Love bird missing lots of feathers

birdynumnum · Apr 11, 2018

Hi, one of our lovely love birds seems to be missing a lot of feathers from his lower back / tail area. The other three we have are perfectly fine, so we wondered if it was stress or something.

Image:

It's been like this for a couple of weeks at least. Is this a common malady for which there's an easy remedy? Not serious I hope. His behaviour seems perfectly normal, he flies around fine, is eating and active. His eyes and nose look normal.

Any help is much appreciated!

Jobiness · Apr 11, 2018

I would get this checked out, it could just be a plucking problem as birds tend to get bored very easily, but when I was younger I had a lovebird that started plucking her feathers until she would bleed, turns out she had a disease.

Are these birds in a aviary, or are they inside?
Or is it possible the other birds are doing it to him?

birdynumnum · Apr 11, 2018

Jobiness said:
Are these birds in a aviary, or are they inside?
Or is it possible the other birds are doing it to him?

Thanks for the quick reply! If anything, he's one of the dominant ones. We have 4 pairs (2 boys, 2 girls) in a large indoor cage. We haven't seen him plucking himself or any fighting. They get along fairly well, just the occasional disagreement.

We let them out for a fly most evenings, and they're happy to go back to the cage themselves. Both females have eggs (which we've chilled so they don't hatch) but even so both pairs mostly keep to themselves, no big fights. So it's a bit of a mystery.

I guess we'll have to get him checked out then, thanks.

LordTriggs · Apr 11, 2018

second the advise for a vet. Also being they are both sitting on eggs lovebirds can be very aggressive and territorial so stress/fighting you're not seeing could be making it happen

my advise is to rule out disease with a vet visit (Certified avian vet! If not a farm vet who has dealt with farm birds) then try to distract with toys and foraging opportunities

Love bird missing lots of feathers

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