Help!

[Nevermore]

I use paper from magazines, and it gets changed regularly. His food has not been changed to anything different. His skin is perfectly healthy, according to the vet. But he gets red palm oil anyway, and gets sprayed with the 'rain' aloe spray daily. No deodorizers. No perfumes. He is not allowed downstairs when anyone is cooking with teflon.

He is acting normally (if a little hormonal), eating fine, pooping fine. Apparently other than his plucking, he looks fine. Even the vet keeps saying he is a perfectly healthy bird. Except he is plucking.

Now he is also getting apple cider vinegar in his water; which he apparently loves. And is being fed fewer fruits, no raisins to counter a potential crop infection. At the same time he is being put to bed early to counter act any hormonal behaviours. And he is being fed more foods with vitamin A.

Before I left, I also bought him some new toys, and some preening toys to counter act the potential for over preening, and boredom. I let him get use to the toys before putting them in his cage. Also told my parents how to hide things for foraging fun. I also just placed an order online for more. I should be delivered by the time I'm home.

....Is there anything I'm missing?

My sister-in-law's boss (shes a vet tech. her boss; an avian vet) overheard her talking about Jack at one point, and suggested blood work. So my parents are now working on trying to find out how much that will cost for me. Since I am not in town and able to deal with any of this. Other than worry.

It is entirely possible that he is doing this because I am not there. But then again; this started a week or more BEFORE I left.

[kaylayuh]

Did you move his cage to a new area before you left? I've heard of a couple conures liking one spot over another and starting to pluck after they were moved. Once they were moved back, the plucking stopped.

Other than that, he sounds healthy. It may be awful to say because plucking is so hard to watch, but it's not the absolute worst thing that could happen to him. I hope you figure it out, though, and get his feathers all back in order!

[Nevermore]

Nope. Didn't move his cage at all.


Its bewildering really, I've had him for three years. And over those years he has gone through some huge changes without batting an eye. I rescued him from a bad house. I moved with him to another city for a year, and drove him back and forth a few times. Moved BACK home with him, back OUT again, then BACK... hes gone from living in one room of this house, to another room. I've bought him a new cage. He's spent the night in the basement while the bathroom upstairs was being renovated and smelly chemicals were being used, hes had the daylights scared out of him by heron's outside the window, and hawks outside the window, he has gone for a week or two with minimal attention....

No problems through all of that.

I can, or could put new toys in his cage without 'introducing' them, and he'd have no problems with it at all.


His plucking is completely out of the blue. Nothing has changed.

[Nevermore]

Here is his back now....

[kaylayuh]

Is he pulling the feathers out or is he chewing on them? I've seen on a couple websites toys with feathers on them that birds can chew and preen to stimulate the same sensation, just not on them.

I also did some research and read that among dietary problems, mold and fungus or sexual maturity and frustrations are some of the top reasons birds pluck. That is, when a reason can be found. I'd check to see about the mold and fungus, but I'm not sure what to do about the sexual frustrations.

He's beautiful regardless, but it must be heartbreaking to see him pluck like that.

[Nevermore]

Ya, he has a few preening toys. I never bought him any in the past, because he never bothered with them. He'd ignore them. I'm not sure if he is ignoring or using these ones now. I"m not home to spy on him unfortunately.

[Nevermore]

Wow...he's gotten a lot more scruffy since I"ve been gone...

But they're GROWING BACK!

[kaylayuh]

I'm glad to hear they're growing back. He is just way too cute. I love his little face!