Plucking update and nutrition question

So awhile ago I asked about ways to reducing itching because my Pico has been plucking his chest feather since his first molt. I saw from someone else's post with a suggestion for Featherrific to sprinkle on his food. This has worked wonders! Over the course of a month his gotten back more than half of the feathers missing. I have attached pictures so everyone can see the progress. The one inside the cage was from 3/11 and the one of him on his playtop is from 2 days ago. (Sorry some are sideways, I didn't know how to flip them. They're rightside up on my computer)

Also, I took him to the vet last week just to be sure he wasn't plucking for another reason and he came back perfectly healthy but she just suggested a slight change in diet. She wants 50% pellets and add grains (oat groats, spelt, barley, wheat berry, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, and flaxseed), veggies and fruits. He was already eating veggies and fruits, I guess he just needs more now.

My question is mainly about how others go about serving different things to their birds. The grains I'm testing out each one in tiny dishes to see if he'll eat them and so fair he loves them. I now mixed all of them together and keep it in cereal container. When giving them should I mix them with his pellets or have them separately? Or should have I have a pellet bowl, grains bowel, and fruit and veggie bowel? And someone how arrange that in his cage. haha

What kind of set up does any one else has and I'll take any suggestions for my situation.

I am so glad to hear you found something that has helped with the plucking! It is heartbreaking to watch and not be able to do anything about it.

Keep wet food in a different bowl than dry food. So pellets can go with dry grain if you wish, or separate them if you want to better monitor what gets eaten and not have to remove hulls from the uneaten pellets.

My conure is on a quinoa-based diet because of chronic illness and allergies - he can't have pellets. I cook the quinoa, sometimes in herbal tea rather than just plain water and add veggies, herbs and sprouts to it when it is done. He loves it more than any other food I've given him.

If you feed meals, adding fruit and veg to the wet bowl is fine. If food stays in the cage until eaten, I would have separate bowl for the fruit.

I keep my pellets separate, but the grains I mix often on either in a separate bowl or on his treat stand. Your baby looks wonderful, my Jojo had heavy stress bars when I got her and it is been a year and she still has the stress bars!

My cockatiels have lots of feather loss around their neck and heads. I have started feeding them a new food with lots of special grains and seeds in it plus I bought them an Avian light too sit under for several hours a day. This month i started spraying them with a mite spray just in case that is the problem. They always get Zupreem until I got sick last year and it was up too my sister too care for them then they got worse. Over the next year I will be devoting lots of time and money too care for our parrots.


Hope your little guy continues too improve, looks like he hasmany cherrful colors comi g back in. I hope too own a conure one day too.


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She is looking Great . Look at all the colors

All of my birds have three feeder cups, 1 water, 1 pellets (also put treats such as nuts or Avicakes in this bowl), and 1 fresh food bowl that I give them every day when I get home from work so that I can remove it after a couple hours. You're definitely on the right track with the quinoa - all of our birds LOVE quinoa and its really good for them. I buy the whole grain kind and cook it, cool it and they all just go crazy for it! It's also a great way for me to sneak in a sprinkle of probiotics or spirulina.

I would highly recommend Harrisons pellets, the high potency blend for 6 months and then you can go to the adult lifetime blend. This will help get their nutrition back on track. Btw I get mine on Amazon (sold by Harrisons through Amazon) and it's really affordable! I am a huge Harrisons fan. Just to give an example, one of our rescue budgies was literally clinging to life when we got him. He was starved, neglected, and probably the worst rescue case we've taken in. And he was light grey and white in color. We've had him for about 8 months now, and he is a healthy weight, happy crazy little stinker, and guess what - he's actually got quite a bit of yellow coloration now! Proof that missing nutrients were restored which I attribute largely to Harrisons and fresh Kale (his favorite).

Good luck with your babies!