advice required

[shaun]

i have a 18 week old african grey which has started chewing his feathers , he now has no red feathers on his tail , i have been told he may be learning to (moult)but he does look a bit of a fool he has fruit regular , and has a routine bed time where we cover his cage over for him to get some sleep and regular mist of water sprays i'm just concerned he is going to pluck all his feathers out even though he does not seem to be plucking them out he seems to be biting them off

[Eckobird]

Have you taken your baby to the vet yet? If not, I highly recommend you take him to an avian vet and get blood tests done to see if he is sick! Your baby is so young to start plucking! Does he have any toys to play with so he isn't bored? Besides fruit, what else are you feeding him?<br><br>Post edited by: caitb2007, at: 2009/12/29 21:26

[shaun]

hi he has a vary of things to eat from fruit , veg , nuts etc he has toys but doesnt seem intrested in them alot so was wondering if worth putting more in but dont want to put to many in his cage

he doesnt seem to be pulling the feathers out but just chewing them till they break off and then he chews them and spits them to bottom of his cage

[Dave007]

With very young greys that has to do with irritation and at that age, irritation comes from very tender skin. 18 weeks means that he's just finished the weaning process. Sometimes the quills overlap each ther which causes irritation and after the feathers have grown in, there's still more quills that haven't sprouted feathers yet. Basically, you need to keep that area moist ( with coldish water) especially where the quills are located. This also happens to birds when they have a regular molt. Many times, bald spots will show up because a grey will be excessively biting that area. Feathers usually do eventually grow in those areas. Birds don't *learn how to molt*. Nature plus dried, old, ready to fall out feathers is what makes a bird molt. Feathers such as tail and flight feathers are never part of the automatic yearly molt. Those two areas drop their feathers sporadically throughout the year. When feathers are chewed off it takes a longer amount of time for aa full set of feathers to grow back in.

PS---It's good that your bird likes fruit but it should only be given once or at the most twice a week. Fruit is very acidic to greys and in the wild, they don't eat such a huge variety of fruits.

PS---also, the UROPYGIAL GLAND sometimes gets a little clogged and the proper amount of oil doesn't come out and causes irritation which will cause dry feathers which will cause chewing.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/12/29 22:48