How can I help my feather plucking DYHAmazon?

[birdnerd]

I haven't logged in for a long time but since then we have acquired two more birds. A white faced grey cockatiel and a sun conure. Both of them are tame and we can take them out to interface with them. Our DYH Amazon, Bobo, was we believe a wild caught bird because he was never perch trained and is still afraid of hands being near him even after 5 years. I have tried teaching him to perch and he will come to the perch, place both feet on, accept the treat and step back. He won't stay on the perch and if I try moving it, he steps back away. He has begun to pick at his chest but doesn't pull the feathers out. It kind of looks like it's been bleeding there where he has been picking. The Avian vet said he couldn't see any reason for the picking, no mites, etc. It's not really bad at this point he said.

We think maybe he is jealous of the other two birds that get to come out of their cages and sit on our shoulders and play. But Bobo is hesitant to come out and when he does, we do the perch training. There is not an awful lot we can do regarding play until we get him so we can move him around on the perch. Funny thing is, when he is in the cage, he will allow me to stroke his tongue and beak but not touch his head (through the bars). He gets up very close to us when we talk to him as long as the bars are between us.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how to lessen his fear of being out of the cage and how can I play with him on top the cage? All three cages are within 3-4 feet of each other so it is hard to prevent Bobo from seeing us interact with the other two birds.

Any advice is welcome.
Birdnerd

[Albe]

If he does not enjoy perch training and you do it every time he comes out he may associate out time as a negative. Maybe you could allow him to just hang out out side of the cage, get comfortable in open spaces, and be left on his own? Probably if he was more comfortable outside of the cage he would be more receptive to the perch. Foraging and preening toys could help with the plucking. Careful with him and your other birds, I went to a breeders house and she had two smaller birds with only the bottom half of their beaks, and have had to be hand fed soft food because of this, because they went too close to the amazon cage

[BarkingPup]

Other than the above suggestions...

When Necho came to me he had no tail feathers, an almost bare front and a general haggard look about him. I moved him from his tiny cage, replaced his super old (and only) toys, put him on pellets, and began giving him Rescue Remedy. Most of his toys were preening based. I've heard brewer's yeast works as well. I'm not saying this will work for you but you never know. Plucking can get to be a bad habit and I lucked out that a bird with two years of it under his belt abandoned it so quickly.

Actually, I thought it would get worse because of the stress of a new place, new cage, and two cats veeeery interested but he seems to thrive :/ the weirdo.

Plucking could also mean itchiness. Have you and your vet eliminated everything you can think of? Allergies, dryness, etc.

If it is stress from the other birds you could try moving his cage or their cages farther apart, or in other rooms so he doesn't see them all the time. I agree with Albe about the perch training. Just let him do his thing once he out. Training should always be positive and if you need to do it then only for a couple minutes, lots of praise, and put him back in his cage on a high note.

Ummm, yeah, I think that's significantly long enough.