FEATHER PLUCKING

[zeta]

Hey guys,

 

I have a question about feather plucking. A lot of the Grey's that come in for boarding or grooming and they are between the ages of 2 to 20 years old, they are severely plucked. Why is that? Most of the people give them loving homes and lots of attention. I'm worried about this. I don't want Brody to pluck. He's not, but how can you prevent this?

 

Lisa

[judygram]

Lisa there are lots of reasons why greys pluck from physical problems to behavioral problems and sometimes its hard to pinpoint the cause. But a lot of them do it because there is some change in the household, greys don't like any kind of change in routine. Some do it because they don't get the attention they were used to getting or the one they were most attached to are gone or absent a lot from their life.

 

There are so many reasons it is too many to list and sometimes I believe there are some that are just destined to do it no matter what the circumstances are.

 

None of us want our greys to ever pluck but we do our best to give them the loving home and the attention they need plus the proper nourishment and that is all we can do but we hope that will be enough.

 

But even if our grey does start plucking we still love them for they are still the same bird just with less feathers, like us humans, sometimes the beauty is on the inside not the outside.

 

I imagine that working for a place where you see a lot of birds come in you see plenty of plucked ones but don't worry yourself needlessly, if you provide the proper requirements for your grey more than likely yours won't ever pluck.

[HeatherStrella]

Hi Lisa. I have a 2 year old female CAG that I got about 2 years ago. We took her to the vet (avian vet) the day after we brought her home. We asked that her wings be clipped...which she did. But, we didn't know that the vet cut her wings too short which caused her wings to poke her side when she folded them in. She started chewing on the feathers of her wings..on the inside where we couldn't see. The next vet visit, the vet held out her wings and we could see the destruction she was causing...she was chewing the feathers and the vet said that was the beginning stages of feather plucking. We had no idea she was doing this. The vet said that she was probably bored and I needed to give her more chalenging toys. I was crushed to say the least. I thought I was doing everything right. Anyway, there were a few things about the vet that we didn't like so we decided to take her to another vet. The first thing we brought up was the feather destruction. She lifted her wings and was horrified to see the clip job done by the previous vet. Actually, she thought we had done it and kept lecturing us not to ever do it. We told her we hadn't but she knew the other vet and I think she had a hard time believing the other vet actually butchered her so badly. The new vet said that the clip job was so bad that Harrison was being hurt everytime she folded her wings in...she was chewing the feathers because of THAT vet's chop job...not because she was bored. The new vet told me to start giving her red palm oil...so I did. A few months later, we took her back to the new vet and her wings underneath looked A LOT better. Now, her wings are pretty much grown in all the way and it took 2 years. She does NOT chew or pluck or anything...she looks beautiful.

 

I just thought I'd share my experience with feather plucking with you. Good luck with your little one and like Judy said, don't worry yourself needlessly if you don't see any issues.

 

Heather

[lovemyGreys]

Judy & Heather have given a good insight to plucking

 

 

here is an intresting article about plucking...

 

http://www.realmacaw.com/pages/pluck.html

[danmcq]

Plucking is a very tough behaviour to address due to the plethora of reasons it could start. I would suggest not only reading the link Tracy just posted, but also do a search on this site for Plucking. You will find many things that have caused it and many things that can be done to try and stop it or in your cause, keep it from happening and atleast reduce the odds greatly that it will start.