Over Preening

Anyone have any ideas on over preening. My eclectus has a bad habit of over preening his feathers. I was wondering if there was something that can be done to help eliminate this? I have tried several preening toys, but he doesn't seem to be interested in them.

I saw a case of this on Animal Cops, there was a cockatoo that overpreened himself. Their solution was a preening toy or a cagemate. What kind of preening toys have you tried? They used a feather duster, but I'm not sure if there is any big difference in preening toys. My female cockatiel likes to preen a little string fluffball that I made.

QuackQuack said:

I've seen the feather duster solution as well. I wonder what they must think it is! Sadly, I have nothing to contribute here because if mtdoramike doesn't know then I probably don't either....

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Lol I second that.

Mysafebirdstore carries capes for birds to wear that snaps on with a Velcro thing at the neck. In times of high preening I guess this might work. Rosie preens her little white feathers out so much I think she would not have any more. I actually took her to see my now deceased avian vet and he said it was caused by some hormonal stimulation with the molting. She is not longer molting and she still does this. No magic cure here.

Im in the process of trying something out but need a few months or so to confirm. So hang tight until I get the process started which I can't start until sometime next month. Then ill post the result. Gracie have the same issue...

Thanks, I have tried foraging toys, preening toys. But Mac isn't big into toys. I just bought him an xtra large Pinata, which is suggested for the over-preener. But he hasn't touched it other than once for a few seconds. When I adopted him from his previous owners wife, he had started to pluck the feathers from both of his legs. He has stopped plucking his leg feathers and the left leg feathers have grown back nicely. But he still is trying to pluck the feathers on his right leg. I have been putting some raw aloe on his leg, which he hates. It does seem to help with the plucking of his legs though.

The vet says that the over preening most likely started from stress and has become a habit. His previous owner died suddenly back in March and that is when his wife started seeing the plucking and over preening begin. His owner was retired and Mac and him spent all day, every day together. I'm also retired and basically do the same with Mac. I have only had him now for about 2 1/2 months and was hoping that the over preening would slowly subside. But it hasn't.

I have read several articles on the subject and although there are some great suggestions, there is no silver bullit. I think I will order a bottle of CEASE, which is supposed to help with over preening and plucking and see if that will help. Some say it works while others say don't use it, it will only make him preen his feathers even more.

Thanks,
Mike

I have read several articles on the subject and although there are some great suggestions, there is no silver bullit. I think I will order a bottle of CEASE, which is supposed to help with over preening and plucking and see if that will help. Some say it works while others say don't use it, it will only make him preen his feathers even more.

can you let me know if this solution works, as nuts already been chewin her feathers over summer she fot a full coat on, an now she is lookin a little rag gatty, i've a feelin she'll be like when i 1st got her after xmas

I got the over preening spray this morning and gave Macky a good soaking with it. We'll see how well it works in a couple of weeks. I'll keep an eye on him closely for the next few days and see if he slacks off messing with his feathers.