Feather picking

[Annie Revie]

we are new parrot owners. On reflection we probably should not have bought our green cheeked conure, Archie. He has shown lots of anxiety and has taken a long time to refrain from hiding. He has also picked at his tail to the point that he has really no tail left.
However I love him to bits. I can feed him treats from my fingers. I can stroke his head. He does not come onto my finger yet but he is getting there. He never bites. We took to the vet who said he is healthy but probably stressed. Is there anything I can do to stop the feather picking of his rail?

[Wolf]

I agree that the feather plucking could be caused by stress, but the question is what is causing the stress? If we are to help you with this we really need to know about your birds lifestyle. By this I mean everything that affects it from the time it gets up in the morning til it goes to sleep at night. The more detail the better as it could be something that you don't realize, pictures of the cage and how it is arranged in the room would also help out a lot as it could be stressed from being afraid of an object in the room. There are so many things that can cause a bird stress and from your descriptions in your other posts it has been afraid of something from the time you brought it home.

[Pajarita]

Oh, geez, poor little thing! There is nothing worse to a little bird than been alone and scared... Aside from Wolf's questions about housing, diet, schedules, routines, etc. where did you buy it and how old was he when you got him? Because if you got him from a place like Petsmart and he was still a baby, most likely he was gavage-fed and badly weaned...

[Annie Revie]

Thank you for your responses. I now realise that poor Archie had become a very anxious little bird over about seven months in the pet shop. We talked to a pet shop owner and decided to buy him a companion. He had been in a cage in the original shop with about four other birds and I think he was lonely. So we bought him a female conure. From the first ten minutes, after a little bit of screeching at one another, they are like a couple of love birds. Archie is very protective of Sarah but she is a tame, happy, strong little bird. She loves being close to him but she also takes herself on little adventures. No more tail feather picking. They both seem so happy.

[Wolf]

Good for you and bad too. You should have quarantined the new bird first for a minimum of 30 days to make sure that she was healthy before bringing them together. You really need to have her checked by your vet as soon as possible and keep an eye on them both to make sure that neither of them gets sick. On the good side of things it will make them both much happier to have each other and as long as they are getting along it will help Archie to adjust to his new life as well.

[Pajarita]

Ditto on everything Wolf said!

[DanaandPod]

Thank you for your responses. I now realise that poor Archie had become a very anxious little bird over about seven months in the pet shop. We talked to a pet shop owner and decided to buy him a companion. He had been in a cage in the original shop with about four other birds and I think he was lonely. So we bought him a female conure. From the first ten minutes, after a little bit of screeching at one another, they are like a couple of love birds. Archie is very protective of Sarah but she is a tame, happy, strong little bird. She loves being close to him but she also takes herself on little adventures. No more tail feather picking. They both seem so happy.

This story made me imagine pod with a girlfriend... Birds are such beautiful creatures. I love them now that i've had this parrot.