Parakeet neck feather plucking habit.

Hi. First of all, I know I am a new member here, but I am at a loose end and figured someone here may be able to advise me.

I have a one year old albino white budgie, he broke his wing in an accident last August and had to have a collar to stop him biting his wing. The vet said to keep the collar on for 6 weeks so we did.

When the vet removed his collar when his wing was better he had a bald ring around his neck. Ever since then he has been pulling his feathers under his head on the front of his neck. We have been going to the vet every two weeks and he has had another (cone type) plastic collar, lots of medicine and his neck is red raw and sometimes bleeds.

Yesterday I came home from work and his neck had been bleeding, I cleaned him up with some warm water and cotton wool and gave him some fruit.
We have 6 birds in total all in the same (big cage with lots of toys) and most of the day they are out of the cage to fly around the room, we also have a large indoor tree they like.

The problem is, 7 months on, he has got no better, I am limited by vet choices as I live in japan and there are few avian vets, the one we go to has helped with all of our birds but this time nothing seems to work.

I saw online about an elizabethan collar that does not hinder movement, won't aggravate his neck, he can't pull apart and is comfortable and restricts him from being able to get to his neck.

I made one before out of an old handkerchief, medical gauze and sewn into a tube, but it caused the skin around the underside of his beak to swell so I took it off.

Can anyone, please give me some advice or even how I can make a good collar to stop him getting to his neck and won't cause more problems??

Thank you.

Does the irritation, rawness and bleeding come from the collar, or from the feather picking?

From the feather picking. He has not had a collar for a long time.

Has any lab work been done on him? Is his skin dry? Did he start because the collar he use to have on was irritating?

The old collar was irritating, his skin was dry and we had an oil we put on it, but the picking is habit now and we can't use any cream(s) etc because his skin is sore and sometimes bleeds.

Welcome to the forum and being a new member does not limit our trying to help a fellow member.....

Why did the vet keep the collar on so long? I might try keeping the bird in a small cage where the other birds cannot get to the collar.....the other birds could have been the ones that picked around the collar & caused the bleeding or your lutino could have rubbed the collar against something to cause the bleeding.....

If the collar you saw that might work is a round one that snaps together, I believe those are only available from a veterinarian, however, you might try contacting all of the avian veterinarians in Japan to inquire about obtaining one of those collars or you could contact the manufacturer to find out the nearest veterinarian or veterinary facility that they have shipped to.....since your veterinary sources are limited at home, possibly contacting a vet in another country could offer help, but I might start with the manufacturer.....

Good luck.....


If a product called Neosporin is available in Japan, get a small tube of of the cream.....it can be used to help promote healing of the neck injury...the ointment is petroleum based, but is good for applications where a bird cannot reach/lick.....the cream also comes with a pain reliever in it.....

weco said:

Why did the vet keep the collar on so long? I might try keeping the bird in a small cage where the other birds cannot get to the collar.....the other birds could have been the ones that picked around the collar & caused the bleeding or your lutino could have rubbed the collar against something to cause the bleeding.....

Click to expand...

Thank you.

The other bird's did not touch his collar really and could not have pulled it apart, the fabric collar I made he pulled apart himself. As when it was home time, he had his own cage to stop that happening.

The bleeding is caused by feather picking and not the collar, as at the moment he does not have a collar. If I knew what to use to make one that is soft enough not to cause aggravation, strong enough not to be pulled apart and can stop him from biting at his neck. I would happily make one, but I am not sure what do make it from, how big it needs to be etc.
The last one I made was a 1cm stitched tube with medical gauze inside to make it soft, it worked, but it caused the skin around his chin area to swell, after two days, so I removed it.

I saw that spherical collar and emailed the company (Home Page) about ordering it.

Sadly there are no specialist avian vets for 300km of my location, my current vet deals with small animals and birds, she fixed his wing, helped another bird who had a sprained foot, and also when we first had them and the had a bacterial virus, she is good. But this time, nothing seems to help.

weco said:

If a product called Neosporin is available in Japan, get a small tube of of the cream.....it can be used to help promote healing of the neck injury...the ointment is petroleum based, but is good for applications where a bird cannot reach/lick.....

Click to expand...

We don't have neosporin, but we have something similar called 軟膏 or 軟膏剤 (Nan kō or Nan ko uzai), not sure if it will be safe though.

If your 軟膏 or 軟膏剤 (Nan kō or Nan ko uzai) is safe for use on children, it should be safe for use on your lutino & if it is available with a pain reliever, I think I would get that & maybe speak to a chemist about a child's possible ingestion of the medication.....

As you say, he probably has developed a picking habit.....the pain of picking at injuries and plucking feathers causes the flow of endorphins and the bird begins to enjoy the self-medicated drug it has released.....I had some information on possible therapy research by some laboratory scientists in Europe, but one of my computers crashed last year.....

Since the picking is habit now and, as weco said, the bird is deriving the good feelings that come with the endorphin flow, you could turn to some behavioral therapy techniques. i'm not a bird psychologist, but there is a lot of info on the web about it and there are a lot of aids and toys for plluckers that help keep them busy with other things. they may or may not work, but it is surely worth trying.

Many years ago when Pritti had started plucking during a very traumatic period, we tried many things, includng full exams, blood, etc. by a-vet, collars, changes at home, etc. The a-vet said it was psychological after a while of this going on. But he never ever went beyond plucking the same area and did it in a sort of gentle orderly way - so there wasn't any skin mutilation or change. But still it was sad and confusing to us. So, we even tried the a-vet's tranquilizer recommendation. That did not work out at all. Pritti was like a zombie bird, even though we adjusted the dose - he seemd to lose interest in everything and still kepts "grooming" what few wispy feathers would come out on that plucked area - when he was actually awake, which wasn't too often. But since your birdy is causing such mutilation to skin, u may want to consider this option at a low dose for your bird. BUT... I am now aware that there are also homeopathic optins for helping to relax/calm for a bird, so that might e of intereest too.

Fast forward decades later, and Pritti is still a baldy-bean in the same areas and continues to keep his skn perfectly cleaned off of feathers (but hardly anything grows there anyway), and he seems just fine with it. So focus on the skin mutilation. Also - Distract, cuddle, bathe, play, snuggle, try toy types u never have before (noisy ones, quiet ones, small, large, stringy, chewy, paper, etc etc.).... snacks that they chew on a lot like corn on the cob, etc. etc. Perhaps another location in home where there is more to occupy attention -- cartoons on tv, window to look out of, people walking by in home, radio, new perhes with lots of bark to chew, rubbery toys to chew, new foods to try.

Thank you all for your advice.

I have got him some more chewy toys, a pine cone too, ordered neosporin online as I can get it imported and spent all day yesterday redesigning their cage.

So far he seems quite busy to bother with his neck. Fingers crossed for now.