can anyone help my orange winged ,amazon,???

hi guys, im very new to this but im at a complete loss. i have a four year old orange winded amazon called frankie. he has always been a very beautifull bird as im sure all parrots are. when he was about 2 he went through a phase of being very itchy and restless and he scratched off or damaged all his neck feathers. we took him to the vets and they ran so many blood tests, feather tests skin scrapes etc and all came back with nothing. anyway that passed by itself and he had no more problems untill this time last year. ive been bathing him keeping his cage very clean, he has lots of things to do and still scratches outside his cage, but now its spreading down his back and chest. other than the scratching he is his usual self and i just dont know whats going on
can anyone offer any solutions or advice?! the african grey and cockatiels are unaffected.

Welcome to the forum. What is the humidity like around your amazon? I dont have an amazon but I do have an iguana that comes from the same climate and they require VERY HIGH humidity. My iguana has problems shedding and have dry patches when the humidity is low.

Do you have any plants around Frankie's cage and in what condition are they? If they are not thriving then you know Frankie will also have problems. You can place palm trees around the cage that you water daily and mist with a spray bottle. You can also buy a humidifier and I would suggest to go for the human brand that is cold and not the hot one because that uses a lot of electricity.

For now, until you decide whether you want to try and raise the humidity or not, you can take him into a steamy bathroom and see if it brings any relieve.

Hope that helps.

the humidity is very low in the room he is in, i will try and increase it to see if that helps, i also have got some new food with no sunflower seeds in it so hopefully he will start to improve.
Thanks for your advice =]

Wildhearts advise is spot on. Im no expert but it sounds like its allergy related and looking at his environment might be the answer to the problem. Taking the sunflower seeds a good step as they are not good for them and may be making him react.

Did the reation happen at the same time of the year last time? Do you use a mister to spray him or a showe nozzel? The reason Im asking is that the mister is very fine and not as strong as a shower nozzel and maybe he is over grooming when very wet and causing aggrevation. The mister doesnt wet them totally. How many times a week are you showering him? Try boiling the water or using a filter when bathing him. What agents do you use to clean the cage? Has he always had the same make of toys?

Lol - sorry for all the questions, trying to help you have a light bulb moment where you find something amiss

Keep us posted

Im a social smoker and wash my hands thoroughly when I do have a ciggie, I wont expect you to comment on whether you smoke or not but the nicotene penetrates in to their feathers and skin and can cause reactions This would only apply if you did smoke

hey =] i shower him with a plant spray bottle mister thing but probably not as often as i should due to my being at uni and him living with my parents, when he is bathed though i soak him to the skin, could that be a problem?? its just he loves is so much he gets all silly and we use about 2 litres of warm tap water before he's had enough.

it happened so long ago i cant remember if it was the same time of year but i think he started around spring last year?? i dont smoke...and when i clean his cage and perches i just use hot water, and we steam clean them chemical free every few months or so, all his feed bowls get put through the dishwasher regularly.
his toys are usualy the same type of toys but i get them from variouse places and im pretty sure they are different makes.
it started this time when i took him to a vet so they could show me how to clip his toe-nails..he's not a very handleable bird so we had to towel him. it started literally the day after btu when i asked the vet they said they use hypoallergenic detergants on the towels and he's been bathed countless times since then.
do parrots react like this to seperation?? becuase i dont live at home this year my dad looks after him during the week. frankie loves me to bits to the point where he regurgitates food and does all of his "impressive war dance routines" for me. he doesnt do that when im not at home.
your both being very helpfull =] ive tried other forums but noone helped =[

heatherchapple said:

hi guys, im very new to this but im at a complete loss. i have a four year old orange winded amazon called frankie. he has always been a very beautifull bird as im sure all parrots are. when he was about 2 he went through a phase of being very itchy and restless and he scratched off or damaged all his neck feathers. we took him to the vets and they ran so many blood tests, feather tests skin scrapes etc and all came back with nothing. anyway that passed by itself and he had no more problems untill this time last year. ive been bathing him keeping his cage very clean, he has lots of things to do and still scratches outside his cage, but now its spreading down his back and chest. other than the scratching he is his usual self and i just dont know whats going on
can anyone offer any solutions or advice?! the african grey and cockatiels are unaffected.

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Hey there, I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your amazon. My Amazon is a bit older then yours was when he started going through the scratching phase. My Amazon, Bailey stops and then continues scratching him self mainly in the neck area. I am starting to get really scared at this point because, a neck is not like a chest or a back. A neck is thin and im started to get really worried at this point. I do not know what to do.

Hi, I have a female blue fronted female who picks her chest feathers most of the year and then stops in the fall and lets them all grow back beautifully. Around early November she starts picking and plucking again. I think my bird has hormonal feather picking because if she were to nest and lay eggs she would most likely not pluck and pick. During breeding season she will sit and cluck and flick her wings and mastribate on an arm or your lap, or the bottom of her cage. This is the time the feather picking is the worst. It doesn't matter how much attention she gets, she still plucks. At least she does not bite herself until she bleeds, we have gotten used to her plucked chicken look. We tried to put her with several different males through out the years and she rejected every one of them and only likes human mates. Don't know if this is your birds problem?? Lesley