In need of help and advise for my Fluffy

[loveoneanother]

May 5th my beautiful and much loved Congo African Grey Fluffy turned 2 years old. Fluffy is such a happy bird, he loves the be loved and so loves to give love. He is the love of my life, I just love him to death. His vocabulary is greater than 2 thousand words, his loves singing so much. He sings in full happy birthday to you, frera-jaca and many more choruses from songs.

 

For some reason Fluffy's left flight wings grows perfectly but his left side flight wings gets slightly shredded, it just looks like he's over preening on the left side. He always starts over preening when the blood feather grows to about 4in long. We had our vet do complete blood work, and thankfully they all came back negative. His food consists of daily fruits and veggies, and pellets called Harrison's bird food(High Potency course)

Has anyone ever had this problem with their parrots and if so were you able the remedy it. I thank God he doesn't have a picking or plucking problem and but am afraid this might possibly lead to one God forbid. I do bath him once a day with misty warm water, he hates it so much. I wish he could learn to take a bath on his own, is there anyway I can teach him that? But most importantly would have any solutions or tips for the left sides shredding? Any and all help and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and God Bless all!

Tony

[BMustee]

Are you sure he isn't hitting it against the cage bars? I wouls think over preening would be on both sides, but him not having the flapping room sounds like something that would cause damage to the feathers.

 

As for bathing, greys do not like warm water...most like ice water. My Elmo does not like his spray bath but almost seems like he wants to get into my glasses of ice water. Cold Aloe Vera juice is what many of us for bathing instead of water. It acts as a moisturizer for their skin, because they are prone to dry skin issues.

[bettyboop]

Are his wings clipped ? Sometimes this can cause over preening ?

Mary

[loveoneanother]

I have never seen have any problems with bars on his cage, actually he's quite comfortable with his cage. Fluffy does have his full flight feathers. Its weird because the left side grows perfect with not one shread with his feathers but the right side always ends up looking shorter, the feathers are still intact but there is shread on all his right flight feathers.

I thank you for your help.

 

Tony

 

p.s 'I meant to say the right side flight wings gets slightly shredded.' from my first post.

[danmcq]

Hi Tony,

 

The right side only issue is very odd. Perhaps he is batting the right wing against a toy or cage bars while playing.

 

If it's over preening. Do you see him aggressively preening only the right wing? It just seems out of the norm.

 

If he really is doing the damage intentionally, it would seem to indicate something with his right wing is irritating him. Otherwise, there would be no reason to only focus on it.

[judygram]

I agree that if he is over preening he would do it to both sides and not just one. My suggestion is he is doing it while playing with one of his toys in the cage, so maybe shift around his toys to different places and see if there is any difference in the appearance of the right wing feathers.:huh:

 

Why don't you introduce yourself in the welcome room and tell us a little more about you and Fluffy.

[Nychsa]

Hi Tony,

My conure has the same problem. His right side is perfectly grown in, but the wings on the left side are all jacked up and look shredded. Jiggy plays pretty rough and I'm sure this is coming from him horsing around with something. He's broken feathers playing, and I'm sure he got himself into some situation again that trashed that side of his feathers.

 

I'm trying to catch what it is he's doing, but I'm not here during the day, so what ever he's doing, it's happening when I don't see it. But I'm sure it is something he's playing with.

[Guest Skuffy]

Hello..have you a web Cam,,If so you have the option to run it as CCtv,,set the cam up near your birdies cage then set to record when your out,,Then you'll see what birdie is getting up to while your out...Just a thought!

 

My Web Can has a motion Detector on mine,,when Max moves it snaps a shot of him ..I can check it when i come home..<br><br>Post edited by: Skuffy, at: 2008/06/01 17:54

[judygram]

Gosh Mark that is a very clever suggestion, I don't have a web cam but some of the members probably do and having a motion detector on it makes perfect sense, thanks for sharing that with us and maybe Tony can make use of the idea.

[loveoneanother]

Wow!! I thank you all for your help and advise, it truly means so much to me. I do have a web cam and will for sure start recording him when I'm out, I hope I do get at the root at the problem thats causing him to shred his right side flight feathers. Maybe he is somehow banging his right side feathers on his cage when I am not with him. I will try moving some of his toys around and see how it goes. You are all awesome and I thank you again for your support.

Much Love to all!!

God Bless,

Tony

[judygram]

Tony, be sure to take me up on my offer to introduce yourself in the welcome room so we can get to know you a little better:) B)

[Tycos_mom]

Tyco had the same problem only worse because she was barbering one side. the Person I got her from said shes always been like that she didn't even know Tyco was barbering thought her wing was damage some how when she was young. Tyco was so off balance she would fall hard on her Keel I took her to the vet and got her wings clipped to match. and now for the firsy time in who knows how many years Tyco has all her flight feathers on both wings. You should babie take her to the vet and see if something is iritating her on that one side Before she does what Tyco did.