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Plucking

Talk about bird illnesses and other bird health related issues. Seeds, pellets, fruits, vegetables and more. Discuss what to feed your birds and in what quantity. Share your recipe ideas.

Re: Plucking

Postby Valerieholt » Sun Jan 01, 2017 2:47 am

Lol, I don't throw it away, I throw it out for the birds too, up till last week we had neighbours with cats, so a feeding table wasn't a good idea, however they have moved and the new ones don't seem to have any animals so now I can get the feeding table, my grandkids will love it also, and I've never thought of owning chickens, I suppose that option is there now too. Happy new year to you. X
Valerieholt
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Black headed caique
Flight: No

Re: Plucking

Postby Loriusgarrulus » Sun Jan 01, 2017 4:13 am

Valerieholt wrote:Lol, I don't throw it away, I throw it out for the birds too, up till last week we had neighbours with cats, so a feeding table wasn't a good idea, however they have moved and the new ones don't seem to have any animals so now I can get the feeding table, my grandkids will love it also, and I've never thought of owning chickens, I suppose that option is there now too. Happy new year to you. X

I have Warren hens sometimes know as Asa Browns.
They are nice dumpty brown hens that get a lot tamer than some of the fancier looking breeds.
Mine will sit on my knee and eat out of my hands, especially over ripe bananas.
Not only will they eat waste parrot food, but potato and other veg peelings.
They get layers pellets and oystershell grit too.
Stale bred soaked in warm water is a favorite too.
Not onion, leeks or garlic as it taints the eggs.
I buy them at 20 weeks point of lay and then they live out their full lifespan with me and enjoy their retirement when they are too old to lay.
Warrens lay about 300 eggs a year depending on climate as they go off lay when the weather is cold and when moulting and are less prone to going broody than a lot of breeds..
We do not keep a cockeral as we have near neighbours and I don't think they would appreciate the dawn chorus at 4am in the Summer.
You have to keep them secure at night from predators and might need a roofed enclosure if you have hawks about.
Growing Old Disgracefully
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Loriusgarrulus
Conure
 
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Yellow thighed caique: Karo
Flight: Yes

Re: Plucking

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jan 01, 2017 11:53 am

I am green with envy, Lori! I've been wanting to keep chickens since I was a small child and would accompany my grandmother to give our leftover food to some chickens that belonged to a family that lived behind our summer house... I can't have any where I live (they are illegal in the city) but, once I move back home when my husband finally retires, getting a few chicks is one of my first priorities! I can hardly wait :lol:
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Location: NW Pa
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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 Jan 02, 2017 2:34 am

My word, thankyou Lori, they sound ideal, we are thinking of moving sometime in the future, can't say wether it's near future or not just yet but I will definitely be thinking about chickens when we look for our new home
Valerieholt
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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 » Thu Jan 19, 2017 4:27 pm

Update, treacle is still happier, but he won't let his feathers grow, rips them out when they start to come through, though not totally bald, he's still rather tatty, so how long should I give him before taking him to a vet, how long usually before the endocrine system is reset, there's no screeching or jumping, he just keeps preening
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 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 11:36 am

I had a female lovebird that took an entire year before she was back on track. As to how long before he stops plucking... well, there is no answer for that. It can take months or years and it might also never stop. The problem with plucking is that it becomes a habit, just like people who bite their nails and can't stop (I had a boss that used to pull his eyebrows off leaving holes in them :D ). They say that the longer the bird has been doing it, the longer it takes to break the habit -if you can at all. I have had mixed results. I've had birds that stopped in a matter of weeks and some that was a very gradual thing that lasted years but then I've also had birds that never did stop. All of them got better but some kept on doing it, some seasonally and some just plucking a single spot. But, if the bird hasn't had a check up in the last six months, take it to the vet just so you can be sure there is nothing going on (and I am not talking about plucking but anything that could be lurking in there).
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 Wolf » Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:19 am

Feather plucking is a difficult issue to deal with not only because it can so easily become a habit but because it can be caused by so many different things and often there are multiple cause for it instead of just a single cause. Sometimes it can be due to internal and/ or external parasites, it can be caused by malnutrition and/ or food allergies which are medical reasons and why they need to be ruled out as quickly as possible.

It can also be caused by the stress of not having adequate time out of the cage, and not enough time interacting with the birds special human friend. Then there is the possibility that the cause for the behavior goes all the way back to the time the bird was just a baby still with its parents or during the process of weaning, these causes may be beyond what most people are able to do anything about or are even aware of.

Eliminating any medical cause, sunlight, good food, and lots of out of cage time with personal one on one interaction seem to be the most effective things for reducing this type of behavior that I am aware off but may not put an end to it totally.

I have a Grey parrot that still plucks off and on for the past four years that she has been with me. Her primary causes for this are the stresses of breeding time and the amount of time that she is out of the cage and able to spend with and near me.
Wolf
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Flight: Yes

Re: Plucking

Postby Valerieholt » Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:57 am

Thank you for the replies, she has a lot of out of cage time and is able to access either one of us anytime she chooses, which is most of the time, I think her food is good now, her stool look normal and she or he is really happy, no sign of being unwell at all 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 Valerieholt » Tue Feb 07, 2017 3:00 am

Well treacle is doing well I think, she is leaving her feathers alone in her back and they have re grown now so only a small bald spot there, here front is still a little tatty but the feathers round her neck have been left alone so so they are no longer like fluff and they have her lovely orange colour in them, she's had her wings clipped at the usual place, they aren't worried about her, they say the work we have had done last yr probably stressed her, they say she hasn't a bad bone In her little body which is always nice to hear, she really does enjoy her bed time though, can tell when she's tired, she gets ratty lol, just like a child
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 Wolf » Tue Feb 07, 2017 7:56 am

I do not know if you are clipping your bird because that is what you were advised to do or if you had researched the topic of clipping and had your own reasons for continuing on with clipping your bird. I don't really need to know that either but it does have a bearing on what I wanted to share which is an off the top of my head list of benefits of flight for your bird.

We all pretty much know that the beating of the wings acts sort of like our diaphragm in assisting us to breathe.

We know that if your bird gets hormonal that flight is the only form of exercise that has been successful in lowering the level of hormones in the blood.

Because flight can reduce hormonal levels in the blood, flight has the added benefit of helping to reduce aggression in parrots.

Flight is especially important to the female parrot. This is due to the fact that the same muscles that are used by the bird to fly are the same ones that are used when the female lays an egg. These muscles need to stay strong as they can help prevent egg-binding.

Is your bird nervous, skittish or just seems to be afraid of everything in general? Is your bird also clipped? The reason for this fearful behavior may be the lack of flight although it may not be the only cause for this behavior. Still a parrot is a prey animal that is hunted and its biggest fear is getting eaten by a predator. The parrot has only two things at its disposal to escape the danger, the first is flight itself and the other requires the bird to fly. This is when the whole flock lifts of at once to confuse the predator so that the birds can get away. A bird that can fly is a more secure and confident bird.

There are numerous ways that flight benefits the bird that it would be hard to list them all. Physically the ability to fly is tied into every major system in the birds body. but it does not stop there as flight has many benefits to the bird both mentally and emotionally.

If you are clipping because it was recommended then please consider the thing that I have just mentioned. Better still would be for you to use the above information as a pointer to help your own research into the pros and cons of having a flighted bird.

Personally, I do not clip my birds.
Wolf
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
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African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

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