we just had a thorough vet visit on friday, and at that time the vet pointed out that louie was messing with one of his feathers. she said it was "bruised" and there could be any number of reasons why he was doing that. she trimmed up his feathers correctly, but now he has some pretty beat up/chewed looking flights. he's not plucking that i can tell, just molting still. he did lose a covert feather during the visit, the one that covers the flights he is chewing on. both issues are on the left wing.

any ideas on what might be the problem? any advice on how to get him to stop doing this? the damage is pretty obvious as it's on the flights that are visible. i'll try to get a pic posted after dinner.

kris

I'm suprized that no one has replied yet. How is Louie doing? Still chewing? Have you ruled out any medical problems? You could giving him a feather duster or feather boa in hopes he would chew on something else, apart from that I'm not to sure what you can do. Hopefully someone else will be along soon

First time seeing this post and my initial thought is perhaps the clipped feathers are irritating him.

How is he doing now?

honestly, i was kinda surprised no one responded too lol. but eh, life goes on right?

ian thinks they are no worse. today when i got home, well... they actually look like he chewed an angle on them. it kinds depends on the angle at which i view them. he has the rope perch thing i made with some loose strands that i did see him chewing/preening on yesterday, so that made me a bit less anxious about it, until today. she trimmed his wings properly after we had trimmed them (we didn't trim at the quill area, just the feather itself - first time trimming, i was just glad we didn't do any damage to be honest), so i guess it's possible the new ends are rubbing wrong? she didn't think that was the case, but who knows.

i did call the vet, all medical issues had been ruled out since we were just there 3 days prior to noticing the damage. she did not think it had to do with the wing clip, more of the stress of the ride (about 40 minutes each way) and the exam itself or maybe something on his wings - advised more baths. we joked that i couldn't have picked 2 more possibly neurotic species to love.

i wasn't able to get very good pics for her (she requested under the wings, and the damage) because he was a little freaked out. by the time i said enough, he was panting. she didn't want me to bring him back right away because she was worried about the stress of the ride. she pointed out a spot of what she called bruising right where the wingtop is (elbow? i dunno lol) which just looked like mussed up feathers to me, but the chewing didn't happen until after the visit. maybe the blood draw? he was a complete champ during the physical exam, but i just couldn't go in while they drew his blood. just thinking about it made me teary eyed.

i tell you what, knowing the reputation these guys have for plucking and whatnot, this is always something that is on my mind, and i definitely pay attention if i think they are preening a little too much. i don't know how to redirect him, well i mean i do get the concept, but if he's simply preening i don't want to overreact.

ah, parronthood. if it's not the kid it's a fid stressing me out. lol. i guess my question now is, do you suppose this is a one time deal, or will this be a lifelong thing? maybe the feathers are bugging him, and when he molts them out he will leave the new ones alone?

thanks for asking

kris

If she trimmed them along the quill, then I doubt that is the cause of the problem, but who knows. He could be one of those birds that has issues with clipped wings.

Sounds like you have a pretty good vet, Kris, so I'm not sure how much more can be offered. I do like the idea of increasing baths. Birds that are wet usually don't pluck. Try giving spray baths every day to see if that helps. Also, lots of preening toys. Does he like those birdie bagels? Max, my Quaker, goes nuts over them. She loves to shred them apart.

My Alexandrine is an over preener! She will preen until her feathers look HORRIBLE, and she is molting right now so her usually long tail feathers are stubs lol

Spigglepig will chew/mutilate a certain set of 4 or5 right breast feathers, usually when we have been on vacation or he otherwise has felt stressed. If I rearrange his cage more frequently it seems to help.

Oooh I second the birdie bagels, Casey goes crazy for them, they are one of her favourites for sure!

Hopefully he'll leave his feathers alone! *hugs*

Carrie got me onto the birdie bagels when she bird sat for me. My CAG likes them even more than Tiki. I just got an order of them all different sizes. When I have time I will make a toy with them, but right now I just hang them on the chain of another toy.

The only experience we have with this is with our lovebirds. Jane is OCD and a toe chewer, we decided to try some of the bitter stuff on her toes. After a few days she wasn't chewing her toes, but some of her feathers. We stopped using the stuff and she stopped chewing her feathers.

Have you changed anything in the cage or routine lately?

i don't believe anything in the routine has changed, and he's not receiving less attention. his diet hasn't changed either. the only thing i can think of is the vet visit. i did change his cage around this past weekend (after the feather issue started), and he seems to be fine with that. i moved everything but food/water and sleepy perch.

i'm hoping this will resolve soon. he doesn't seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time on that area when preening, and the damage doesn't seem to have worsened in the past couple days.

is it possible that he just got his feathers ragged by bumping them on the cage do you suppose? lol, i'm grasping at straws in my attempt at denial.

kris

well i got some pics. these are from my phone so they aren't highest quality but hopefully you can guage the damage. i was beginning to think he was over it, that it was something environmental that we were successful in removing through daily showers. :: sigh ::

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

kris

i think it could have been one time still.. maybe he got something on that area and over preened just that one spot.. i'd continue to do the daily mistings and see how it goes.. if no further damage is being done and you have a happy normal, playful fid i woudn't continue to be too concerned just keep an eye on it....

i just took those right before i posted them. i dunno, maybe it's just rough looking right after he gets done preening because yesterday they looked fine.

silly fid, happily chomping away on his pellets, eyes half closed. i love that little booger. i wish he could just look at me and say, "mama, i'm ok. i'm just stressed for a minute but i'll go back to normal soon and i promise this is a one time deal." too much to ask? lol.

kris

lol I know what you mean Hang in there.. only time will tell.. if he's not showing signs of being stressed still i bet it was just one time..too me it does kinda look like he could rubbed them the wrong way or something from those pics.. the don't look exactly chewed ...

Sorry.....for the silly question...

but what is a ""birdie bagel????"........hmmm...???

Thanks!!!

a birdie bagel is a little cardboard ring that is safe for the fids to chew on....they come in different sizes so you can find them for budgies, cockatiels, quaker, and even grays and macaws....they are heavy dugy cardboard rings that the fids can chew up and it won't hurt them (paper towel and toilet paper rolls sometimes have glue on them)

No such thing as a silly question! I made a toy out of birdie bagels (and other things) for Casey, which she loves to destroy, you can find the picture on this thread. The giant ring, medium rings and the little rings are all birdie bagels. We bought them all from Parrotdise Perch, but many bird related stores/online stores have them. You can get bags of them with a bunch of different sizes or buy them separately, we bought all ours in bulk so we could pick and choose which sizes we wanted. You can get already made toys too like this one and this one, but of course, they cost more...

Kris, hopefully it was a one time thing and they will molt out and he'll leave the new ones alone.

Oh! Ok!
Thank you Casey's Mom and jobo2mi!!!

I saw those before at the aviary I go for supplies.I didn't know the name....Next time I will buy Wubbie some....he doesn't lik many toys so I will try the "birdie bagel"..ha..ha..

Thanks again!!

Sandra
PS. Casey is very cute