Green cheek plucking feathers

[Sako535]

I am new here and need help fast!!!!
I have a green cheek named sako who has just started to pluck his chest and wing feathers.( only when left alone in his cage.
He is almost 3 and I have had him since a new born. And not once in that time has he had a problem. At the moment I can't get in to see a vet as all the doctors are on vacation till mid feb. I need some help until I can get him looked at.
Nothing has changed in his life and he is still just as happy as always. He is always given the best food and has been unchanged his whole life. Only RO water and lots of the normal fruits he likes. Big cage lots of toys and spends a lot of time out with me or my wife.
A few days a go I noticed that he started plucking and only does so when he is in his cage. Every time I come to get him a new batch of feathers are removed. I am not sure as to what would cause this, nothing has changed in his life.
I also noticed a yellow colour starting to form above is eyes and I did take him to my regular vet to look at him but he has limited experience with birds. He gave me fucithalmic vet eye gel to give him in case he has an infection, and said that it won't harm him even if he doesn't have one, but wants to be safe not sorry. Any one please help I love my little friend and am so worried about him.

[Wolf]

A couple of thing come to mind from your post but this can be caused by a variety of factors and in most cases it is from the combination of several factors at once. Where is his cage placed? Since it appears that the plucking only occurs when he is in the cage and you (1) have to go get him and(2) don't notice it while he is plucking, I am thinking that when he is in his cage that he can't see you . Try moving his cage so that he can watch and interact with you while in or on his cage. This alone could end the plucking, but there may still be other factors at play in this so even if the plucking stops it may just be temporary. So I want to dig a bit deeper, I don't know if your bird is ever outside or not. If your bird does get to go outside there is always a risk of parasites and both internal and external parasites can cause feather plucking and to rule them out you need to see your vet and if positive for them you vet can give you the means to help your bird.
I am especially concerned about the yellow discoloration above you birds eye. Have you examined your birds skin in any other places to see if the yellow color is there as well? If not please examine your bird's body more closely. Make sure to do this near a window where the skin color will show true.
There are several other factors that I haven't covered that may also be involved in this feather plucking behavior and if I try to cover them all this will turn into a small book, so to examine this in more depth it would help a lot if you would give us a detailed account of your birds normal daily schedule starting with what time it gets up in the morning and including what the bird eats and when it eats what foods and ending with when the bird goes to bed at night.

[Sako535]

Thank you for your replay:) yes it can become a small book in a short time I have noticed. His cage was downstairs on the main floor of our house, in a spar room with a big window and was able to have a view of outside as well as a good view into the house, he would watch us from the cage if we were in the house. He wakes up with my wife most the time as I work early,so he's up at about 7-8 am. He will be out of his cage most of the day and has many spots around the house he likes to sit and watch from, if he's not on us. He does spend time out side often but not in a few months due to the winter. I checked his feathers and skin with a microscope and it seems he is pinching his feathers out rather then pulling them , his skin looks healthy under tho and no blood, or bugs. He will still pinch off feathers while out and walking around with me, but not much. Last night he was in our room and didn't pluck much at all.
The only thing I noticed is this. We have a guest in the house for a bit, ( one week now) she is a sweet young girl and sako just loves her. He rubs her and treats her more like a mate , it's unlike anything he will usually do to me wife and I on a day to day. Would it be posable that this would be a hormon Imbalance? Giving that he is 3 and it's spring time, and that this girl is so sweet? Is he looking a mate ? He is exposed to people all the time and never has a problem with them, he is quite friendly .

[Sako535]

And as far as daily routine, here we go.
Up at about 7-8. Hangs out for most the morning with my wife while I am at work, he eats berries and fruit with her at this time and maybe will have a bath. From there he will go back in his cage before lunch (around 11) and my wife will leave the house for the day. From there we make sure he has good food and water. I buy the best food I can find in town, it's a mix for parrots and doesn't have all the weird colour bits and odd things I don't recognize , just good seeds and it really makes him shine. He has been on it for 2 years no problems. He is still eating and drinking normal, acting normal, sleeping normal, everything. When I get home around 5 he will most likly be out already with my wife as she gets home mid afternoon most days. If not then I take him out then and he will be out till about 8 or so then off to bed, he gets a little blanket over his cage but I don't go totally dark, I give his a little bit of light from a night light. He sleeps In a fuzzy bird bed that hangs from the top and he loves it. He has a few toys , bells balls chains. The usual stuff.

[Pajarita]

Without been there to judge by myself and going only by what you posted, it seems to me that he is becoming overly hormonal from a human light schedule and a diet way too high in protein. GCCs cannot be free-fed any type of high protein, high fat food (they are mainly fruit eaters in the wild) so putting seeds in a bowl and allowing him access to it is not a good idea. He needs to eat cooked whole grains mixed with vegetables accompanied by raw produce in the morning (and make the fruit portion one much larger than what you think a little bird would eat) and just a small, measured portion of a low protein, low fat seed mix (I use budgie during the spring and summer all the way up to molt and finch during the winter).

I don't know where you are located but, as far as I know, it's not really spring anywhere in the world right now.

[Sako535]

Thank you so much. I am in bc canadan and we are just getting our early spring temps and lighting as our waether is all out of Wack at the current time. I will do what u suggested until I can get him to the vet on Thursday next week.i will also do the work to put him back on a better light schedule that will be a appropriate for him. I will re-research it. Any tips to keep him from wanting to pluck in the mean time? Should he be left alone or kept with me? Thank you so much and I will keep you updated

[Wolf]

It is very possible that this is due to hormones. I am not yet , ready to rule out parasites as a cause, have you examined the rest of the feathers that he removes to see if there are any holes in them? Also still examining his diet, does his food contain soy in any form? I am asking this because some birds will develop an allergic reaction to soy and barber their feathers as a result of this. Also, please tell me what RO water is.
If he removes fewer feathers by remaining near you, by all means keep him close at least until the cause can be found and addressed.

[Pajarita]

I know that many people suggest mites/lice when birds pluck but the truth is that unless the infestation is HUGE (and you would see the mites running on your hand when you grab the bird), birds don't barber or pluck from mites or bird lice. Red mites and bird lice are like fleas in that they bite the skin but the red mites don't live ON the bird, they hide in little cracks or whatever and only come out at night to feed and although lice does, they are easy to spot at the base of the tail. Scaley face mites will burrow into the skin and cause all kinds of damage to feet, beak, eyes, etc but birds don't barber/pluck from them. And feather mites eat the feather barbs, barbettes and barbules and leave a 'naked' shaft but birds don't even feel them.

[Wolf]

I can't say that know much about parasites, either internal or external, in birds .which is one of my reasons for being slow to rule them out without examining for them first. I am also slow to rule out food allergies and feel that they cause more issues than many of us are aware of in both animals and humans. And I suspect that this is also true in birds, especially when feather plucking and barbering is involved.

[Harpmaker]

RO water is probably from reverse osmosis. It's a high-tech water purification system that can remove pretty much anything nasty from the water. It should be at least as good as bottled water.
(I sometimes work with a charity that teaches people in need of safe water to build water purification systems)