Pepper & Peewee pictures & picking your brains

[damanta]

Pepper and Peewee are my two Amazons. Peewee is the Yellow Naped, she's 22 years old. Pepper is the Double Yellow, and he's 7 years old. The two are very close. One troubling side effect of their bond is that during mating season, Peewee starts feather plucking. Our vet says this could be a result of her frustration being around a sexually mature male. The feathers grow back and she leaves them alone for most of the year, then starts over again. They have separate cages, no nest box or conditioning for breeding. They also have plenty of toys and lots of human attention. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them In the meantime, here are a few pictures(sorry for the sizes)

 

[oled]

Lovely Parrots...

 

[SpringCottageParrot]

Great picture of Pepper, obviously a parrot on a mission.
Sorry I can't offer any advice as my parrot owning experience is counted in weeks, not even months.
Is plucking caused by stress? In which case we have been very lucky with Casper as the last two years of his life have been far from settled. Hopefully he is feeling that his quality of life is much better since we have taken him in and have been doting over him.

 

[paulhanlon]

Both stunning parrots and my guess is she is plucking her feathers because its breeding time now and she can't get to your male to breed thats the only reason i can think of sorry i couldn't be of more help to you

 

[wenz2712]

Welcome to the forum They are both adorable

I think this is a question for our Zon expert Henpecked I am sure he will be along shortly!

 

[henpecked]

Where is she plucking? if it;s the breast area, that's normal. If it's the back of her head,thens that's normal too, only it;s from a frustrated male, Maybe his nails are too long for the hen to tolerate. I really hate to see hybridized pairs BTW. Most 7 yr old males get it wrong at that age and 22 yr old hen may not be very receptive until he gets it right.Is your hen initiating mating?

 

[henpecked]

BTW if she;s plucking her breast,that's called a brood patch. The reason is so she can quickly warm the eggs back up if she gets off them for a few minutes.Not all zons do this but many will.it's usually more common in wild caught birds.Does she have an open USDA band?

Welcome to the forum, hope you stick around.

PS gone fishing for a few days/ check back in ,in a few days.

 

[ann]

welcome, gorgeous birds! some birds pluck to line the nest if that helps, dont let her in small dark places or bet her down the back and wings. good luck

 

[Aims]

I don't have any advice sorry, but they are lovely looking birdies.

 

[damanta]

Where is she plucking? if it;s the breast area, that's normal. If it's the back of her head,thens that's normal too, only it;s from a frustrated male, Maybe his nails are too long for the hen to tolerate. I really hate to see hybridized pairs BTW. Most 7 yr old males get it wrong at that age and 22 yr old hen may not be very receptive until he gets it right.Is your hen initiating mating?

She is plucking in the breast area, so that makes sense. As far as a hybridized pairing, we have no intention of breeding them and the fact that Pepper turned out to be a male was chance, not deliberate. We are doing as much as we can to ensure that they will not breed(keeping the room brightly lit, not giving them anything that could be used as nesting materials)...and thus far they have not attempted to. The most they do is preen each other, and they stay at the head and neck for that.

 

[damanta]

Also, she was captive bred in the U.S. and does have a closed band.

 

[henpecked]

Hey damanta, sounds like nothing to worry about. Good luck and welcome to the forum,hope to see you and your fids around. capt and Jake (Jake is my hen YN,LOL)