lovebird plucking

[sall1hil]

i have a black masked lovebird that is picking all his feathers off his/her breast and his back. he looks pitiful. i think he is doing the plucking or it may be the other one that is in the cage with him/her. the other bird is just fine.

i am not sure what to do. i have put a bird protector on the cage and keep the cage very clean.

hope you can give me some ideas how to help this little one.

[linda040899]

Hi and welcome to our new community! Glad to have you with us!

Birds can pluck feathers for any number of reasons and I usually suggest that you rule out medical causes first. Infections can cause picking, as well as Psittacosis, Giardia and even yeast infections. Watch your lovie carefully to see if you can determine if he's removing his own feathers or his companion is doing it. I would have your avian vet run a few tests to see if you can pin down a medical cause. I had a conversation with my avian vet regarding feather picking and she stated that she finds more medical causes for it than behavioral ones.

[graushill]

Hello!

I just wanted to add that diet can also play a part in feather plucking. The vet I go to says that if food plays a part in feather picking the usual culprit is a diet that relies too heavily on one type of foods, i.e. is not varied enough.

I had an experience recently with a birdie I was taking care of for a friend. He had been with us for several months and then suddenly he started plucking, really fast. I took him to the vet like Linda suggested and after the tests came back negative we started looking into other possible causes. I myself had never thought it could be the diet because having come to this board for a couple of years I read a lot about the importance of varied diet, and I was giving him seeds (approx. 50% included germinated seeds) and veggies (35%) and birdie bread (10%) and egg and a little pellets, so I kind of felt that I was doing okay there. It turned out that the problem was still the diet because the seed mix I was using had a pretty high content of sunflower seeds. The plucked birdie specially loved those seeds and he would eat them more than any other seed in the mix. My vet said that sunflower seeds are really nutritious but with such tiny birds as lovebirds a little goes a long way. She said that it was okay to still give him seeds as a primary part of his diet, but to totally remove the sunflower seeds for a while and after that give sunflower seeds only sparingly.

I did that and after about two weeks or so in the new sunflowerseedless diet he had almost stopped with the plucking. After about six weeks he was almost back to his normal self, although it did take about two months, maybe a little more, for the feathers to grow back in completely.

Anyway, hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck!
Gloria

[sdgilley]

Hey Gloria, happy to see you around!

Good catch on the sunflowers. I knew they were good for the birds, but I did think of them filling up on only one seed. Peter adores sunflower seeds, but the mix I use doesn't have too many. I had been adding extra occassionally, but I guess I should keep that as a "treat" like millet.

[linda040899]

Hi Gloria!
I'm very glad to see you here! I want to say thank you for your very informative message regarding sunflower seed. It's something that I had not realized, as my vet has never found any picking that she could not trace back to an infection of some kind. I use sunflower seed with my lovebirds but it's not unlimited. I will put this information in my databank for future reference. :)

[sall1hil]

thank you all for your quick replies. i will adjust louies food and taken him to the doctor to see if he has any medical problems. i will let you all know

thanks again

[graushill]

Hi everyone,

You're all welcome :) . Glad to be of help.

Gloria