My Marley, a Citron Crested Cockatoo, has been a feather plucker and when he was younger, a severe chest mutilator. It broke my heart to see my happy go lucky boy go to sleep singing our lullabies, and wake up with the removal of his nighttime blakey, and have the beginnings of a plucked chest which was also bloodied. Marley had two of these episodes and each one were so severe, he required surgery to close his wounds.
My avian vet has known each of my cockatoo boys from the moment they came home. Luckily, Marley was in good physical health, but we soon discovered that his plucking had the earmarks of a seasonal plucker. He has the correct diet, a great ever changing variety of toys, and nightly hours with my husband and I, but for some reason Marley was prone to this destructive behavior.
We tried every gadget on the market for pluckers. He wore the bird version of the ‘cone of shame’ and he managed to chew through it. We tried “clothing” made out leather, and even leather with Kevlar and Marley viewed his clothes as a new chew toy that did not keep him from his fixation of plucking his chest. It just proved to be a challenge to get past.
My husband and I did not want our sweet boy to face another surgery. We came the “washcloth poncho“. We took several washcloths and measured from his neck to mid leg and applied our basic geometry skills and selected a bowl that matched our measurements. We then folded the circle in half and in half once again and cut the tip off. When you open the circle, you should have an opening wide enough to get over their head, but not so wide that they can access their chest. If necessary, you can keep adding layers to the poncho, but you will not impede your bird’s ability to walk, (make sure to check your length), nor will it affect their ability to use their foot. You will be able to access potential wounds and treat them as directed by your avian vet.
Now my Marley has come to call his poncho his nighttime jammies. I don’t have to worry that he will be bored in the early AM hours. Come morning, Marley has his routine to go to his play-perch in the familyroom, remove his jammies, oversee the making of his morning veggies and kissing Dad before he goes to have breakfast. Since we have Marley wearing his jammies every night, the plucking wound is a thing of the past...at least we hope it is.
We just have a cockatoo who wears PJ’s every night.
