HELP! Is my bird (kakariki) feather plucking?

KingaRoo

Member
Aug 27, 2022
38
36
Oregon
Parrots
Kingsley(Pineapple Green Cheeked Conure), Ricky Roo(Red Crowned Kakariki), Oscar (Yellow & Green budgie -PASSED OCT2023), Vincent (White and blue Budgie)
Hello, I am on here because a while ago, I got a new bird named Ricky-Roo(4 years old) the kakariki. He was just fine for the first couple of weeks and was very talkative (with me anyhow) but recently I started noticing his feathers all over the place. Which at first I brushed off because birds lose feathers all year around so surely, kakariki's were no different. but then I started to notice more, and more feathers. All over the bottom of his cage, all over my other bird's cage (which he never even goes into) all over the floor and pretty much any surface you could ever imagine. I'm posting this because he's dropped a second tail feather as you can see by the photo privided below:

20230221_112947.jpg
20230221_112954.jpg


as you can see there is many, many feathers at the bottom of the cage. I've never actually seen him pull out a feather before so maybe they're just falling out? I don't think this is a moult since i have not seen any pin feathers sprout at all.

If you could give me some insight as to what's goin on here that's be great.

However I do have some behavioral things that I would also like to point out and hopefully get some light on that as well:

I think he's afraid of hands because whenever I reach over him to grab something behind or above him his pupil widens. He's only ever bit me once and he's charged at my hands through the cage multiple times. To combat this I've just been keeping my hands away and not making any sudden movements. He still steps up really well because there's a specific handshape that I do when I ask him to step up. I was originally thinking this was a hormonal/ territorial problem so I swapped the cages. (I have a double decker cage) so now Ricky is on top and my GCC is on the bottom. Both seem to be happier and King (gcc) seems fine with the change as well. Although the charging at hands still happens on occasion but not as often as before.

Anyway's thanks and I hope that some of you can shed some light on the situation.
 

zERo

Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Dec 9, 2021
2,035
Media
2
5,074
Texas
Parrots
Tony-Green QP(M)
Tom-Pineapple GCC(M)
Milly- Sparrow (F)
Hmm, looks like molting I think. Can you take pics of the shed feathers up close? So we can see if they’re chewed or broken?
When the budgies molt I don’t see how they aren’t bald lol.
 
OP
KingaRoo

KingaRoo

Member
Aug 27, 2022
38
36
Oregon
Parrots
Kingsley(Pineapple Green Cheeked Conure), Ricky Roo(Red Crowned Kakariki), Oscar (Yellow & Green budgie -PASSED OCT2023), Vincent (White and blue Budgie)
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #3
Hmm, looks like molting I think. Can you take pics of the shed feathers up close? So we can see if they’re chewed or broken?
When the budgies molt I don’t see how they aren’t bald lol.
No, he doesn't like phones and I don't wanna scare him. He lets my face near him though, and I don't think he's moulting though, but he's lost a lot of feathers and it's kind of strange that suddenly his feathers are all falling out a week or two after he's been adopted which is why I'm feeling worried. He's acting normal and everything but I just wanna make sure he's okay.
 

zERo

Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Dec 9, 2021
2,035
Media
2
5,074
Texas
Parrots
Tony-Green QP(M)
Tom-Pineapple GCC(M)
Milly- Sparrow (F)
No, he doesn't like phones and I don't wanna scare him. He lets my face near him though, and I don't think he's moulting though, but he's lost a lot of feathers and it's kind of strange that suddenly his feathers are all falling out a week or two after he's been adopted which is why I'm feeling worried. He's acting normal and everything but I just wanna make sure he's okay.
Could you open the door and grab a few feathers out?
I see flight feathers in the pic and downy/body feathers.
Though it is possible he could be plucking from stress, that amount of feathers and pulling out flights wouldn’t be likely, birds done usually start ripping out whole feathers, often it starts with barbering which is just taking pieces off, not pulling the shaft from the skin.
He doesn’t have any bald/patches feathers?
 

Most Reactions

Latest posts

Top