Help: Caique screaming / biting own legs

[PupChow]

Hi everybody, just today my White Bellied Caique started screaming really loudly and started chewing / plucking his own two legs (thighs area). He was fine this morning and came out for a little yesterday. It has come to the point where part of the thighs are bare and you can even see a little bit of blood.

Is this consider plucking from boredom or stress? Or is there a chance that there might be a medical issue? When the bird room's light is off, he would sit on his rope toy and watch me calmy, but when the light comes on, he would randomly goes into a fit of screams and bites. He would step up to my finger, and he would still go into the fit of screams and bites (but never once bit me).

I am getting ready to take him to an Avian Vet tomorrow during the day, but I would love to hear the insights from the forum members as well. Appreciate any help you can offer!

 

[Tracy842]

How's he doing?

 

[Auggie's Dad]

I've heard a number of stories about leg/thigh biting. I really don't have any knowledge of which stories are true. Some say its a sign of parasites, some say boredom....

Hopefully the vet could get you some answers, We'd all love to hear.

One thing that I ran into with Auggie is that he has a foot fetish, with his own foot. Some birds "fall-in-love" with their own foot. Part of this behavior is regurgitating on their foot as a sign of affection. Auggie tends to do this - he will take his ankle in his mouth, bob his head up and down coughing up some leftovers. The first time I saw it it kinda freaked me out. It looked like he was violently attacking his own foot.

I was actually really scared when I saw what looked like bare flesh sticking out from his leg, I was going to rush him to the vet, then the "flesh" wiped off. It was just some crusted leftovers that he had deposited there.

After some observation I note there was a good bit of skin irritation in that area, presumably from having half digested food sitting there as well as his picking at it to clean away the food.

I have since been somewhat discouraging his foot-fetish, but much more so simply focusing on keeping his foot clean and free from regurgitated food. All the skin irritation has since subsided and all is well.

I cannot guess if this is similar to what you are facing, and he definitely needs to see a vet to rule out medical conditions, but this is one odd situation that be similar.

 

[Redballoon]

Invisible (really really small) mites?
Have your vet take a scraping from his leg and look under a microscope.
It happened to my pink and grey when I was a kid.
Im not saying its that for sure, but its something to check.
He might be screaming coz of the same problem.
Mites literally driving him nuts?

 

[zarafia]

I do hope that the bird has seen a vet. The only thing I know of is that I have seen cockatiels scream and rip feathers out from the undersides of their wings. These cockatiels all had giardia, a parasite. There is a treatment your vet can give you. But as far as I know tiels are the only birds that show that symptom.
The other possibility is boredom and/or sexual frustration. Caiques are extremely intelligent birds and could be prone to self mutilation if they don't get enough stimulation. I just don't know.

 

[cassiepengo]

is he okay now??

 

[Klaery]

Standing by for an update. Very unusual symptoms, interested to hear the outcome. Hope all is ok!

 

[MonicaMc]

This is a thread that's 5, going on 6 years old.... We may never know the outcome.