Double checking my perceptions

[KQarberroh]

1) Perches should not be so big that the feet of a parrot does not go over half of the circumference of the perch.

2) A parrot will eventually start eating the pellets given to him - rather than losing a lot of weight or dying. (Still giving him his 2 servings of different veggies and different fruits and nuts inbetween). Or should I worry and know that I will have to bend to his will.

3) A parrot biting himself to the extent that he creates a wound is
a) Bored and if you stimulate him enough mentally and give him some things to do games etc he will stop it.
b) He has mites and should be taught to bath then the mites will go die.
c) Changing his diet will kill the mites or at least make the wound heal up faster/make him indirectly stop biting (~80% Pellets, 5 Seed, 15% Fresh Veggies, 5 Nuts & Fresh Fruit)
d) All of the above because you're not sure of the cause

[Azure Hanyo]

2) A parrot will eventually start eating the pellets given to him - rather than losing a lot of weight or dying. (Still giving him his 2 servings of different veggies and different fruits and nuts inbetween). Or should I worry and know that I will have to bend to his will.

Please don't starve the bird. Some just will NOT go for pellets, they don't recognize them as food. And nearly all parrots eat some degree of seeds in the wild, so a diet of seeds, fruits, veggies, AND pellets is great in my opinion, as per the last statement you make.

[Mr.Darcy]

Hi,
My bird has yet to arrive, but I have read and re-read every source available and so far it seems that there are not alot of birds with mites. The feather plucking destruction can be caused by MANY different things. I would suggest taking the bird to an avian vet to get a complete medical check. Buying a digital scale to keep track of its weight while you attempt to change his diet. and TAKE YOUR TIME, when changing the diet......slow and steady wins the race.

I also suggest you get Birds for Dummies (Not parrots- birds) it is written by an avian vet and has tonnes of info, and will make a great resource book for years to come. I also bought clicker training for birds and it has sections on how to stop negative behaviour through positive reinforcement and clicker training!!

Just food for thought....good luck

Marlies and

[KQarberroh]

Does the fact that he does in fact evidently eat pellets, just smaller amounts than he normally would eat food change anything. I'm referring to your statement that maybe he doesn't recognise pellets as food?

[birdvet]

Parrots will in fact starve themselves if they don't want to eat pellets. There are many different ways of trying to convert your bird onto a pelleted diet. Browse through this forum to read up on those. The last resort is actually leaving your bird at the vets. We've done lots of in house cold-turkey pellet conversions very successfully. But the bird has to be intensively monitored hence the hospitilisation.

The least common cause of feather picking is mites. The most common is behavioural however, before you can diagnose most behavioural causes your avian vet will need to rule out medical causes. Medical reasons include beak and feather disease, polyoma, chlamydia, giardia, gastroenteritis, crop , skin infection, feather follicle impaction or infection etc etc. Any painful organ may result in the bird plucking over that region. A mite check is also warranted, don't get me wrong, but they're not commonly found. The problem is that most non-avian vets don't now how to deal with feather picking so they just assume mites are the cause.

And another note on mites. Changing the diet and bathing will not kill them, you need ivermectin or moxidectin.

Providing good mental stimulation for your bird is definitely a good idea regardless of whether it feather picks or not, its just part of owning a parrot. Hopefully good stimulation will prevent picking.

As for perches, a variety of different sizes and preferably natural perches is the way to go so that your bird exercises his feet.

Hope this helps

[entrancedbymyGCC]

In addition to a variety of perch sizes and materials, I have heard that the foot should reach 1/2-3/4 around on average.