Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone help? I have a 6 year old female hand reared jenday conure who started feather plucking in Feb 2006. She started with her wings and then chest and now has plucked her back. I have tried a number potential solutions including, obtaining a male conure as company (she has now started to over preen him), spraying her daily with fresh bottled water, have tried bitter beak, a listerine and water diluted mixture, have moved her cage. I am at present trying her on a vitamin and mineral suppliment in her food (both water, fresh veg and fruit and seed). I have taken her to the vet and they suggested putting her on a pelletted diet but she has refused to each this food. She is very fussy with her food and doesn't eat alot of fruit and veg apart from the occasional grape/piece of sweetcorn and odd bit of an apple. She has never been a nervous bird and enjoys peoples company. She gets on well with the male conure. I have quite a few toys in her cage but she has never been one for playing with then and doesn't seem to want to chew toys - she seems to enjoy looking out of the window best? Has anyone experience these kind of problems and have any ideas of what I should do. I have been trying the vitamin and mineral suppliment for approximately 3 weeks. For information she does not plull the feathers out but chews them off near the base of the shaft leaving the feathery down. Look forward to hearing from you.

I know it can seem impossible at times but it does really sound like her diet needs changing. Did your vet actually do blood test etc or just look at the bird and say the diet needed changing. There are certain bacteria and parasites that can cause over preening and plucking. Is your bird handtame? If so try spending more time with it. Try to ignore the preening as getting attention is sometimes the goal and ignoring the behavior can sometimes reduce it.

As far as changing the diet try either gradually adding the pellets to her other food or sometimes it is better to do a timed switch. Maybe from 8-3 only offer pellets then offer some veggies etc for an hour and then replace with seeds until morning. Watch your bird to see when it is usually eating the most and remove everything but pellets of vegetables/fruit during that time and leave for a few hours. This way your bird has to eat the offered foods if hungry at those times but won't starve since it will still be getting the other foods as well just at a different time.

Good luck

Thanks for your advice. No the vet did not do a blood test. She is getting some feathers back now but is still chewing some off but not quite as bad as before. Will keep trying to encourage her to eat more fruit and vegetables and will try your suggestion for pelletted food.

Once again thank you