Completely heartbroken...feather issue

**Tequilamama** · 04-29-2012, 04:05 PM

Hi, I am hoping that someone can help with my feather plucking Sun Conure. She is almost 3 years old and up until a year and a half ago she seemed happy and full feathered and loved everyone, especially my 11 year old which is whom I bought her for. We I started a new job in which I started working at home, and seen then she has managed to pluck all of her feathers from her chest and her back. As soon as they start to grow back in she plucks them out again. Yesterday, we went out for the day to come home and find the last bit of feathers growing back...all gone! It is just heartbreaking...not to mention that she wants nothing to do with my Son. She acts as if she is so afraid of him and will hide from him every chance she gets.
I have taken her to an avian specialist Vet and spent hundreds of dollars and thankful that she is healthy. The vet suggested that it could be sexual fustration and has suggested giving her hormone shots? Not sure about this.

She is not a good eater, hates veggies, only eats apples and banana's. She also eats Harrison's pellets and I give her Goldenfeast Central American blend II which was recommended from her breeder as she was on this when I got her at 4 months old. She also has the occassioal nutriberries, and I give her Featheriffic and AvitVitamins.

She has a large cage and I rotate her toys, she will play but for the most part she screams to come out so that she can hang in my shirt all day. I have her with me when I can, but when I am working it is not always possible and I don't think it is good for her to be with me ALL day every day. As a matter of fact, when I am not around she seem to do much better with the feather plucking.

I am heartbroken, I don't know if it is me that is causing her to be so upset and pluck her feathers? I cannot figure it out.

I would appreciate any advice or suggestions....Thank you!

**Sinthea** · 04-29-2012, 07:56 PM

I'm no expert at with this but this is what I get from your post.

Bird was happy and healthy, not plucking when you worked full time.

When you started working from home the issue started.

He does better when you spend time away.

To me, that seems to be a bit of a lead. I would explore the possibility that maybe, for whatever reason, your being home all day is the cause. Does your work require you to work from home? Is there any way you could work in another location and see how his behavior changes? Do you work in the same room as him? Maybe you can work in a different room?

These are just some ideas I personally would explore based on the information you provided.

**boomer girl** · 04-30-2012, 03:13 PM

If you just started to work from home when this started I have to agree with Sinthea and say it could be something to do with you being home now. Do you let her come out and work with you? If not maybe just letting her out with you while you are working will help her. I work from home and when I had boomer if I didnt let him out of his cage he went crazy, cheeping and running all around his cage until I let him out. He sat on my shoulder almost all day when I worked and I actually built him a play area on my desk so he could play, eat and drink whenever he wanted to.

I am sure your vet has tested him for yeast but if not this also could make them pluck, especially there chest area. I dont think it is her diet because it sounds good even if she dont eat many veggies. Lots of birds dont like fresh veggies so if you tried all kinds of way of serving them I would suggest to get some "Just tomatoes" dried vegetables. They have great dried foods that are actually made for humans but birds love them.. me too! I also got my sisters amazon to eat his corn and peas by squeezing out the insides of them first and he loved the insides so after a couple of days he started to actually eat the entire corn or pea and I didnt need to squeeze them out anymore. I also heard lots of good things about using some Red Palm oil with there soft food, it makes there feathers soft from the inside out or it least that is what I have read here on some posts.

Harrisons makes a spray called Rain that helps out some plucker's or I also heard of people mixing Aloe and water and spraying it on there birds daily. Just make sure its pure Aloe and not mixed with alcohol or anything else. We have people on here with plucking birds and one little lovie here actually started to pluck because it was in a car crash and lost all her tailfeathers. Once they started to come in all at once she must of felt miserable with all of them coming in that she would pluck them all out again. Maybe it is just too hard for them to get so many feathers in all at once that it feels better to just keep plucking them all out. Whatever the reason I am sorry she is doing this to you and I can only imagine your heartbreak coming home to all of her new feathers plucked out again.

**Sinthea** · 05-01-2012, 03:27 PM

I'm going to have to look up that spray for Zeus. Or maybe try the aloe idea.

Anyway I have been thinking about the issue and here is what I would do. Start spending more time out of the house, like I said. When you are home, really work on building your relationship with the bird. Slowly increase the time you are home.

What work do you do? I know they make play stands for birds that have wheels on them and can be rolled into what ever room. I understand completely that you can't have him on your shoulder all the time but maybe in the same room? I can't leave Zeus alone for more than a few hours at a time or he starts plucking. If you keep some goodies with you than you will be able to turn around and give him some attention and goodies every so often to be sure he sees it as a pleasant experience.

