I have two conures - a green cheek and a rose crown. They are in the same cage together and their cage is quite large. They eat Harrison pellets mostly, along with lots of other things that we are eating. They are out of the cage for several hours a day, more on weekends. I've had both since they were under a year, and they are 2-3 years old now.
The rose crown conure started plucking his flight feathers last winter. I think he may also have been chewing on the green cheek's tail feathers although that might have been the green cheek. As a result, he spends most of the winter unable to fly and most of spring growing back his flight feathers and most of summer learning how to fly again.
Last winter, when I first realized he was plucking and not moulting, I added a full spectrum light over their cage as well as a cool air humidifier. This seemed to stop the problem, although in retrospect it may have been far along in the season that he stopped on his own.
I also sprayed him down last winter but he really hated it, so I stopped. They don't have real baths that often (they don't seem all that interested). They do shower with my husband every morning but they don't really get wet or anything.
He has started up again this year. I just put the humidifier back and will be replacing the light (I used it all summer long out of habit).
I can't think of anything else to do to curb this behaviour. The only other change is just the overall darkness (the light helps with this, but when it's dark out, it's darker in general, even if I leave the light on in the room) and the cold. I keep the house at 67-69F but in the room they are in, at night, it's probably 65-66F which I thought was fine if they were given time to adapt. They also have a little snuggly thing that they snuggle up in at night together.
Is there anything else I can do? The green cheek conure can't fly anyway but poor Toby the rose crown can't figure out why he keeps falling to the ground. Poor boy.
The rose crown conure started plucking his flight feathers last winter. I think he may also have been chewing on the green cheek's tail feathers although that might have been the green cheek. As a result, he spends most of the winter unable to fly and most of spring growing back his flight feathers and most of summer learning how to fly again.
Last winter, when I first realized he was plucking and not moulting, I added a full spectrum light over their cage as well as a cool air humidifier. This seemed to stop the problem, although in retrospect it may have been far along in the season that he stopped on his own.
I also sprayed him down last winter but he really hated it, so I stopped. They don't have real baths that often (they don't seem all that interested). They do shower with my husband every morning but they don't really get wet or anything.
He has started up again this year. I just put the humidifier back and will be replacing the light (I used it all summer long out of habit).
I can't think of anything else to do to curb this behaviour. The only other change is just the overall darkness (the light helps with this, but when it's dark out, it's darker in general, even if I leave the light on in the room) and the cold. I keep the house at 67-69F but in the room they are in, at night, it's probably 65-66F which I thought was fine if they were given time to adapt. They also have a little snuggly thing that they snuggle up in at night together.
Is there anything else I can do? The green cheek conure can't fly anyway but poor Toby the rose crown can't figure out why he keeps falling to the ground. Poor boy.
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