GGC self-mutilation habit

Hi. I posted several weeks ago on the general health care forum because I had a parrot emergency. I found my bird on the floor of her cage, covered in blood under her wing, and weak/sick. I rushed her to an emergency vet, they gave her fluids and antibiotics and sent her home two days later. She had a wound in her armpit area, which she continued to pick for a while, which caused me to put an e-collar on her for 2 weeks. Took it off and she was doing fine for a while.

Yesterday I noticed her doing some of the crazy grooming behaviors that she did when she was pulling scabs off before, but she was messing around behind a leg this time. Today she is looking scruffy and underweight, she seems very tired and sluggish, and I discovered another wound behind her leg on her rump area. Shes not just plucking feathers, shes actually chewing herself raw. She had blood on her beak twice today. Shes also not eating well - still eats her fruit but seems to be eating much less pellets than usual.

I dont know what to do. I came here for help/advice. How do you deal with a self-mutilating bird? How do you curb these behaviors?


Other info - she eats Zupreem pellets and I try to give her some fresh food every day - usually fruit. I try giving her veggies but she rarely eats them, but she eats the fruit very well. I keep her cage pretty clean, and have been giving her a lot of attention since the first incident (we think this started when she was being neglected while I had a crazy work schedule earlier this summer). She also has a large cage with lots of different perches and toys.

Update - This morning she chewed a new wound onto her belly. I've made an appt for a vet visit on Monday, put a homemade e-collar on her so she cant hurt herself further before we see the vet, and have modified her cage so she can access food, water, and low perches. I am anticipating the worst, since she now has two open wounds and hasnt been eating well.

Hopefully somebody on this forum has had experience with OCD behavior like this and can offer some sort of advice.

You may have to get a collar to keep on her permanently. Did you have them test her skin for any issues that would cause her irritation? You want an avian vet to test for common issues that could cause mutilation like this. Also have them give you a salve that you can apply yourself to open sores. We have one but I don't remember what it is called. If it isn't caused by a health/diet problem then you have a behavior issue that is much harder to fix or stop.

The fact that she isn't eating is a bit different from the mutilation I am familiar with since it usually doesn't affect appetite. Though she may have an infection from the open sores. What other pets do you have that could stress her out? If she is eating a lot of fruit that may cause some issues. Parrots do not need fruit every day but veggies they do. Try sprouts or dry mixes like the ones from goldenfeast if she isn't eating pellets.

Some birds do not have favorable reactions to pellets. If that is an issue you can try Roudybush Rice Diet pellet or just less pellets overall and more mixes like goldenfeast (goldenfeast fan if you can not tell )

My cockatoo is a mutilator he has a collar he keeps on 24/7 unless he is out and I am supervising him to distract him from his skin. I know you said she has toys but does she usually play with them. I have found that my birds that do not like hanging toys will learn to love a basket filled with foot toys.

This is Folgers collar it is not plastic but made out of fabric.


Folger is on the red clover herb to help with healing/plucking issues that he has and that may be of help to you too.

So the not-eating well thing is a mystery, but we have gotten her to start eating by giving her a variety of fruits and crackers every few hours. At the moment I am more concerned with keeping her energy up than nutrition, and she has improved in the last 24 hrs due to all the food. Before, the vet said she was probably not eating and drinking due to pain and discomfort, but I think she has been eating poorly before she started mutilating again, so I have no idea... At least she is eating now

I havent found a veggie yet that she likes, but if she needs veggies every day then I will have to do some research to try new foods. I used to just feed her pellets with occasional fruit/nut/cracker treats. After her first health incident, I've been trying to change my own behaviors to take better care of my feathered friend. I need to get her a new light too, because my dog broke her last bulb a week ago.

I put that homemade collar on her, and its working fine so far. I plan to get her fitted for a professional collar tomorow and anticipate long-term wear. I will ask the vet about any health issues like nutritional deficiencies and feather mites that could cause this. Its so sudden, and shes 7 years old with no past incidents of feather plucking or other mutilation, so its hard to think that this is just a behavioral change. But I know that parrots can become OCD and the behavior is very difficult to curb, so I'm prepared to deal with a permanent collar if necessary. I'm praying for some other issue that is fixable with medication or nutrition.


Oh and as for toys, she really doesnt play with them much. I keep trying new toy-types, but she just isnt very interested. She used to love bells, so I always make sure a bell is on a new toy. She doesnt chew at all, and she doesnt use cuddle bones or calcium chew toys (I suspect calcium deficiency and will ask the vet if she can test for that). She also doesnt use preening toys. I havent tried foot-toys in a long time, but she never used them when she was a baby. I will continue trying new toys, though, because I know how important play is...

Btw - that collar is adorable

Has she ever chewed on the clapper of her bells? She could have swallowed metal and have metal toxicity. Ask your vet to do an x ray to see if she has any metal inside of her!

I concur about the metal toxicity possibility. This is a pretty weird thing for a green cheek to do. They are usually pretty tolerant of even bad treatment, which is clearly not what is happening here.

What part of the world do you live in? What is the approximate humidity level in your home.....some birds, when introduced to a very dry climate, will begin worrying with their feathers and may even self-mutilate, much the way adolescents/teenagers do & though hard to believe, once started, they derive a cheap endorphin high.....

As to her history of picking at scabs, birds will do that for the same reasons we humans do, because they bother us.....as scabs dry, they pull at the skin & cause the area to itch, a bird that worries with a scab is doing the same thing, trying to relieve the irritation.....from what you've said here & I didn't read your previous post several weeks ago, it appears you have some one by one eliminations to do & maybe a lot of them, so you might be wise to start a ledger, writing down what foods are offered, what foods are eaten & in what quantities, then when you change diet(s), start a new page(s) and so on.....if it is something she's allergic to, the change is not going to be overnight.....

Your bird should have an ambient humidity level of around 40%.....you may be able to help her by providing a bowl of water (one she can dip outstretched wings in) that she can bathe in whenever she wants.....

Do you smoke? If so, just because you might smoke outside or otherwise away from her, you still have tar & nicotine residue on your hands and can very easily transfer that to your bird's feathers.....if you do smoke and/or someone else in the home does, I'd get a bottle of Dawn dish-washing liquid, give her a real good bath, then maybe every other day for a week, to get rid of any built up residue...if she's not exposed to smokers, not a problem, I don't know your bird, so am throwing out things I know can cause feather and/or body mutilation.....

As to getting her to try new foods, maybe starting family meals would work, most parrots are drama queens & if they see their flock mates trying new things & making a big deal about it, their curiosity often gets the better of them & the next thing you know, you've got a bird eating off your plate.

Letting her eat a lot of fruits is not always a good idea because of the sugars in the fruit...it's akin to feeding your children sugar coated cereals so you don't have to listen to them gripe or watch them put 3-4 or more spoons of sugar on a non-sweetened cereal.....

If you do start changing & testing foods, you realize that your testing periods should be at least a month or more in length, so that you'll have good observations. Are you good at poop observation, often that helps too.....

Good luck