**Tequilamama** · 05-02-2012, 03:55 AM

Hi, thank you everyone for some great advice.

I have tried having her with me all day. I work for a pharma company and I am on the phone alot. I set up a sep play area by my desk. She was not interested in that, she wanted to be with me. I got an extra cage and I put some toys and I would give her peanuts. That would keep her busy for a little bit but once I get on the phone, she starts to scream and I have no choice but to pick her up.

Heres the thing, if I am on the phone, she will stay on my shoulder and start to pluck. If I am talking to my husband and she is 3 feet away on her play gym, she will scream so I can't have a converstation. Yesterday, I need to have a medical procedure done so I was gone for a few hours. She was home with my Dad and my Son (home from school sick) and when I returned, she plucked her down feathers off her chest.

I called her breeder who suggested 2 things, one was to try Pluck no more? she said it was safe and some people have had good results. The other to to get her a companion, she said that some birds just need company and now that she is mature she may need company. I thought of that too, and I know that there are many that have more than one bird, I am just fearful she will not accept another bird.

I do take her out as much as possible, but even if we are hanging on the chair together just chillin...she will preen herself like crazy.

The Vet gave me the Harrisons spray, I tried that, she is afraid of a spray bottle so when she sees me coming she runs.

I think I just have to live with the fact that she will be a plucker, as long as she is healthy.

**boomer girl** · 05-02-2012, 09:13 PM

Boomer hated to be sprayed with anything and he didnt much like bathes so I would rub the water on my hands and then hold him and rub my hands all over his body to get the water on him.

I also had the problem with boomer because I worked from home and every time the phone rang he would cheep like crazy and loud enough to where my customers heard me talking! I have no clue why he would get so upset when I talked but I finally had to put him in cage when the phone rang and close the door so the customers couldnt hear him. It sounds like your doing everything right and for some reason she has issues with you talking when she is around and dont like it when you leave. I hate to say this but before you give up maybe you should try a collar on her just so her feathers grow back in and maybe she wont pluck them out once they grow back in. It could break her habit she has gotten into of plucking when you talk and hopefully it will stop her from plucking permanently. It has to be just awful to see her do this to herself.

**Tequilamama** · 05-03-2012, 02:37 PM

Thank you, where would I get a collar from? Would that be something a Vet would do? I tried a sweater, but I could not hold her down long enough to get it on. She went nuts. I was really afraid of hurting her and her really biting me so I gave up. I did think about the collar and it is not a bad idea.

Thanks, I did start her on pluck no more, and it as only been 3 days but she seems to be a bit better. I am going to see how that goes first.

**boomer girl** · 05-03-2012, 06:59 PM

A collar is the last thing most people do because most of the birds really hate them and I have read posts here about some of them going into depression and dont even want to eat, or worse go crazy trying to get them off. You get them from your vet and they are usually fitted to them so they cant get them off. It is sort of like a putting a cone on a dog or cat but they are not easy to get on and off. If the pluck no more is helping her I wouldnt collar her. I would also try to use the Harrisons spray on her by rubbing it on your hand and then rubbing her body. She may not like it but I have heard good things about it helping the birds stop plucking.

Boomer plucked his chest and neck bare within days when he first got sick with yeast. I took him to the vets and they gave him some sort of medicated bath that worked and he never plucked himself again. I wished I knew what they used for him because I also noticed another bird that was a plucker on a different visit to the vets and I asked the girl about it. She told me her bird also gets these medicated baths and it helped her bird out for weeks. Maybe your vet knows or actually does medicated baths for birds at the office, it is worth asking because I sure know it worked for boomer and according to the other girl it worked for her bird.

**Tequilamama** · 05-09-2012, 04:10 AM

Thanks, I am going to look into that bath. I have been using the Pluck no more for a few days now and she seems to be a bit calmer and not plucking as much. Have to see, there are no pins growing yet, so need to wait until she gets some new feathers to truly see if it is working. The only bad thing about the pluck no more is you can't give them fruits or veggies while taking it. She has been living on seeds and pellets, an occasional peanut and some pasta.

**boomer girl** · 05-09-2012, 11:06 AM

How strange you can give them fruits or veggies while taking the pluck no more. Have you tried giving her boiled eggs? Most birds seem to love them. I shredded boomers up and when I bird sit Mango the amazon he likes his diced up but both of them would devour them. They also are super good for them so its worth seeing if she likes them. I am happy she isnt plucking any more right now and hope once her new feathers come in she wont pluck them. I would think when they do start coming in is when you might want to try a spray for her that soothes her tender skin as the feathers are coming in. Molting is so hard our birds and I can only imagine how tender the skin is when the feathers pop through it.