Plucking Lovebird - have just removed collar

jessikuh351

New member
Mar 18, 2016
1
0
Auckland, New Zealand
Hey everyone,

So one of my lovebirds (female called Monty, 4 years old) has been pulling out feathers for a while. It got to the point where she had no tail feathers left and pretty much no feathers on her back at all. Then she started digging into the skin on her back which caused bleeding :(

We had many visits to the best avian vet I could find, they did checkups and ran tests etc basically told me sheā€™s in perfect health and the plucking could be due to sexual frustration or dry skin. Months passed and I finally decided it was time to put a collar on her before the plucking and bleeding gets worse. (Collar was the last resort)

The collar was on for a total of 7 months and her feathers definitely grew back but the tricky little bugger still manged to get around the collar and pull out a few feathers every now and then. Overall she handled wearing the collar quite well ā€” sheā€™s definitely one tough birdy.





Anyways itā€™s been 1 week since I removed her collar. Obviously her mood instantly changed, sheā€™s back to her happy self. She hasnā€™t pulled out any big feathers, only tiny ones which looked like they needed to come out anyway, but the good thing is so far she is hardly picking at her back as sheā€™s busy flying around enjoying life again. :D I've also been getting her to bathe often and have been spraying her feathers with this aloe vera soothing spray which works quite nicely.








By the way her diet is good - she has 2 servings of veges per day: one bowl in the morning and one in the afternoon before dinner. Veges include, carrot, corn, broccoli, cauli-flower, silverbeet, peas (slowly introducing more varity to her) Sheā€™s not really a fan of eating fresh fruit though. The seed she eats is called Tui Seed Mix which includes fruit, nut and vegetable seeds, I also add in lin/flax seed.





**Anyone else on here having or has had this problem with their birds? Also any tips on what I could do to keep her from plucking all over again since the collar is off now?**


Anyway, hereā€™s my other lovebird. Named her Chucka and she is also a female, also 4 years old. Perfect health, loves her food, loves her sleep and loves the camera :D


 

OOwl

New member
Oct 12, 2010
723
3
Texas
Parrots
Rosebreasted Cockatoo, Congo Grey, MRH Amazon, Lovebird
Welcome! Your lovies are so cute. Thank you for taking such good care of your plucking girl. She, indeed, looks really good. I think you are doing a great job and it sounds like you have a very competent vet. I have two pet lovies, too. My female is almost 15 and my male is almost 6 (but they don't live together or even like one another). Looking forward to more of your posts about your girls.
 

Allee

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2013
16,852
Media
2
212
Texas
Parrots
U2-Poppy(Poppy lives with her new mommy, Misty now) CAG-Jack, YNA, Bingo, Budgie-Piper, Cockatiel-Sweet Pea Quakers-Harry, Sammy, Wilson ***Zeke (quaker) Twinkle (budgie) forever in our hearts
A warm welcome to you, Monty and Chucka! Both your lovies are little beauties.

I keep a bottle of Soother spray in my refrigerator for one of my quakers, other than plain water it's the only commercial liquid spray I would ever recommend.

I hope Monty's plucking will now be a thing of the past. Sounds like she is getting the best of care with you.
 

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