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Plucking

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Plucking

Postby Valerieholt » Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:01 am

Hello, I have a black headed caique called treacle, he or she is four and up to now never been a problem, this moult however isn't like the others, he's over preening and making himself Bald and getting aggressive with himself almost like something is pricking him, he has a good diet and showers daily which seems to calm him down, his cage is cleaned everyday and he has always been a beautiful bird, I was wondering if anyone has experienced this and has advice for me please
Valerieholt
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Black headed caique
Flight: No

Re: Plucking

Postby Pajarita » Mon Nov 21, 2016 12:06 pm

Sounds like he has reached sexual maturity and is now overly hormonal but, if you tell us more details about his care (diet, light quality, light schedule, out-of-cage and one-on-one time, flighted or clipped, etc), we would have a more accurate idea of why he might be doing it. One thing I can tell you and it's that we are not in molting season so, if your bird is molting right now, his endocrine system is out of whack (is he under a human light schedule by any chance? Because, if he is, that part of the problem).
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Plucking

Postby Valerieholt » Mon Nov 21, 2016 1:16 pm

Hello, thanks for your reply, treacle is fed parrot food from pets at home, in a sealed bag rather than the one you weigh yourself, we give him fruit and veg but he mainly throws that out of the cage for the dogs to eat, he's out of his cage quite a lot, the window sill has all his toys on so he plays along that or comes and sits with us, during the summer months we take him out in his pac o bird so he gets some sunshine and something of interest to look at, it's too cold to take him out now though, at night he is wheeled into another room, the curtains are drawn and it's very quiet, he's there between ten and twelve hrs, we have in recent months had some dusty work done to our property, that took about 8 weeks, during that time he was kept out of it as much as possible
Valerieholt
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Black headed caique
Flight: No

Re: Plucking

Postby Valerieholt » Mon Nov 21, 2016 1:16 pm

And I meant to say he's plucking rather than moulting
Valerieholt
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Black headed caique
Flight: No

Re: Plucking

Postby Pajarita » Mon Nov 21, 2016 3:47 pm

Well, there is your answer: your bird is sexually frustrated and in discomfort or pain from overly large sexual organs and that, most likely, is why he is now plucking. Birds are all photoperiodic so, in order for them to maintain a good working endocrine system (the one that regulates sexual hormone production), they need to be kept the way nature meant for them to live: following a solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk (think of the birds out in the trees, when they wake up and when they go to sleep, also, your bird is not exposed to twilight -the avian 'internal clock' trigger). You are also feeding too much protein. Parrots cannot be free-fed protein food (it needs to be measured according to the amount of protein they eat in the wild). They also need to eat a large amount of produce daily - basically, you need to follow the nutritional parameters of their natural diet (caiques eat mostly fruits and flowers and just a bit of green seeds). If you free-feed seeds and nuts, the bird will never eat enough produce because they are hard-wired to gorge on it (protein is not found in abundant sources in the wild).

Another thing that you have to take into consideration is that they need a lot of humidity (they are from rain forests and very humid woodlands and lowlands) so you need to have a humidifier running all the time with them.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Plucking

Postby Valerieholt » Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:19 am

Ok, thankyou, will sort it out now xx
Valerieholt
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Black headed caique
Flight: No

Re: Plucking

Postby Valerieholt » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:23 am

One last thing please, I've been looking at what he should be eating and indeed I have failed miserably in that department, so can I use frozen fruit and veg, obviously defrosted for the ones that I don't personally buy for my own use, and if I put him to bed and leave the curtains open and don't cover his cage will that solve a problem or am I misunderstanding what you say, will buy the humidifier
Valerieholt
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Black headed caique
Flight: No

Re: Plucking

Postby Pajarita » Wed Nov 23, 2016 12:57 pm

Yes, we all use frozen produce. As a matter of fact, nutritionally speaking, frozen is better than fresh BUT you also have to feed fresh because although the vitamin levels in fresh are lower than in frozen (it has to do with how long the fruit has been separated from the plant), they do have live phytonutrients (antioxidants, enzymes, etc) which the frozen don't as the freezing kills them.

The idea is to expose the bird to dawn and dusk from beginning to end without any interference from artificial lights (which would skew the actual spectrum of twilight) and for the bird to fall asleep naturally as night falls and stay asleep until the following morning when it would wake up with the dawn.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Plucking

Postby Valerieholt » Wed Nov 23, 2016 1:16 pm

Ok thankyou, treacle is an indoor bird, but is by the window all day over, he plays on the window sill, weput him in another room about 7pm, read somewhere that they needed between 10 and 12 hrs in a dark, quiet room so that's what I did and to be fair treacle does seem to like going to bed, I will leave the curtains open now so he can see dawn arriving, thankyou very much for your time x
Valerieholt
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Black headed caique
Flight: No

Re: Plucking

Postby Pajarita » Wed Nov 23, 2016 1:45 pm

You are referring to the 12L/12D schedule (twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness) that we used to use years ago and that, unfortunately, some people are still recommending even though we have since learned that parrots will produce sexual hormones all year round when kept that way. Basically, you can't put him to bed at any arbitrary hour (7 pm or whatever you choose), he has to go to bed with dusk and, this time of the year, the sun is halfway down to the horizon at 3:30 pm so that is the time that the artificial lights need to be turned off and, if you do, he will fall asleep when it's completely dark (around 5 pm). The special light that happens at dawn and dusk are the triggers for their internal 'stop watch' that measures day length. In the morning, with the dawn light, the stop watch is turned on and, when they are exposed to the dusk light, it gets turned off - and the number of hours in between these two events is what tells their body whether they should start sexual hormone production or shut it off. If you only expose him to dawn and not dusk, his body will continue been confused... and it's not only a matter of sexual hormones production, the endocrine system is connected to the immune system and it also regulates sleep quality, appetite, molt, mood, and a million other things.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

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