URGENT! Feather chewing at night!

[domyoburk]

Help!

 

Our beautiful 6-month old CAG Ursula has apparently been chewing feathers at night in her sleeping cage! The last three mornings, in the bottom of her sleeping cage we have found unusually large amounts of downy feather debris plus two or three larger feathers broken off at the base (not plucked).

 

Otherwise, the sleeping cage has been successful. It is about 1.5 feet tall, 1.5 feet wide and 2 feet deep, with one perch. We put in water but nothing else, and cover the cage. Her large cage is in the living room, and we put her in our bedroom in the sleeping cage from 10pm to 8 or 9am. We can hear her moving around in there at night, but she seems happy to go in at night and doesn't seem to like to be woken up early.

 

However, we figure she must be getting bored in there, at times throughout the night. I understand that if they get the habit of chewing they may never stop! Help!

[domyoburk]

Well, no one has responded with any advice... so here's an update for what it's worth.

 

Last night no feather chewing that we could tell. We tried everything we could think of: getting her more wet in the shower; keeping her up later she's more tired in the sleeping cage, and putting a destructible toy in the cage with her.

 

She chewed on the toy a little, and not - so far! fingers crossed! - on her feathers. I figure she just might have gotten bored and had nothing to do but overpreen herself.

[EFGriffith]

I have no advice... Just wanted to give a post to let you know that someone out there cares. I'm glad things went better last night!! Hopefully the toy was the perfect answer =)

[Mistyparrot]

Could this be a molt? Misty went through this twice in two years in November 2005. He was between two and three at the time. I came to him one morning and found heaps of white downy feathers and chest and back feathers on the cage floor. I never actually saw him plucking. It went on for a few days until all he had on his chest and back was white under down. All feathers had grown back by about three months. He was still clipped at the time but I don't think that was relevant. Much the same thing happened almost a year later and again they all came back in about three to four months. He now has beautiful plumage and all his flights. He preens normally and looks as beautiful as any Grey can. My goodness they are such classy looking birds.

Hopefully yours is just going through a heavy molt but it would be a good idea to speak to an avian vet who knows about parrots to ensure there are no underlying causes due to diet or infestation.

 

Steve n Misty

[danmcq]

It does sound like your baby is starting his first Molt. It will be the largest molt of his life and the downy feathers go first by the hundreds. You will find it easier to empty the tray by misting with a little water first to keep them from flying all over your house as you carry it out to dump it.

 

Sorry your post did not get replied to sooner. i can only imagine it must have gotten buried by many other posts above it and no one got that far down the list to answer.

 

It sounds like there's been a slow down in the downy feathers, but they will continue. :-)

[domyoburk]

Thanks for your responses!

 

We expect a molt at some point, so we'll see. (And thanks for the advice about misting the trays before cleaning - brilliant!)

 

My concern was the sudden quadrupling of down in the sleeping cage, plus 3-4 body feathers (from chest, back or base of the tail) each night that were broken off at the base - not molted, but broken just where the downy part starts.

 

It's been two nights in the cage now without broken feathers or a huge amount of down... and she has chewed up her toy each night. The "toy," for anyone who is curious, is a bunch of chewables on a knotted string of sea grass - yucca slices and tufts of unbleached paper towel.

 

They are stunning, classy-looking birds, aren't they? I think they are the most beautiful of all the parrots. Steve and Misty - thanks for the story about the dramatic molt! it may help if we get a similar shock!

[Lyric]

Your bird may just be getting overly bored in his sleep cage without anything to do, the toy was a good idea. He also could be itchy from going through the molt and could be breaking off some feathers due to this itchiness. Don't forget to mist or bathe often as the bird molts to help ease them through this transition. I agree, they are magnificent birds and I think they are just beautiful too!