Goffin issues

[Brisch]

I have a 7 year old female goffin cockatoo, Mya, who is viciously ripping her feathers out. She will pull them and scream as she is ripping them out by the root. She also picks her tail feathers out which causes her to bleed. I need to try and stop this, shes hurting herself.

Diet: On any given day its hard to say what she will and will not eat, one of the pickiest eater I have ever seen. Cant give her pellets, she just puts them against her wing and blows them up, she does the same with most seeds. She will eat fruits and veggie once in a while, but not consistently.

Routine: All the birds go to bed at midnight, they are taken out of cages a noon. She spends her whole day out of the cage, she has toys, and food/water ect. They are never really alone and have a lot of one on one time. She doesnt like bathing (Unless Im trying to vacuum) When its sunny I let her and my male Goffin sit in the magnolia tree in the front yard (supervised of course). She cuddles up at night and falls asleep on my usually, then I put her in her cage (which I have to pad lock shut because she can open twist ties, tie wire, combinations locks) and cover her.

What Ive tried: I have tried a solid cone which she can some how get her beak under no matter how tight it is and chews the heck out if it. I have tried a poncho, which again even with a head hole the size of a pop bottle lid she can still get off. I have given her AviCalm and it had no effect. All the birds were treated with revolution on the recommendation of the vet, he thought that may be why she is picking. Had no effect, and I knew they didnt have mites. I have also tried the sock jacket, she ate the sock and ripped feather out while doing it.

I dont know what else to do, I dont really care if shes naked but she is clearly hurting herself when she is doing this. She screams as she does it, and it has to be draining to be constantly growing feathers. I will take her to the vet as soon as I can afford the check up fee, but I feel like I need to do something in the mean time.

Any help or suggestions is appreciated and please keep the comments constructive. Thank you

 

[Brisch]

 

[Scott]

Mya still looks beautiful! When did this behavior begin; looks like she still have most of her feathers intact. Did Mya see an avian specialist vet, and were lab tests conducted, such as a blood panel and targeted cultures?

If medical causes are ruled out, it may simply be a behavioral issue. One of my Goffins is rather neurotic and overgrooms, though he is not a plucker.

They have a tremendous talent for opening cages! Most of mine have broken latches, and I've resorted to all sorts of makeshift devices. They can even unthread a nut from a 2" bolt! So far the most secure is wire - many types are toxic and potentially harmful, so I went to a marine supply store and bought a spool of bare stainless-steel wire. Extremely durable, a section can be contorted almost endlessly and will not fatigue-snap.

They are flock-eaters, and some of mine are also picky. It helps to eat some of the food yourself, or hand-feed a piece to one bird and offer to Mya. Monkey-see, monkey do!! My female also places food below a wing and seems satisfied when it drops to the ground!!

 

[Kiwibird]

I am sorry she is plucking I am assuming she has lots of chewing and foraging toys. Has anything 'changed' recently? Your work schedule (or someone else in the house), and new pets, new babies/people living with you ext....? Even a new piece of furniture or decoration in her line of sight that could be causing distress?

Just an idea for picky eaters syndrome, but my dads goffin prefers eating his food out of a shallow pie dish on the grate of the cage (positioned not directly under perches he could poop in it from). He hasn't gotten regular dishes of food in years because he just throws it all to the floor then goes reaches through the grate to retrieve it anyways. He takes great pleasure in 'scrounging' for his food in the pie pan. He also prefers fresh produce to anything else, including seeds. Cockatoos are ground foragers in nature, so a lower, wider and shallower dish may encourage more eating. You could try a fresh foods diet, which may also help with the plucking in case May has an allergy to corn, wheat or soy (common allergens, all 3 of which are in most pellets). Alfie is 40 now, and has eaten mostly fresh foods with a little seed his whole life (no pellets). Never plucked and is in perfect health and feather. I have no 'evidence' to support my theory, but I really do think food allergies in domestic parrots are a much more common cause of 'mystery plucking' in cases where boredom, stress, neglect and illness have been ruled out than anyone is willing to admit. Again, no evidence per se, just a theory of mine. I do hope you can help Mya start to recover soon!

 

[Brisch]

Yes most cockatoos are ground forages, but Goffins are not. They are actually forest birds which is why they dont have near the amount of dust as any other cockatoo. Nothing has changed recently, but my male, also a rescue, has started becoming really neurotic. The vet suggested it may just be hormonal, but Mya is hurting herself. Like Ive said I dont care if shes naked but she screams when she rips her feathers out. I have no had any testing done on her yet as I cant afford it right now, no job, but have been on the phone with a very good avian vet who has been giving me suggestions of what he would normally do next, so I can do it and see if it works. I would try the dish thing but she is never in a cage and her cage doesnt have a grate. Dont get me wrong she still has some feathers but most of what you see on her is down, a lot of people ask me if shes a baby because shes so fluffy. Shes my baby but she isnt a baby anymore.

 

[Brisch]

Anyone have instructions on how to build a stiff neck collar for my bird. Since cones ect dont work its really my last remaining option.

 

[Minimaker]

There is a facebook parrot group where the leaders have had much success with serial pluckers. There is a process to it, detoxing and such. There is also another group located there that focuses on whole food diets for birds, ran by aviculturist and biologist Jason Crean.

Funny I used to dislike facebook and want no part of it, now I finally found a use for it. The whole food diet I found there makes sense to me as long as it's a varied one full of fresh foods. My recent addition (a goffins) is a serial plucker as well (seems to be a running theme on the goffins facebook group-a lot of goffins pluck for no apparent reason). But the minute I introduced him to fresh foods after him eating nothing but seed for five years he went wild over it. He ignores his pellets in favor of fresh stuff. So does my macaw now. It took awhile to convert them both over to fresh and I had to introduce new things slowly and be patient while my macaw casually threw the majority of it on the floor for weeks on end. Now the minute I put fresh chop in her bowl she makes a beeline for it and chows down every single morning. I've just planted my garden centered on the needs of my birds, full of fresh greens and herbs of all kinds. At the end of the growing season I plan to bring whatever I can inside in pots to overwinter what might live so they can have fresh homegrown things year round. It might end up being just the herbs that will do well in pots though. Should work out great for them health-wise I think, last year we had huge veggies-some of our zucchini were as big as my husband's forearm. It was amazing