Help with night plucking?

[SpicyBeak]

I have two female greencheeks, one 12 years old and one 9 years old. My 12-year-old started plucking back in January. I don't know what triggered it; I'd removed shreddable toys from her cage because my vet suggested that they might cause hormonal problems, so that might have kicked things off. She was also going through a molt, so maybe that triggered it. She only does it at night.

Since then, she's been pulling feathers on her leg, one side of her chest, and a spot on her back. She pulls pinfeathers and occasional downfeathers. I've tried target training before bed, increasing baths, giving baths before bed, increasing foraging, changing bedtime and wakeup time, removing her happy hut, returning her happy hut, rearranging her cage, having her sleep in a different room, and adding a humidifier, a nightlight, white noise, and more shreddable toys. The vet has examined her and she seems fine.

Using a camera, I've figured out that she plucks at 2-3 am. She wakes up suddenly, furiously rips out a feather, cleans off her beak, and goes back to sleep.

Does anyone have any advice or success stories? I'd be so grateful for any advice. It's breaking my heart.

 

[zERo]

Welcome to the forums!

So sorry you and your sweet bird are going through this!

It sounds like you’ve tried so many things! What tests did your vet run?

I also wanted to ask, what’s the diet like?

I know how stressful this is for the owner and the bird, my green cheek barbers his tummy feathers for, assuming, my vet said, environmental. I’ve tried tons of things as well and though he’s lessened it, it’ll be hasn’t stopped completely.

A few things I’ve tried, that you didn’t list, though you listed lots:
Feeding chamomile/hormone tea blends. You can make them into tea as the instructions say or sprinkle it on wet food like chop.
Giving him tons of easily destructible toys like yucca, balsa, cork, and mahogany pods.

 

[SpicyBeak]

Welcome to the forums!

So sorry you and your sweet bird are going through this!

It sounds like you’ve tried so many things! What tests did your vet run?

I also wanted to ask, what’s the diet like?

I know how stressful this is for the owner and the bird, my green cheek barbers his tummy feathers for, assuming, my vet said, environmental. I’ve tried tons of things as well and though he’s lessened it, it’ll be hasn’t stopped completely.

A few things I’ve tried, that you didn’t list, though you listed lots:
Feeding chamomile/hormone tea blends. You can make them into tea as the instructions say or sprinkle it on wet food like chop.
Giving him tons of easily destructible toys like yucca, balsa, cork, and mahogany pods.

Your bird is adorable! Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I'm so sorry you've gone through this, too. It's hard not to feel like I'm messing up all the time with her.

My vet checked weight and skin condition. She did a stool sample for parasites/yeast, and did a toe blood check for white blood cells, and all looked normal. I can't do a full blood draw on her because last time, she fainted!

My bird's diet is roudybush pellets, plus a chop every two days (grain, veg, fruit), plus nutriberres (probably too many), and safflower seeds for training. She LOVES yucca. She also chews sola sticks. I haven't tried mahogany pods- I'll get some. That sounds really fun.

I'll try the teas. You've found them useful? My bird is OK with chamomile but she's not the biggest fan.

 

[zERo]

Your bird is adorable! Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I'm so sorry you've gone through this, too. It's hard not to feel like I'm messing up all the time with her.

My vet checked weight and skin condition. She did a stool sample for parasites/yeast, and did a toe blood check for white blood cells, and all looked normal. I can't do a full blood draw on her because last time, she fainted!

My bird's diet is roudybush pellets, plus a chop every two days (grain, veg, fruit), plus nutriberres (probably too many), and safflower seeds for training. She LOVES yucca. She also chews sola sticks. I haven't tried mahogany pods- I'll get some. That sounds really fun.

I'll try the teas. You've found them useful? My bird is OK with chamomile but she's not the biggest fan.

Aww thank you!

Oh wow her fainting sounds so scary for you! I guess testing the blood through the toe could be just as conclusive? I don’t have a lot of experience with that do I don’t know for sure.

