Lovebird Keeps Breaking Feathers!

My two lovebirds have been doing fairly well despite me having some financial difficulties in the last year, but this is really annoying.

My lovebird Cookie keeps breaking his blood feathers.

In the last year I've had to move no less than 3 times, and I clipped both bird's wings to prevent them from hurting themselves in the new environments. For the most part they've dealt with it very well and now love their new home - lots of space to explore. However, Cookie is a very timid bird and he freaks out easily. Cookie is not really tame and is more attached to Cream than me, however he does respond to me gesturing to carry him.

In the last few months at our new home he has broken no less than 3 feathers, and it's very annoying. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the feathers growing back themselves but rather that he panics over something, falls and breaks the feather that way. He is notorious for not paying attention and falling, even when he could fly.

Yesterday he managed to get a very bad break and I was able to stop the bleeding but it was probably the worst one he's had in a while. Today I'm keeping him in his cage so he can recover.

Another complication is that when I try to examine the damage and help deal with the feather/bleeding he freaks out and thinks he's going to die. Gives out the horrible "dying screams" when I grab him.

Cream is much more docile and only gets angry/annoyed when I grab him. I only grab the birds to check their bodies for lumps/disease/bleeding. I always hold them with as loose of a grip as I can do without them running away and it's never for more than a few minutes.

The bird is a total nervous wreck with anything new and panics over the slightest thing. He's not plucking though and he tends to be calmer when he's with Cream. Are there any tips I can do to try to help him calm down? It's very frustrating and I wish he could learn to be a little less antsy over everything. Don't worry, I don't get angry at him, I just wish it was a bit easier to teach him "Everything will be okay".

I wish he'd be more calm so he can grow his feathers back all the way so he doesn't have to rely on me carrying him around to Cream, who loves to fly about and explore the new apartment.

Awwwwww...
Well, for starters, stay put! If you can. That's a lot of stress for ALL of you. Then he can grow better feathers, have better balance, maybe even be flighted. Maybe wait a while before any absolutely necessary touching. I bet some time and space and relaxing will be good for everybody.
Meanwhile, check all your bases about diet, best perches, basic behavior awareness. The SEARCH tab is great.
Another thought... look at the whole environment and see if there are shaky perches, awkward traverse areas, stuff that might contribute to falls, etc.

Good suggestions from Gail...I think it's hard for a bird that is naturally nervous to settle in when their environment keeps changing, so as Gail said once you stay in one place for a while that will help tremendously. I have a female cockatiel that is constantly breaking feathers and breaking her tail completely off, right now she has what I call "chicken butt", which means absolutely no tail...She isn't nervous or timid at all and I can touch her however I want to, but she's clumsy and she also tends to just randomly take off from wherever she is, whether it's her cage top, her T-stand, the couch, wherever, she just suddenly bolts and her landings are horrible! My fear is always that she will do this when I'm not home and bleed to death, it doesn't take long at all for that to happen, so she's always in her cage when I'm gone to prevent this.

The first thing you have to be worried about is stopping the bleeding, so don't worry at all about grabbing her and forcing her to let you put the corn starch or whatever you use on her. You just have to do it, she'll get over that, so don't ever hesitate to not be aggressive enough to stop her bleeding, that's saving her life. As far as her naturally being nervous, timid, scared, etc., was she a hand-raised bird? If not then that's the first thing you need to remember, and you need to approach training her from that perspective. Think of it like bringing home a baby bird from the pet store that wasn't hand-raised and isn't tame, because your bird's attitude and actions seem the same. So once you've done what Gail has already suggested, getting her in one place for a long period of time that she's used to, gotten her cage in a place she feels secure (making sure her cage is against at least one wall, if not 2 walls in a corner, this gives them much security), making sure her perches, toys, etc. are arranged in her cage in a way that she can easily get to them, they aren't a danger to her, they aren't going to surprise or scare her, and then you start from scratch like a new birdy parent. Sit by her cage often and talk to her softly, read books to her, get her used to EVERYONE in your household this way so she has no surprises. Putting her cage in the highest traffic area in your home against at least one wall at the back of her cage, and if possible another wall at a side of her cage (in a corner in your highest traffic area) will get her used to noises, talking, people walking past her cage, etc. Leaving the TV on or music playing constantly helps as well. Basically you need to desensitize her to noises, passing people, etc. so eventually these things won't startle her, but the wall and her cage helps her still feel security at the same time. Spend as much time as you can with her outside of her cage, even if that means she's on her cage top and you're on the couch watching TV, or she's on the top of the couch, the floor, a play stand, etc. The more contact to you and other people, noises, lights, etc. she has the less things will startle her.

I'd also try to work with her on touching, stepping up, liking to be held, etc. I don't know how far she is with this, if she will step up onto your finger then that's a big chunk already done, if not then once again start out like you just got her. Leave your hand in her cage for lengths of time, then feed her millet, then get her to step up inside the cage, etc. If she's already there then work on her getting closer to you by spending more out of cage time with her, interacting with her and near her. The closer she gets to you the calmer she will be, just like getting her used to noises, lights, people, etc. Car rides can help too, all of her senses get overloaded on a car ride, so doing a 10 minute drive every day helps enormously! At first she will freak out, but after a week you'll notice she's actually more interested in seeing what's going on out the window than she is nervous because she's slowly desensitizing to what startles her. I do this with baby budgies I breed, I put them in their carrier, get them in the car, and drive to the Walmart parking lot...Lots of cars, people walking, noises, etc. Then I let them out of their carrier once I'm at the parking lot and either put them on my shoulder by the window, or if they won't do that I just remove my front passenger headrest and put them on top of the passenger front seat so they can see out all the windows. The back seat top works too if you have a sedan. Drive around the parking lot for 10-20 minutes each day...It works like a charm!

