Well, last night while we were sleeping Kiko stripped a good sized section of her neck bare. She's been acting odd - climbing into her cage while her door is open, standing on her favourite spot on the perch, and screaming her fool head off. I can't seem to figure out what's triggering the screaming fits however, she's been with us two weeks today and she might just be settling in to the point where she's reverting back to her original behaviour... yay.

We have a vet appointment booked for 3:00pm this afternoon. When she was with the rescue society they just did a basic birdie beak to toes and I think this time I'm going to talk to the vet about doing at least a blood panel. LOL While I'm typing this, Kiko is preening the heck out of a huge bunch of natural palm raffia and beads I have hanging in her cage. I've just bought ten dollars worth of shoelaces from the dollar store (wow, do you get some odd looks putting down a basket full of shoelaces!) and we've been looking into the "Sock Buddy" online. I had done my research before we got her but we were really hoping that the three months she hadn't been picking at the foster home would be enough to break the habit. Her diet has been coming along beautifully - she on loads of fresh, we're half off of seed and still maintaining body weight beautifully. She's been tolerating her baths... We'll see if maybe she just had a bad day. I was going to take her in and get her full wellness check after my daughter's second birthday so it's not a really big deal that we're going in a week early.

Wish us luck!

good luck at your appointment... although i'm not sure if i should wish for the bloodwork to show something wrong?

one of my newest quakers is a bit of a plucker... on top of his wings and on his chest. in the summer he'd bleed a bit and have scabs. luckily he likes getting misted and i try to do it at least every other day.

fingers crossed and sending good karma ur way!! let us know

I just wanted to offer a little support...I have had several pluckers over the years, never a quaker, but nevertheless frusterating! I dont think that they ever "break" the habit...I really think there is ALWAYS potential for them to fall back off the wagon. Sort of like an addiction or an eating disorder...they are always "recovering pluckers." Have you tried adding red palm oil to her diet? This has worked wonders for my grey and my quaker loves it too. I mix it in with pellet mash that I make but you could really mix it in with anything. It has tons of antioxidants and does wonders for dry, itchy skin

And I SO get the crazy looks at the dollar store!! LOL

Poor baby.... I have a quaker with one VERY short toenail. The vet figures I should get the bloodwork back by Friday and warned me Kiko might spend a lot of time with that one foot tucked up for a bit. She's still guessing it's behavioural and she gave me lots of compliments over the diet change we've been working on and how good the feathers that she HAS grown back look. I get to go shopping for socks and tonight I might have one very grumpy quaker. *wicked grin* I'll take pictures.

You know, they're grumpy anyway, so Kiko might as well have something to be grumpy ABOUT.

OHHHHHHhhhhhhhh poor baby ..Have you seen the feather protectors??

http://www.birdsupplies.com/Feather-Protec...ts-p/avfpro.htm

Yes, Majj, you had sent me that link before. The Sock Buddy ones were, quite honestly, cheaper considering I was able to purchase the efile for 15.00 AND the money went directly to rescue parrots. It looks like the same thing just a little more ghetto. *grins* Didn't find any socks tonight in the right size that didn't have those goofy footpads on them - I don't think she needs grip on her chest. I'll keep looking.

Just got the call from the vet...

Kiko's blood work looked amazing (and wow, did they check EVERYTHING) and she's been proclaimed healthy as the proverbial horse. This is a relief in a lot of ways - five years is a long time to live on a lower grade diet and it's nice to see she's not deficient anywhere major. We're definately leaning towards environmental or behaviour plucking and the vet, after talking to her for almost an hour yesterday, is betting on behavioural. She recommended a feather protector and was helpful enough to point out that I can get all sorts of stylish birdie sweaters and what have you online if I don't mind ordering.

Anyone know of a good place to buy toddler socks that DON'T have grips on the bottem?

glad the results came back good!!! good luck stopping the habit.

Keep us posted on how your quaker does with the Sock Buddy. I tried it but couldn't carry through with it though I think it is a fantastic idea. My quaker started vindictively, and more vigorously than ever, yanking feathers off his legs, which he could still reach (staring me right in the eye as he did so like he was making a strong point to me). I will look into the red palm oil which someone mentioned above. Dudley is molting and doing more than his share to help it along. Has bald patches on his back, legs, wings and chest.

I'd haven't put one on her yet... *crosses fingers* She looks like a little green porcupine right now and she's leaving the feathers mostly alone (no plucking, just cutting some of the older ones in half when she starts to clean too enthusiastically) and at this point if she's going to behave I'm not going to stuff her into a sock. I have a couple of pair set aside though, just in case. If she doesn't behave I'll stuff her into something suitably bright pink with no remorse.

Getting her onto pellets seems to have definately helped and so has the aloe juice in her spray bottle. (She still hates it when I spray her so I've cut that down to twice a week and then she's offered a plexiglass pie plate every other day. So far she'll STAND in it. And pout. LOL)

She's due for her next run of pictures to update everybody soon. If I can get the housework done that I have on my To Attempt list I'll try for this afternoon.

I just wanted to comment, i'm not as experienced as most of you on her but I have a plucker to. She came to be me as a plucker, and to be honest her improvements could just be being in a different environment, but I want to share what i've been doing.

She likes to pluck all the white down feathers out of the underwings. She keeps them completely bald:(

I first started observing where in her cage she likes to pluck. For her it's the top perch. So I surrounded it with shredible toys, and random odds and ends that she can tear to heck. Another member mentioned feather boas. I tried that and it works. I wrapped a cut up boa around the chain portion of her "plucking perch". I added ribbon on one side of the bars directly in front of the perch. Then I added a couple shredding toys there to. I also add a sprig of millet every morning in that area.

So basically I keep her occupied with a lot of busy work. you know quakers can't resist shredding.

Her feathers have started growing back in, and i'd say she has reduced her plucking by 50%. Like I said there could be a lot of factors in my situation because we just got her about 3-4 months ago.

Thank you, Quakermama!

I've had Kiko a whole month now... so I know exactly what you mean! Connie had recommended the boa and Kiko's slowly getting used to it being near her cage - I have a small peice wrapped around her door perch so that she has to go passed it to get out of her cage even if she cheats and skips the perch all together. Her favourite chewables are shoestrings with pony beads on them, so she has those EVERYWHERE. I've also given her a big bundle of natural palm rafia with a bunch of beads tied into it right next to her comfy perch... and there's the fleece strips hanging from her roost... and her swing and playpen in my grooming room so she can come down with me, and her little mobile step perch for the kitchen counter for when I'm making her mash and weighing her in the morning....

*grins* I should buy stock in Home Depot.

The hardest part is the people who had her before gave her macaw toys. *blinks* She has NO CLUE how to play and I've been encouraging every single exploratory beak touch I can catch. Next we're working on bathing, which she does NOT do gracefully, and I'm finding trick training works too. She gets so excited when she sees her clicker she starts this mad spinning both directions/waving/mantling/fluffing dance. I have to wait until she calms down to cue her and sometimes it takes a good five minutes. For Christmas she's asking Santa for a ring toss or a little wagon or some other prop toy. I'll post pictures when I figure it out!