Her diet sounds good, though, how much of her diet would you say is Roudybush? I know, when I first adopted my Quaker, he was eating mostly those pellets and they caused lots of terrible behavioral issues until I got him to quit eating them.
I think lots of birds respond very poorly to soy in the diet as it’s very high in protein.

I’ve ordered the mahogany pods from MySafeBirdStore. I got the hormone tea from ABirdToy.com, the one I have right now is pretty simple, it contains organic
Chamomile, lavender, raspberry leaves, and lemon balm.

 

[SpicyBeak]

Aww thank you!

Oh wow her fainting sounds so scary for you! I guess testing the blood through the toe could be just as conclusive? I don’t have a lot of experience with that do I don’t know for sure.

Her diet sounds good, though, how much of her diet would you say is Roudybush? I know, when I first adopted my Quaker, he was eating mostly those pellets and they caused lots of terrible behavioral issues until I got him to quit eating them.
I think lots of birds respond very poorly to soy in the diet as it’s very high in protein.

I’ve ordered the mahogany pods from MySafeBirdStore. I got the hormone tea from ABirdToy.com, the one I have right now is pretty simple, it contains organic
Chamomile, lavender, raspberry leaves, and lemon balm.

The vet told me that there are some things a toe blood test won't check for, but she seems healthy otherwise, so fingers crossed there's nothing else wrong.

It's hard to know how much of her diet is Roudybush, since she gets a few different food sources - the nutriberries and the regular chop, plus bits of veggie and fruit that I stick in the cage bars now and then. What do you recommend instead of Roudybush? I'm always nervous of switching to just chop, since she picks out the tastiest bits and leaves the rest, and I know it's hard to get all the ratios right! But I can definitely try switching to a new food.

 

[zERo]

The vet told me that there are some things a toe blood test won't check for, but she seems healthy otherwise, so fingers crossed there's nothing else wrong.

It's hard to know how much of her diet is Roudybush, since she gets a few different food sources - the nutriberries and the regular chop, plus bits of veggie and fruit that I stick in the cage bars now and then. What do you recommend instead of Roudybush? I'm always nervous of switching to just chop, since she picks out the tastiest bits and leaves the rest, and I know it's hard to get all the ratios right! But I can definitely try switching to a new food.

Brands that are better would be TOPs as they’re soy free or maybe Hagen Tropicans Alternative formula which is also soy free.

Thank you for clarifying that about the blood test!

To avoid them picking out what they want, you could chop up the veg a little smaller.

 

[onamom]

Your bird in your profile photo looks adorable! Sorry you are going through these plucking issues How odd that she does it at a specific time of night. Especially since you've seen her wake up to pluck and then go back to sleep. Seems like it could be something related to sleep stress. but it sounds like you've already put a good amount of effort into changing up sleep patterns and environment. I like @zERo's suggestion of the chamomile before bed. You could maybe try rescue remedy as well.

 

[SpicyBeak]

Update: While my bird was at the boarder's, she laid an egg! So I have an answer, at least. She hadn't been acting hormonal at all, and her light/food situation hadn't changed, but now I know that something hormonal is going on with her. The plucking at her chest and legs has worsened, but now her vet and I can move forward and figure this out. Thanks again for your help, all

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Update: While my bird was at the boarder's, she laid an egg! So I have an answer, at least. She hadn't been acting hormonal at all, and her light/food situation hadn't changed, but now I know that something hormonal is going on with her. The plucking at her chest and legs has worsened, but now her vet and I can move forward and figure this out. Thanks again for your help, all

Sometime female birds in "egg laying mode" will pluck feathers from their breast/belly area to create a featherless "brood patch" of bare skin to allow better heat exchange between her body and her eggs. Does she have a bare patch on her breast?

 

[SpicyBeak]

Sometime female birds in "egg laying mode" will pluck feathers from their breast/belly area to create a featherless "brood patch" of bare skin to allow better heat exchange between her body and her eggs. Does she have a bare patch on her breast?

Yup! But only on one side, which initially confused me, and she also did some plucking on her back.