any of you have suggestions on what the problem could be or where to go from here? This whole situation has been incredibly distressing for us and I fear for the health of my bird.

Thank you for any help you can offer!!

Ally

[Pajarita]

Well, for one thing, I would follow your vet's advice because if the 6am to 8pm schedule is the one he has had all his life, you are lucky he didn't start plucking earlier as this means constant spring to him, which equals constant production of sexual hormones which, in turn, makes them sexually frustrated (number one cause of plucking). For another, and I know that there are lots of people who would not agree with me but I would not feed pellets to an ekkie. I don't like pellets for any bird but least of all for ekkies.

I don't know what kind of omega supplement you are giving him but unless it's just Omega 3, you are creating an imbalance because birds don't need Omega 6 or 9 and, when you give a supplement that combines the three, you are making their intake of 6 and 9 so high that it completely erases the Omega 3s in the mix and it could become toxic (Dr. Harrison has been citing finding Omega toxicity on birds on his last two text books and it's caused by feeding the birds omega supplements meant for mammals). If what you want is omega 3, there are lots of foods they can eat which are high in it. My birds get flax and chia seeds and extra virgin olive oil drizzled on some of their food (like baked potatoes in the shell, for example) but, for an ekkie, I would also use lots and lots of broccoli and kale. I don't like to give my birds supplements that are derived from animals, like fish or krill oil.

Personally, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way because it's not meant that way, I would not think that my bird is happy if he is plucking. If he had come to you as a plucker and, although he got better, he continued to pluck a certain area even though your husbandry and his medical condition are perfect in every way, I would say that, most likely, he is doing it out of habit now (the same as a person who bites his nails) and not out of depression, unhappiness, loneliness, sexual frustration, pain or whatever but when a bird starts plucking there is always a cause. And, unless you find out what is making him pluck and correct it, he will continue to do it - but not out of habit but because the problem remains. Whether this cause is physical or emotional, I don't know but there is something there that is making him do it and you can take that to the bank. In another forum, the owner of a plucking bird had an X-ray, ultrasound and skin biopsy done on her plucking bird and she found that, although she did not think of the bird as sexually frustrated (he wasn't screaming or biting and seemed happy), he was. He had a super enlarged testis (he was, like your bird, kept at a human light schedule) that was causing him pain and that's why he was plucking. Happy, healthy birds don't pluck so I urge to re-evaluate your husbandry: light schedule/quality/type/intensity, diet, entertainment, etc and get more tests done on him so you can find what is making him so unhappy or uncomfortable.

[Cedardave]

If your vet says he has dandruff...how often does he get misted or soaked? Our experiance has shown if they get dry skin...they get itchy skin and often full on the feathers to scratch that itch.If you are in a dry climate...winter climate or just low humidity that could contribute.As was mentioned it could be a sexual frustration...although many birds will live their entire life without any outward signs of anything sexual.?.particularly if there isnt another bird around.If you have added any new toys that could set your guy off balance.To me it seems that since you have had him for a long time the cause could be something newly added to his enviroment.While eclectus need lots of vegetables,some fruit and nuts I think there is value in some amount of a good quality pelleted diet.There is a product by aviatec called feather in.You mix the powder with water and spray on your bird.....wait a few minutes and rinse off the residue.We have had good success with this...its basically a skin conditioner.Perhaps it may help of the itch is the problem.
Just my 2cents .

[allys]

Thank you to the both of you who have provided me with some insight.

To give a better picture of my eclectus's life...

-I have a hard time believing that his feather plucking could be a habit as it has been more than SIXTEEN YEARS since he was a baby and plucked his feathers for a short period of time. For sixteen years he has been in perfect feather.

-I doubt the sudden plucking is the result of sexual frustration because, as embarrassing as this is to say, the first few years I had him, if sitting on my shoulder, he would sometimes, actually display mating behaviour. This stopped, I'd say, maybe six years ago; I’ve seen nothing of the sort since.

