cockatiel with feather plucking

Re: cockatiel with feather plucking

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 21:38:46 GMT

Ha! My own cockatiel is a weirdo himself - but not because of me! I bought a pair of cockatiels from a breeder who also bred budgies. Long story short, the cockatiels did not get on, I had to rehome one of them - my cockatiel now happily lives with budgies whom he courts all the time. My budgies don't seem to mind him, but they don't give him "cuddles". I feel sad for him but he appears happy and all my attempts trying to get him to socialise with other cockatiels have failed.. ..

Re: cockatiel with feather plucking

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 18:44:31 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

These problems are nearly always behavioural and no doubt due to a social bird being stuck on its own in a cage. There seems little doubt in my mind that this situation is best avoided in the first place by preventing the sort of people who buy these birds without thinking of the consequences from doing so.

However once stuck with it I'm never sure whether the bird will be worse off if it is moved into an aviary with the company of its own kind where it may actually be stressed more and bullied or trying to make do with the situation as it is.

What are your thoughts on this Marie?

[/quote]

Social issues are definitely a major factor but my main gripe is hand-rearing of birds to make them cuter pets. They then have an unhealthy self-image, abnormal relationship with people and an inability to communicate properly with other birds. And owners wonder why they end up disturbed! Even when placed in a 'good' situation with normal social cues from other birds these cases lack the ability to adapt and respond.

I have serious issues with parrots being pets but that is a whole other topic.

Marie

Re: cockatiel with feather plucking

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 16:50:35 GMT

What are your thoughts on this Marie?

Re: cockatiel with feather plucking

HMC — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 16:04:32 GMT

Thanks. You are so helpful!

Re: cockatiel with feather plucking

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:26:52 GMT

Hi,

hyperthyroidism is exceedingly rare and hasn't been identified as a factor in feather destructive behaviour. Hypothyroidism is debatable as low T4 in a sick/stressed animal is not diagnostic of hypothyroidism in my opinion.

I would look at the psychological and nutritional side of things as these are very common and fit with your description of the bird.

Trying to improve nutrition sounds challenging in this case but needs to be done for health reasons other than just feather issues. Introducing some pelleted diet mixed into the seeds may be tolerated and the proportions gradually shifted towards an exclusively pellet based diet. Harrisons high potency fine/superfine are a good option. Another possible diet improvement would be changing to sprouted pulses if he will tolerate these, again with very slow introduction.

Psychological factors are hard to manage. Look at simple things like cage position, routine, stressors and try and improve things where you can. Is the owner equally neurotic? Any changes in family/contact with carer/other pets? Any breeding behaviour or 'over-bonding' with humans? How do they react when he plucks? Can they handle him?

Simple tests to do on the medical front are looking for giardia (reported as a trigger for plucking in cockatiels, personally I have never seen it but easy to check for on a faecal prep) and chlamydia (pooled faecal sample over 5d for PCR if they aren't keen for the more sensitive serology).

Marie