by Pajarita » Sat May 05, 2018 9:50 am
Welcome to the forum, AJ, and thank you so much for giving a plucker a home! Now, I am not trying to pop your balloon, I am just trying to give you my opinion on some of the information that was given to so you have a more accurate picture and better prepared for him when he gets home.
You did not say how old he is and how long he has been plucking but, if he has been doing it for years [and if he has plucked his entire body, including primaries, this is something that has been going on for a loooooong time], chances are he will continue to do it even when whatever it was that made him start disappears. It is VERY rare that a bird that has been plucking for a long time actually stops completely. But this doesn't mean there will not be improvement. It just means that, most likely and if you do everything right, he will allow some or most of his feathers to grow but there will either be a patch that he will contine to pluck or he will do it seasonally so, if this happens, please do not feel this is, in any way, your failure - it's just that they get into the habit of doing it and they can't break it. I have three plucking birds right now: a cockatoo that had good feathers only on his head [the rest were plucked, broken or barbered] and he is doing better in the sense that you don't see any naked skin now and, every year, he is allowing a couple more feathers to remain but he still looks like a mess; an old amazon that came to me after living for, at least, 25 years in a basement and was completely plucked - she still plucks herself [and some of her feathers don't grow back due to follicle damage] and her mate but does it only seasonally now]; and a male senegal that started after he lost his second mate in two years and which continues to do to this day [I tried giving him a mate but he doesn't court her properly]. They all have lives as happy as they can be in captivity [which is not saying much but there you have it] but they still do it and, personally, I don't even notice their bad plumage any longer. I wish they would not pluck but, as long as it doesn't bother them, it doesn't bother me.
Now, the 'he plucked because he couldn't get away from two conures that picked on him' sounds like bunk to me. I am not calling the previous owner a liar but I seriously doubt that was the reason why he plucked. If he had been kept in the same cage with the conures, maybe - but if he and the conures lived cage-free, it's impossible. Parrots are highly intelligent and VERY resourceful and pragmatic animals and, even if the conures had ganged up on him [doubtful but possible], he would have known to keep his distance and that would have been the end of the 'picking'.
If he has been in the rescue for only two weeks, his friendliness is, most likely, due to his being in they honeymoon period. It will continue for a while after he comes to live with you but, eventually, he will start showing his true colors -which does NOT mean he will be mean or anything, it simply means that what you see now is not what you will end up with. So, if a couple of months down the road, he starts 'acting up', it won't be anything you did.
As to preparation for his coming... well, you need to think of proper housing [largest cage possible but don't go with the narrow and tall, go with more space horizontally and high enough that his roosting perch is at your eye level when you are standing up] and look for the perfect place for it: near a window for natural light [because he needs full exposure to dawn and dusk] but with its back against a wall [if this is not doable, get a large material to drape at the back of the cage to make a solid 'wall' - it reduces stress], diet [please do A LOT of research because you will find that people recommend pellets but, in reality, they don't comply with the specifications of their natural diet -I have a male and female African Red Bellied parrots, Davy and Isis, and they are EXCELLENT eaters of produce so you should have no problem in that sense], light [you will need to get a good quality full spectrum light [CRI higher than 93 and Ktemp as close as possible to 5,000], how you will manage a strict solar schedule [believe it or not, this actually requires thinking and planning] and plan what will be his daily routine [because it's best if you don't change it once you start and they need to be exactly the same day after day after day after day].