-For many years he has been on a sleep schedule of 12 hours of daylight; his cage being covered at 7:00pm and uncovered at 7:00am. The vet suggested we shorten the daylight hours to only 10 per day. The problem with this was that he was not tired. Instead, he'd just sit in his cage alone, with nothing to do, so continued with the feather plucking. He has never plucked when we were around him or paying attention to him, only when alone. As the vet says "it seems that he knows it's something he shouldn't be doing." He's pretty secretive about it. That’s why during the past week we’ve tried to lengthen his daylight hours to 6:00am through to 8:00pm. We don’t want him to be in a situation at night time where he is alone in a covered cage, with nothing to do but pick at his feathers. By forcing him to stay awake, and we know he’s tired (he doesn’t try to disguise his drooping eyelids, yawns, and demure attitude) but we want him to be in his covered cage at night to sleep and nothing more.

-I have no other birds. I had lovebirds in the past, but Roupert has been the sole pet in the household for many years now. Quite frankly, if he saw another bird tomorrow, even another eclectus, I question whether he’d even know it was a bird! Obviously, he could not have contracted some sort of ailment from another bird.

-His wings are clipped, and we have groomers come every 3 to 4 months to clip his wings, trim his nails and beak. He’s never been a chewer. I used to spend a fortune on elaborate toys; he’d ignore them. Fancy perches made especially for chewing: ignored. Branches collected from trees outside and placed strategically in his cage for chewing: he was terrified of them and would protest being within five feet of his cage lest he be forced to go near one of those menacing things! Hence the need for the beak trimming. I abandoned the idea a long time ago of shelling out money for ignored toys. Instead, Roupert discovered my husband’s wicker laundry hamper. He’s done a reasonable job chewing parts of that (much to my husband’s chagrin), so at least it’s something. Once the plucking began, I went out and bought a whole bunch of new, elaborate toys, primarily to encourage scavenging. One toy has a bunch of sunflower seeds embedded in it: he hasn’t even looked at it. Normally the sight of sunflower seeds would have Roupert charging towards his cage to feast (he gets a small amount of seeds once per week as a treat: peanuts, sunflowers; with and without the husks, pecans, etc.)

-We used to give him a bath (my husband would bring him into the shower with him) once per week which Roupert just loved (we have photos and videos of him splashing around in the water, fanning out his feathers… in fact he’d get nippy if my husband dared try to remove him from his shoulder so that he himself could bathe.) The vet said to stop doing this so often as it was increasing the dryness of the feathers.

We live in southern Ontario and this winter has been the coldest and longest one we’ve had in many years. In fact, the temperature dropped very quickly and very suddenly at the beginning of November… about the time the plucking began. Taking some of your suggestions into consideration, I’m going to look into getting a humidifier as well as the Feather-in conditioner.

If this is a hormonal problem, what kind of treatment can be offered? A mate is not an option. Do you think I should go back to the vet’s suggestion of 14 hours of darkness in the hopes of calming his hormone levels, even if the outcome is a bored, feather-plucking bird stuck in a darkened cage for most of the day?

Thank you again for all of your help!

Ally

[Cedardave]

Hey Ally,
Your in southern ontario...Im in manitoba.Weve both experianced cold dry weather this winter.Get a humistat and determine your homes humidity.Mine is crazy dry.Forced air furnaces,even the new ones dry the air if your home isnt air tight.....like mine.The sort of hot air mister you would use if you had a cold works well, although has to be refilled often....about $30 or less at walmart.Mist him daily in the morning so he has lots of time to dry by sleep time.The feather in is available in canada online at canadianbirdtoys...googe them and look up feather in in the site search.If ypu need more help send me a pm ...Im betting its the dry air.

