Cockatiel behavior

[TomRoe]

My male cocatiel, Romeo, will preen/scratch the top of his mates, Juliet, head. Which is nice, until he grabs a crest feather in his beak and yanks it out ! Do you have any ideas why he may be doing this and what we can do to make him stop ?

 

[changogab]

This is something that seems to be a problem with cockatiels. I have more than one "bald" females and also one male. This is caused by the over zealous preening by the males. I do not know of any sure cure for this myself. You might try some of the products at you local pet store claiming to assist is stopping feather plucking and apply it to the females head, but I have not heard of any "sure cure" to stop plucking. I hope someone else in the forum can help you more....I know none of us want a "bald" bird! Good Luck!

 

[Auggie's Dad]

As changogab said this seems to be very common in captive pairs, yet it is not seen in the wild. To state the obvious: there is something different about the captive environment versus the wild state that is contributing to this behavior. To state the challenging: find this difference and the problem will be solved - okay habits are hard to break, so maybe not solved, but minimized.

The most drastic difference between a captive and wild environment is likely the food source. I don't know of any breeders who make their birds forage for their food, but if they did it would be interesting to see if the incidence of this plucking behavior was reduced.