Adopting an amazon

[Conurebreeder]

Everybody meet Gortsie! He's a 28 year old amazon with some bad plucking problems. I will have him temporarily possibly up to a year. Does anybody have any plucking tips?

 

[thermodynamic]

Congrats!

Sorry to see the poor thing developed a plucking problem. Like trich for humans, bird feather plucking is often a product of anxiety or abuse by others...

Do you have other birds? I almost adopted a 10 year-old plucking GCC, but having 3 other birds at the time, I read up and put up a post and found that one bird can conceivably teach others to pluck.

How Do You Curb Feather Plucking - Keeping Parrot from Plucking Their Feathers
(one possibility is to switch to Harrisons organic pellets)

Another would be the bird wearing a collar.

Some people swear by certain liquids to put on the bird's skin, but others say they don't work.

Maybe Gortsie was bored and needed more toys that interested him?

Some say the bird wanted more human attention, but once a bird figures out something to get attention, to reverse that habit is impossible. In which case, if you note the bird plucking, try ignoring him entirely or putting him in a time-out cage. 28 or not, he might pick up very quickly that being ignored is brought about by plucking and he might stop (while that is 'tough love', it hurts more when he plucks, and if there's more incentive to stop, he will...)

Best of luck during this time!

And hopefully you'll get to keep him indefinitely/forever. The stress of transition might cause him to start plucking like a banjo again.

 

[JerseyWendy]

http://www.parrotforums.com/amazons/26350-plucker.html

AAAWWW...poor baby. He's an Orange Winged Amazon. Please see henpecked's advice in your thread. We do need more information on him to give you the best advice possible about his plucking.

Health, diet & environment all play a factor.

Good luck with him.

 

[MonicaMc]

First and foremost, blood work and fecal to make sure that he/she is healthy.

Second, great diet, great lighting, frequent bathing, foraging activities, maybe even some clicker training to keep him busy.

 

[Conurebreeder]

He was tested for everything every six months and I confirmed that he Is indeed healthy with the vet he was seeing. It appears that he bites them off. I cut out sunflower seeds, human foods, and have him eating red palm oil and under a light. He's not around my other birds because of size difference. He's such a funny guy. The friend I'm watching him for only trusts me with him because I've worked on him before. I think he's bored or itchy. So I've been spraying him down. My friend said he doesn't play or like toys.. So hopefully I can change that. He's a lot like a dog I'm hoping I get to keep him but we will see!

 

[antoinette]

Perpahs I am having a blonde moment here......
In that picture he sure still looks like a baby
How much does Gortsie weigh?

 

[Conurebreeder]

Although he has bounced from home to home, his hatch date is known. He has been in and out of the Alaska bird club rescue his whole life and was hatched there when a pair of amazons were abandoned there. He was completely plucked but over the last year has grown some new feathers and bit them off.
Ill weigh him when he's less irritated with the transition. He's a bit of a chunky bird as his mommy feeds him human food chips and soda whatever he wanted really. So I am also considering fatty liver as a possible factor.

 

[MonicaMc]

You might receive more information and advice if you had posted in the amazon forum? Unless you want to have a mod/admin move this post for you?

 

[Conurebreeder]

I posted over there with little success. The conure section is way more popular and always a success for me. I mostly deal with conures but this amazon fell into my lap.