[Pajarita]

Well, covering the cage and making it night suddenly doesn't work. He needs to be exposed to dawn and dusk and go to sleep naturally as night falls (he can't fall asleep when you cover his cage because there hasn't been the gradual reduction in light that triggers melatonin -what makes you and him drowsy- production). He plucks when he is by himself because that's when he feels worst, not because he 'knows' he is doing something bad. It doesn't really work that way with animals that get into the habit of doing stereotypies (repetitive, aberrant behavior found only in captivity). These might not be 'normal' behaviors but the animals have no concept of normal or abnormal behavior.

Yes, bathing them with warm water strips the natural oils from bodies and feathers but you can still bathe them with cold water (and adding a bit of aloe vera juice would make it better still). And you can keep a humidifier going in the room where he is kept all the time (I turn on the humidifier when I close the windows in the fall after it gets chilly and never turn it off until it's spring).

As to sexual frustration, I am afraid that not masturbating is not proof that he is not frustrated. The only way is to do an ultrasound and look at his gonads to see how large they are because I am afraid that your extending his days even more than normal is making things worse -there is no two ways about this one and this is not my personal opinion but a scientific fact. Birds are photoperiodic -all birds, even the tropical ones that have only a difference of 20 minutes between the breeding and the resting season- so the only 'treatment' is to do as Nature ordered and keep them at a solar schedule (no artificial lights until the sky is completely lit or after the sun starts to set or after). Birds endocrine system is 100% regulated by quantity and quality of light so this is essential to their health and happiness. The pineal gland reacts to the different light spectrum in twilight by marking the beginning and the end of the day and the length of daylight hours is what determines whether they should start or stop producing sexual hormones (this is called the point of refractoriness). Reducing protein intake also helps stop the production of sexual hormones so no pellets, no seeds, no nuts for a while will help, too (you can feed him cooked whole grains mixed with chopped vegetables). Problem is, on the Northern Hemisphere, we are at the beginning of the breeding season (the days started getting longer after the winter solstice and, in the NE, we are already at almost 12 hours of daylight) so although it would be good for the bird to start getting his endocrine system back to where it's supposed to be, is not going to help with the hormonal production.... not until this November or December, at least, because the longer the endocrine system has been out of whack, the longer it takes for it to get well.

Has he had a bile acids test to check on his liver function? Because none of my birds chew toys but none requires a beak trim ever (and I have old birds!). In my personal opinion, the only time the beak becomes overgrown is when the liver is not working well (another cause of plucking in some birds) so I would have this done along with the ultrasound.

The other thing that helps with plucking is flying... taking flight away is very depressive to birds, as well as physically unhealthy (imagine a person sitting all day long, day after day, month after month, year after year...) Exercise (and, for a bird, the only exercise is flying) doesn't only keep them physically fitter (obesity, cardio-vascular system), it also helps dissipate stress and sexual hormones from their bloodstream AND makes them produce serotonin (the happy hormone) and dopamine (the reward hormone -this is the same one that produces the high with cocaine and other drugs).

So, in a nutshell:
- keep him at a strict solar schedule
- reduce protein intake
- get a humidifier
- give him daily baths with cold water and a splash of aloe vera juice (never in the pm, only am).
- allow him flight - and, if he has lost the ability to do it -which most likely he has after 16 years of not flying because his muscles must be completely atrophied and his tendons shrunken by now- make him flap his wings as hard and as long as he can without getting very winded (he will get better in time but he might never regain the ability to actually fly)

[Cedardave]

