GCC Plucking

DegaBird

New member
May 24, 2022
1
3
Parrots
Green Cheek Conure, Black Capped Conure
Hello All. I have been looking through these forums (very helpful!!) but wanted to post my own (I apologize in advance for length!).
I have a 17 year old GCC, Rhubarb, that I have had since day one. For the first 13 years he has never touched a feather other than normal preening.
In 2018 my husband and I moved overseas for 2 years. During this time I boarded him at basically a Parrot Spa! Upon my return to the states in 2020 we picked him up (and my two black capped conures) and brought them home. During this time we set up their own room (which also is my hobby room/office). They got new cages, toys, etc. It was amazing they all settled in beautifully like we hadnā€™t been away!
The February of 2021 I started my day as normal and was horrified to see that overnight, Rhubarb had plucked the inside of his legs, vent and back! Panicked I took him to the vet and did a complete blood work up. Everything was fine.
I contacted the Parrot Spa and they said he did that for them the two Februarys he was with them and it was absolutely breeding behavior (they had a number of boarder birds that had the same behaviour at the exact same time). Sure enough come mid-March the breeding behavior passed and he grew back all his feathers, no issues.
This February I was prepared and unsurprised where almost a year to the DAY, the exact same thing happened in the exact same way. However, here we are approaching June and the plucking behavior has not stopped. He does not seem to be plucking more feathers, just the newly growing pins and Iā€™m at a loss on how to stop it.

Some information:
1) He has been given a clean bill of health by his avian vet.
2) His diet consists of Zupreem pellets that are always available. He gets chopped fruit/veg every morning in a separate cup. Typically itā€™s a mash up of 1-2 types of berries (straw/rasp/black), broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, summer squash, carrot, bell pepper, raisins. The makeup changes depending on whatā€™s at the grocery store. He gets a ā€œsnackā€ once a day of a small amount of Kaytee Fiesta mix. I occasionally mix in some hard boiled egg with shell which he absolutely LOVES.
3) He eats his Zupreem/Veggies every day, no waiting for snack. Snack usually comes around 1-2pm.
4) Bedtime is around 8pm, wake up 6-7AM depending one the humansā€™ work schedules!
5) His cage is covered at night with a custom cover. His cage is in the ā€œbird roomā€ so thereā€™s no people going in/out at all hours of the night
6) He has NEVER been a good sleeper. He is very active at night and you can usually hear him talking to himself or playing with a toy. There is no light in the room at night. This has been the way for 17 years.
7) The plucking only ever occurs at night. I have never once seen him pull a pin feather during the day, and there are no pins on the bottom of the cage during the day. It only happens at night
8) He used to have a Snuggle Hut but it was removed Feb 2021 and never replaced. There are no mirrors in the cage. He does have preening toys and foraging toys
9) He gets at least one new toy every 1-2 weeks. His favorite, however, are toilet paper tubes.
10) Average ā€œoutā€ time varies. On days I work from home heā€™s out virtually all day. His cage has a play stand ontop so heā€™s free to come/go as he pleases. There is also a rolling playstand in the room he has access to. Not to mention my shoulder. On husbandā€™s WFH days itā€™s much the same, a little less since heā€™s on the phone more and Rhubarb does not always play nice on the zoom meetings! Bare minimum out time is a few hours (on days weā€™re both in the office).
11) I do have other birds, a bonded pair of black capped conures that Iā€™ve had for 19 years. They have always been neighbors with Rhubarb from the day I brought him home. They were even neighbors at the parrot spa. They donā€™t interact much however as one of the black capped/Rhubarb do NOT get along! Mostly they just ignore one another and do their own thing.
12) Papers are changed twice a day, water changed twice a day. Average temp in house in winter is 68 (low humidity) and 72 in summer (higher humidity).
13) After reading other forums I have checked for anything during the night that could cause stress (mice, for example). Nothing.
14) I say ā€œHimā€ but I have never had him officially sexed. After 17 years I donā€™t really much care, and had never witnessed any breeding behavior until the February of 2021!
15) Absolutely no nonstick pans, scented candles, perfumes, hairsprays, etc. are used. Ever. For the 19 years Iā€™ve had birds! Anything in my ā€œhobby roomā€ is 100% safe, non-toxic, water based acrylic paint. I donā€™t even leave electronics on in that room. I bring my laptop in/out of there when I WFH.
16) The ā€œparrot roomā€ is a spare bedroom turned office. It is on the second floor of the house and has a big window that lets a lot of natural sunlight in. During the warmer months I keep the cellular blinds down but there is still plenty of light. I have never seen them stressed by the open window and generally seem to enjoy looking out of it. The cages are on the opposite wall so they are not directly at the window (thereā€™s about 10ā€™ of distance).
17) The black Capps display some breeding behavior at the exact same time, but have never plucked. They had laid eggs up until our return in 2020. Weirdly, their egg laying didnā€™t really start until they were around 12-13 years old. Mostly the female, Griffin, just got REAL cranky for a few months!