One other thing to try if she actually gets startled a lot inside of her cage and is breaking feathers against the bars, perches, etc. is keeping her cage covered on 3 sides with blankets or towels but leaving the front uncovered. Same principle as putting her cage against as many walls as you can but this is more secure if she has a lot of inside the cage freak outs. Once her other training and desensitizing kicks in then you can slowly uncover a side, then another, then you're good to go, but in the meantime keeping 3 sides covered pretty much stops the inside the cage problems.

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Thanks for the excellent advice, guys.

Yeah I managed to hold Cookie down quickly to stop the bleeding. Really hard when he struggles the whole time. My mom was on the phone when it happened and heard the whole thing. I know Cookie definitely wasn't happy about it. Really worried me because he was panicking so hard I was worried it would be made even worse, good to know I did the right thing. I'm still not sure exactly what happened outside of him bleeding profusely. On other occasions though I think what happens is that he slips, and while he's freaking out while flapping his wings, they strike something like the TV or something. He never has had problems inside of his cage.

I agree, I think the moves have definitely made him more nervous. And Cream is so passive in comparison that sometimes it's kind of hard to deal with the difference, lol! Cookie seems to be a bit more tame than when I first got him, for sure; he will step up if I give him my hand, but he always seems extremely nervous. It's the only thing he'll do without completely freaking out. He's basically buddy-buddy with Cream and usually he'll only step up if Cream is already on my hand, or if he really wants to go somewhere, otherwise he'll just jump right off. lol

I think his timid nature is a combination of both him being non-hand fed and also because when he was first introduced, Cream was a huge jerk to him (they're buds now though). He's kind of a runt.

My ritual is this - when I come home from work, I let the birds out and let them into my room, while I watch TV or hang out on the computer. They usually spend time sitting on the TV or eating snacks on the desk I have the TV on. Sometimes Cream flies out to the main area and Cookie gets nervous from being alone. Like I said he's definitely much more tame than before (he would literally fly in a panic for the first 6 months I had him).

I think one problem I have right now though is that while their cages are in a good spot for the most part, they're in a special room for the birds. It's basically like their night room, and when I come home, I bring them into my room. Maybe having them back in my room might help things out more?

Such a shame too because I thought it'd be a good idea to have a 2-bedroom for that purpose. lol

I think one approach I should take actually is convert their bedtime room into a playroom. I already made it bird safe (covered plugs, removed/obscured drawstrings, ect) while I'm at work. I wanted to get some props for them to climb on/play with eventually as well, since there's quite a bit of room in there for them to fly and play. The two lovebirds really don't care for toys from my experience but absolutely love climbing and interacting with each other, so I wanted to get some bird-safe trees eventually for them to climb and play on.

I also have two budgies in that room; they each have individual cages and are let out in the evenings with the light on, so they can have some time out of their cages. Should I move them too? They're even less tame than Cookie is. I don't really intend on taming them, I mainly just keep them because they're pretty and they like to spend time with each other/with toys (although it would be nice if I could), but usually they get to have the room to themselves. (It doesn't help that one of the budgies makes a bee line for Cookie every time he sees him, and goes right for the feet. what a jerk!). Having four bird cages in my room might be a bit excessive though, but if I move Cookie, he will probably want to sleep with Cream in the same room. I intend to get them a large cage that can happily house both budgies so they can interact more.

The car idea is great - too bad my car died a few weeks ago Instead though, I'll focus on Cookie becoming more comfortable in my room I think.

Well, I will try to make sure I give cookie a bit more closer time and try not to let Cream's tame nature get the best of me.

Good problem solving on your part and excellent advise with in the above Posts That said, I would like to add two points.

1. Its NEVER the fault of the Parrot! Its ALWAYS the fault of the Human! When you view everything from this vantage point, what you are doing wrong can be quickly seen and corrected much faster!

2. The Real Estate Agents Tour of the room(s) and the complete home! Like the car rides, this helps you're Parrots relax quicker. I complete a Tour every month with our Amazon and anytime something new appears.

I am certain you fill find ways of relaxing your Parrots World!

Yeah I would move the lovebirds back into your room if that's where you usually are. Concentrate on them for now, although you can still use the same taming techniques with the budgies as well if you want to. I think just getting him settled and used to people, places, and things on a daily basis will be the best road to go down. He will freak out at first, just know that, but each time a little bit less. The real estate tour daily is a great idea since the car won't work right now, just walk him around the house, probably both of them to keep him calm, one on each hand or both on one hand. Stop and spend some time with them in each room, let him have his fits at first, and soon things won't be so scary.

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They slept overnight in my room for the first time. was kind of funny because they were really surprised to see me this morning wake up and greet them. Cream was mellow as usual, but Cookie seemed calm too, which was a good sign. When I picked him up this morning he wasn't shaky/shifty like he usually is when I carry him.

Cookie's timid nature basically makes him super shaky whenever I pick him up. He seemed calm this morning but once I get in range of where he wants to go he hops off in a huge rush, which is the biggest concern at the moment, since that's usually how he falls (he rushes over to a perch, slips because he's so scared and then that's how he gets hurt. Even when he could fly he had this problem).

I know it's me, not the bird lol. He's just doing his best being a birdie. I know how crappy it can be living with high anxiety all the time. Makes me a bit sad that he's still like this after living with me for a while, it's very slow, but we're making some progress. Before he used to run away if I got anywhere near him. He's a very sweet birdie to Cream and it's so lovely to see them be such close friends, Cream is like his mentor and protector, it's so sweet. He just wants to snuggle up to him all the time.