Pajarita has alot of good points.I have every confidance she knows of what she speaks.One thing I respectfully dispute is the covering at night.In a perfect world we would devote every moment of our lives and care for our companion birds by dimming light before covering and raising light intensity to mimic nature.The reality for most people with birds is to allow them dark uninterupted night time sleep for 10 to 12 hours.While my routines may or may not be similar to anyone elses...they are in the best interest of what we are able to provide for our birds.Some will say if you cant do exactly what the literature says ,then what business do you have having birds.Often the simplest action can resolve the problem.While I am not a vet...and will not give any medical advise...I also speak from many years of experiance both as a pet owner and breeder.Typically its already getting dark by the time our birds are covered...hence they dont go from day to night when being covered.It begins to get light when they are un covered.We never cover all the way to the floor.This gives them the option to retire to the upper perches when they are ready to sleep...also alows for air circulation so they dont overheat.It spunds as though a couple vet visits have taken place and the bird has come out with a clean bill of health..although not every test under the sun was performed.The alo juice in the water is goo and also helps keep the skin moist...be sure its juice and not jell.It can make the bird sticky and since its a juice can sour...Collars are terrible for their mental state and I would use them only as an absolute last last resort.I think they do more harm than good.If you think the vet tests are the way to go than do so.Consider adding some of the suggestions you have been given here as well.
Best of luck
Please let us know how things are progressing...but the change wont happen overnight

[sidech]

I agree with what has been said. Exçept Aloe Vera. Its benefits have not been proven, and it is not necessary.

Here's what I would personnally change very fast :

1- no pellets. All fresh diet. Ekkies don't need pellets, they need fresh greens, sprouts, a tiny bit of canary seeds and a bit of fruits.

2- mandatory shower, or spraying. He has dandruff because his skin is dry, and it's dry because of a lack of showering. Once a week minimum, sometimes 2-3 depending on the weather. When he scratches or you see dandruff, increase the amount of showers per week. No drying, room temperature water, maybe a little cooler. This is not a choice !

3- flying. He needs to fly ! In the wild, Ekkies will fly sometimes 100 km per day ! This is essential to their health. Why do you clip him ?

Let us know how it goes.

[Pajarita]

The skin moisturizing benefits of aloe vera have not been proven? Are you saying that the fact that it has been used for hundreds of years and everybody agrees that it works is not enough proof?
Maybe this will convince you: http://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/a ... rticle=356

(If you look at the bottom, you will find all the different studies done on it)

[allys]

Hi everyone,
I would like to thank you all for the time that you have devoted to giving me some suggestions in regards to Roupert's plucking. Although I do not agree with everything that was proposed (particularly the suggestion that eclectus parrots should not be fed pellets; every avian specialist that I have ever crossed has always sworn by them so I am intrigued by the degree to which many people have vehemently labelled them as ineffective or even harmful) many of your suggestions have been incredibly helpful and I will endeavour to incorporate may of them into my Roupert's daily routine.

Some of the veterinary examinations that were suggested sound pretty invasive. I'm going to try some of your milder suggestions for a few weeks at home and see if it makes a difference before pursuing further veterinary care.

I went to the health food store yesterday to get some aloe vera juice, and Roupert got his first bath today. Now he smells like a plant. I'm going to try to give him sprouted lentils as opposed to frozen veggies and beans, and I'll try mixing in some long grain and brown rice.

Roupert is clipped because it seems to me that living in the city, there are a million and one safety risks to him, right outside our window. If he were to ever get out, it would be disastrous. Also, having a large parrot flying around an apartment sounds even more dangerous. For what it's worth, when I was eight years of age, I lost a cockatiel that was not clipped when my mother dropped it's cage outdoors. I swore never again to let something like that happen. I will however, do the flight exercises. I'm going to call Avitech tomorrow and inquire about their feather-in product before ordering it on-line but it sounds promising.

Oh, I forgot to mention the other day, it was an omega 3 fatty acid supplement that the vet prescribed, along side Lafeber VIVI 13+ vitamins in water each morning.

I'm not sure what we're going to do about the daylight situation. When I first got responses on the message board about this, I went back to the vet's recommended 10 hours of daylight and when we uncovered Roupert's cage each morning, there was a fresh pile of feathers waiting for us each day. Again, he'd be bored sitting in the dark by himself so would pluck away.

So, I thank you all very VERY much (merci mille fois à ceux de vous qui m'ont écrit du Québec !)

I'll keep you posted.

Ally