Some things I have tried:
1) I have completely gutted, cleaned, and re-arranged his cage.
2) Removed food bowl at night in case he was ā€œnestingā€ in it but didnā€™t change anything. I put it back since heā€™s active at night and Iā€™d rather him focus on that than his feathers
3) I purchased a bitter spray from parrotsupplies.com. It seems to have helped a little, but not completely. He gets misted each night before bedtime. He is misted in a separate room to keep it from getting on anything else in/on/around the bird room. He HATES it.
4) Generally really trying to increase his out time and new experiences. He helps chop veggies in the morning, or sit with us in the living room in the evening and watch TV. I even pulled out his harness and may try taking him outside assuming he doesnā€™t try to murder me when I put it on!
5) He actually likes the floor and exploring, so sometimes I let him wander the floor (under very close supervision). Usually he likes to stare at the washing machine and yell at it.


All in all, his routine has been virtually the exact same for 17 YEARS! He only picked up this habit while boarded, and for the first time since then the plucking hasnā€™t stopped. He is active (VERY active), Good appetite and other than being crazy, in very good health! His skin is not irritated or scabbed. He is molting as well now and does not pull out any of those feathers, but preens them gently as normal. He takes a water bowl bath at least weekly (and has zero interest in doing it anywhere else. Spraying him with water is akin to The Rapture so I donā€™t).

So if anyone has any ideas, tips or tricks Iā€™d be forever grateful! I did see a lot of recommendations about a white noise machine and I happen to have an extra one so Iā€™m moving that into their room tonight. Iā€™m also contemplating a sleep cage (I have an extra, very small one).

Thanks in advance!
 

RatFluffz

New member
Jul 12, 2022
10
22
Parrots
Ladybird - Goffin's Cockatoo
Nibbler - Green Cheeked-Conure
Hello. I have never witnessed a Green Cheek pluck before, but my Goffin's does pluck her pin feathers, due to past abuse. I would recommend taking him outside of his cage for 3-4 hours everyday, putting new toys in, and setting him (in his cage) outside for a bit of fresh air in the summer. The snuggle hut could have caused this behavior, but I doubt it, since you took it out before this behavior started. My Green Cheek also has trouble sleeping (I can hear him chirping at night), so I believe that is a common behavior. Other than this advice, I don't know what to do.
 

clark_conure

Well-known member
Jul 14, 2017
3,924
Media
21
2,224
Minnesota
Parrots
A crossover Quaker Scuti (F), A Sun conure named AC, A Cinnamon Green Cheek conure Kent, and 6 budgies, Scuti Jr. (f), yellow (m), clark Jr. (m), Dot (f), Zebra(f), Machine (m).
I'm a conure guy but this is outside my pervue. Every Idea I had your very next next bullet point was like....."crap nope"...they tried that. You really know bird behavior, all the ideas I had you already had an answer one or two bullitt points later. I hope someone smarter than me can help.
 

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