Am I overthinking this?

[zERo]

Hey guys.
So I noticed, Tom may be barbering again. I have pictures but it isn’t very clear. Much clearer in person.

He had barbered for 2 months when we moved 10 months ago but stopped 6 or so months ago.

Should he go to the vet? Will he need a blood test? I don’t wanna take him, the need for a vet worries me, I don’t want to anesthetize him for any reason.
There’s 3 Avian vets an hour away, I’ve been to one of them for Ryuk 2 years ago but I don’t really wanna go there again.
He’s acting normal otherwise.
I’m just worried, what should I do?
Here’s the pics

It’s hard to see, but above his leg, little notches are certainly removed.

Maybe he’s just over preening right there?

 

[Vanessa.V]

My sun conure Elly, had a period of time where she was over preening her back/shoulders and belly. It began to morph into a feather chewing issue. Whole sections of her back were just chewed up. It was very distressing to witness. I’m not sure exactly what the culprit was, but I did a few things to address possible causes.

At first, I considered it may have been because of anxiety/stress because I had moved to a new place and started a new job that affected our routine schedule a couple months prior to it starting. So I made sure she was still getting the attention and out of cage time she needed. I monitored her very closely, and would quickly give her something appropriate to chew on like a piece of wood if I saw her going at her feathers.

I also made sure she was taking baths more frequently. I suspected that perhaps I wasn’t realizing I was getting bits of lotion on her feathers that hadn’t entirely dried on my hands yet, and she was overpreening to try to remove it.

The issue seemed to get a little better, but it persisted. I had taken her to her avian vet for her annual wellness checkup and mentioned the problem and everything I had done to try to address it. The vet said that it could be an indication of Vitamin A deficiency. So they gave Elly an injection to boost her Vitamin A and sent me home with a supplement to add to her water. Since then her plumage is back to normal and she no longer goes to chew at them.

My vet did not see any reason to do blood work on her. Like you, there was nothing else wrong with Elly in her behavior or activity levels. I believe my vet had mentioned to me that Vitamin A deficiency is quite common, which I think was also why they were pretty confident that was the issue.

Perhaps monitor Tom for the time being to see if you can witness him in the act of chewing at that area. You might be able to figure out what could be triggering him to do so. I know you mentioned you don’t want to go to the vet, but it really could be a simple issue like a vitamin deficiency. I would not worry about having them put your bird on anesthetics or anything like that.

If you wanna try it, I use this vitamin supplement for Elly:

Powdered Bird Vitamins – Lafeber Company

lafeber.com

I’m sure he will be fine! It’s great that you are catching it so early if he is indeed overpreening.

 

[zERo]

My sun conure Elly, had a period of time where she was over preening her back/shoulders and belly. It began to morph into a feather chewing issue. Whole sections of her back were just chewed up. It was very distressing to witness. I’m not sure exactly what the culprit was, but I did a few things to address possible causes.

At first, I considered it may have been because of anxiety/stress because I had moved to a new place and started a new job that affected our routine schedule a couple months prior to it starting. So I made sure she was still getting the attention and out of cage time she needed. I monitored her very closely, and would quickly give her something appropriate to chew on like a piece of wood if I saw her going at her feathers.

I also made sure she was taking baths more frequently. I suspected that perhaps I wasn’t realizing I was getting bits of lotion on her feathers that hadn’t entirely dried on my hands yet, and she was overpreening to try to remove it.

The issue seemed to get a little better, but it persisted. I had taken her to her avian vet for her annual wellness checkup and mentioned the problem and everything I had done to try to address it. The vet said that it could be an indication of Vitamin A deficiency. So they gave Elly an injection to boost her Vitamin A and sent me home with a supplement to add to her water. Since then her plumage is back to normal and she no longer goes to chew at them.

My vet did not see any reason to do blood work on her. Like you, there was nothing else wrong with Elly in her behavior or activity levels. I believe my vet had mentioned to me that Vitamin A deficiency is quite common, which I think was also why they were pretty confident that was the issue.

Perhaps monitor Tom for the time being to see if you can witness him in the act of chewing at that area. You might be able to figure out what could be triggering him to do so. I know you mentioned you don’t want to go to the vet, but it really could be a simple issue like a vitamin deficiency. I would not worry about having them put your bird on anesthetics or anything like that.

If you wanna try it, I use this vitamin supplement for Elly:

Powdered Bird Vitamins – Lafeber Company

lafeber.com

I’m sure he will be fine! It’s great that you are catching it so early if he is indeed overpreening.

Thank you for the info! I’m going to continue watching him, to see if I can catch him or if it gets worse.
I’d say he takes 2-3 baths a week, he’s terrified of spray baths unfortunately, but sometimes he’ll bath if I pretend to play in his water bowl with my hand.
He’s pretty good about eating everything I give him, especially vitamin A rich foods.

If it escalates, I’m taking him to a vet, but we’ll see!
I do put lotion on my hands but wash them so often, the lotion is removed 😅