How can I tell if my conure is plucking her chest feathers? Her chest feathers used to be all green and now there is a gray spot on her chest. I don't know if she's plucking herself or not. If she is indeed plucking herself, what can I do to stop her from plucking her chest feathers?
Depending on the type of conure, this could be young gray feathers. As far as plucking, the best thing to do is more things to play with in the cage. Also look at where the cage is. Is it in a high traffic area of the house? Sometimes too much stimulation from the outside can make a bird nervous. Like near a window where the bird can see a outside cat- or other birds that look threatening.. What kind of toys do you have in your cage? They make a few bird puzzles, that you can put nuts etc in to give the bird something to do. And how does the bird feel about you?
I have a 2 year old Nanday Conure. she has a plastic chain toy in her cage, a wooden ladder, and those furry things that are called birdy buddies. My conure gets excited when it sees me all time, but sometimes when i'm not in the room she just starts screaming from the top of her lungs.
Keep an eye on her. Nandays typically don't turn gray on the chest and she should already have molted her adolescent feathers about a year ago. On alot of green birds, the down feathers are greyish so that might be what your seeing.
How much attention are you giving her? How much out of the cage time?
I suggest a few more toys, more interactive toys that will keep her busy. Like treat toys that she will have to figure out how to work.
She may be in her yearly molt too, thats always a possibility. Some birds look a little shaggy or funny while they're molting, but there should never be an actual bald spot.
If you see a bald spot, make sure that your first stop is the vet as it could be linked to nutritional problems, not just psychological.
When I wake up in the morning I spend time with her in the kitchen, I pet her and say good morning to her. then I give her a small piece of a bananna. Then I leave for school at 9 in the morning and don't come back until 2 or 3pm on somedays. She's out of her cage all day cause my grandma is home all day. But if no one is home during the day she is put back in her cage and the door is shut, until I come home. Then from 2pm - 6:30pm she's out of her cage again. Sometimes I take her with me to my room and she sits on the computer desk while i'm on the computer or watching tv. 6:30pm is her bed time everyday. Sometimes when she is left at her cage while she is out of her cage and no one is in the room she screams.
Ok, it sounds like she's well loved and well taken care of. With all that attention, I doubt that she is feather plucking. Feather plucking is a psychological problem that usually occurs because a bird is bored or frusterated or neglected. I rescued my Jenday from being put to sleep. He was deemed untamable by a bird behaviorist and was a super aggressive biter and compulsive screamer (He was badly neglected and isolated in his past life). He was just starting to feather pluck and they were about to put him to sleep until I came along and felt sorry for him and my father let me have him.
He no longer feather plucks and is tame only with me. Instead of feather plucking now, he is destructive and shreds wood, paper and anything else he can. Latex perches and rope perches are the only ones that can stand up to his chewing.
One other suggestion I have, from experience with George, give your bird an old paper back book to play with. George is occupied for days tearing and shredding an old book.
And remember, if you ever see a bald spot, take her to the vet.
What food/diet do you have her on? Pellets or seed?
This is just a suggestion, but why not switch to pellets? They have alot of pros, and only one con that I can think of.
First, they are completely nutritionally balanced.
Second, with seeds, the bird can pick out the seeds she wants and toss the ones she doesn't like. Believe it or not, they can become addicted to certain types of seeds, usually white millet, sunflower and safflower seeds. We bird people usually call birds like that "seed junkies".
Third, they are alot less messier. When I had my birds on seeds, the hulls got scattered everywhere. With the pellets, my room stays alot cleaner. Only thing I have to worry about are feathers which can easily be vacuumed.
Here's the kind of diet I have george on, I kind of spoiled him. But his staple diet is Zupreem Avian Maintenance Fruitblend flavor and Beak apetite cooked food. He gets his cooked food in the morning, and pellets in the afternoon. Just enough so he's finished by the next feeding time.
He gets veggies and a fruit every day. Usually carrot, bell pepper, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, tomatoe, banana, apple, pear, peach, grape, blueberry, strawberry, melon, squash, alfalfa sprouts, yam, and other various stuff...whatever my dad happens to bring home for the week for him and the other animals.
And he also gets a seed treat stick every time I go to petsmart. He isn't particularly fond of seeds though. He prefers his pasta and veggies. He gets some wheat bread or a cracker every once in a while too, but he isn't that fond of bread either.
the conversion from seed to pellet. All birds are different though, some take to pellets right away like George did, others would rather starve to death than eat a strange food.
This is the one I used with fresh fruit. They loved it and its fit for human consumption. But you only give a handful a day. So they eat it all. I added vitamin C fruits like apple piece. ( no seeds in the apple, and I took off the skin because I dont trust to not have chemicals in the skin..) http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/ And I posted again but Q caught it. I also added steamed sweet pototoe ( peeled) as well. .. the rest will post in a little while.
my conure also eats, bread, apples, bannas, and green peppers. I once tried giving her grapes, but for some reason she hates grapes. I'm wondering if all birds hate grapes. lol!!!
Birds are like people, they have favorite foods and they have foods that they can't stand lol.
Have you tried peeling the grape or halving it? My neighbor had a cockatoo that I used to play with named Olivia and she would only eat grapes if you peeled them for her. She adored me because i was the only one who would peel her grapes I was only 10 or 11 at the time.
I use tinypics.com and very happy with it. Its self explantory. Upload image, then click on browse to take from your file you have then upload image. After It is finished, it will give you 3 lines and you right click on the last one to copy, then open this replay and paste.
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I was only 10 or 11 at the time.