Feather plucking in parrrots is nothing new unfortunately, and occurs mainly and usually only in captive bred hand reared pet birds.
Less occasionally in captive bred aviary birds and rarely in original wild caught parrots.
Feather plucking and/or self mutilation can be caused by any one or many of the following reasons:
Boredom
Poor diet
Poor environment (small cage or aviary)
Lack of exercise
Feather mites
Internal illness
Quite often it is many of the above reasons.
Parrots in their natural environment do not have the time to pull their own feathers. Their days are full just surviving, looking for food and caring for their young.
Parrots on the other hand in captivity spend many hours of the day alone in their cage or aviary, their food is usually available 24/7 so no need to go hunting or searching for food, no predators to be wary of (except maybe the family cat or dog), too little a space to fly and exercise in and maybe to top it all off a mate they are saddled with for the rest of their lives with no say in the matter!
How would you feel if you were a parrot?
Less occasionally in captive bred aviary birds and rarely in original wild caught parrots.
Feather plucking and/or self mutilation can be caused by any one or many of the following reasons:
Boredom
Poor diet
Poor environment (small cage or aviary)
Lack of exercise
Feather mites
Internal illness
Quite often it is many of the above reasons.
Parrots in their natural environment do not have the time to pull their own feathers. Their days are full just surviving, looking for food and caring for their young.
Parrots on the other hand in captivity spend many hours of the day alone in their cage or aviary, their food is usually available 24/7 so no need to go hunting or searching for food, no predators to be wary of (except maybe the family cat or dog), too little a space to fly and exercise in and maybe to top it all off a mate they are saddled with for the rest of their lives with no say in the matter!
How would you feel if you were a parrot?
Parrots are highly intelligent sensitive creatures it is simply not enough to purchase a cage (even though it may be a large cage) and put your bird in there with some seed and water, the odd perch and toy and think that is adequate and pat yourself on the back for doing a good job.
Keeping a parrot should be thought of as on the lines as having a child, although this child won't ever grow up and leave home!
Diet is such an important part of the wellbeing of any parrot, as is its environment and social interaction with humans.
Poor diet lacking in variety and nourishment, lack of freedom out of the cage environment and little or no social interaction can all cause major problems which may lead to feather plucking.
There is no quick fix answer as to why parrots self mutilate and short term measures such as adding vitamains to the diet on a temporary basis once the problem has started, is not the answer.
We should all take a step back and re-evaluate the lives of our birds and ask ourselves the question - if I were a parrot would I be happy?
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