Hi All,

 

Not sure what is going on with Gemma. She twists herself around on the cage so she has her back against the cage, holding on with her feet, then she gets either her tail feathers or wing feathers and bites them off! She has gotten to the point where she has actually clipped her own wings so she can't fly anymore! I have got some pics of her tail so you can see how short it is now. Other than this, she is eating and drinking as normal, poos are the same and she is still very vocal.

 

What is wrong with her??

Please help!

 

Debbie

 

 

Poor little Gemma, I'm sorry I dont know enough to help you but hopefully someone else will. All the best working it out,

Trish.

Im not sure I can really offer any useful help but our lorikeet did this when she was young and never stopped until we got her a friend to distract her. I'm not saying you have to get her a friend but we came to the conclusion that it was boredom, how large is her cage and how often does she get time out o the cage?

She could possibly have mites - they are really irritating to a bird and cause excess preening and stress

Feather chewing is a whole new area. Mites will cause them to overpreen and act irritated, but feather chewing can be a behavioural issue and psychological. So much damage can be done to feathers and the feather follicles that they dont regrow properly if the behaviour is let get to an advanced state.

You may need this >>>>>head collar

 

so that the behaviour is nipped in the bud. Search for mites by all means, but actual chewing of the feathers usually isnt a mite thing but behavioural.

A new partner in the cage doesnt always work either as a feather chewer, once the behaviour is ingrained WILL chew the other budgies feathers as well as their own.

I think the head collar is needed to stop the pattern of behaviour FIRST and let the feathers grown back as they should. Distraction therapy also is key

Edited December 4, 200816 yr by KAZ

Some medical conditions will cause overpreening, one of my budgies barbers slightly due to liver disease. Have you taken her to the vet to rule out any medical issues? If by chance mites are the source your vet is the best course for treatment - please do NOT buy those mite protectors you hang on the side of the cage as they give off fumes toxic to your bird. There could be any number of causes, stress also comes to mind as common. How long has this behavior been manifesting? Has anything changed in the immediate environment? How large is her cage? The

newest research I've read on feather destructive behaviors that are of unknown origin - psychological in nature (ie not a result of medical or immediate environmental issues) are that they may be tied in to the practice of pulling babies from the nest and not allowing the parent birds to raise the babies to fledging (unnatural weaning). There was a great article in Parrots Magazine not too long ago about this - I'll see if I can't find the issue # if you are interested - This seems to pertain to larger parrots, I'm not sure but think this is probably rare in budgies as most are not handfed and so they know how to be birds. Feather chewing is unknown in the wild, this is a result of captivity, so a vet visit would be the first course of action, and a careful check of the environment would be second. Good luck, I hope you are able to find the root cause, this can be a tough behavior to figure out.

Edited December 2, 200816 yr by Rainbow

You have received good advice from Ann and Kaz, I would get her to an avian vet to rule out any underlying medical disease. It is very rare for budgies to self mutulate but it can happen but they do say it is usually underlying medical vs psychological. Keep us updated.

What are you feeding her? - I am leading to a vitamin or mineral deficiency alonf with what rainbow said a environment issue .....

Hello Debbie, I read an article today that reminded me of this post - it was an article about renal disease and one of the symptoms was the chewing off of feathers, particularly of the tail - sometimes to the point of bleeding. I am not a vet, so am not saying this is what is wrong, but when you take Gemma to the avian vet please ask about kidney function and what tests may be helpful. Hopefully you can get to the bottom of this, Gemma must be uncomfortable in some way to chew herself like that. Please Keep us posted as to what you find out, your experiences might help someone else down the road.

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't replied, this Christmas business creeps up so slowly and takes so much time!

I have tried Kaz's idea and have been distracting her when I see her getting in "position" to start chewing and so far it seems to be working. The tail is starting to grow back but she still can't fly.

As for her cage, it is approx 45cm wide, 35 deep and 60 high.

So far she hasn't come out of her cage. I admit I have been a bit slack in her training, but I do try to spend at least 15 minutes every day with my hand in her cage and she has started to eat from my hand and comes to my finger to let me scratch her head. She happily hops on my finger and will sit there as long as I don't move.

I know I need to spend more time with her but with 3 little monsters running around it is so hard to find a few minutes of peace!

I will keep you informed on her progress. I am going to "borrow" a boy from a friend to see how she reacts.

 

Debbie

Sounds great but my only issue is that if you Borrow a boy for a friends then you still need to do keep them apart for 30 days. But maybe enven hearing him will distract her.

yeah don't forget quarantine... it wouldn't be good to have 2 sick budgies...

Sounds great but my only issue is that if you Borrow a boy for a friends then you still need to do keep them apart for 30 days. But maybe enven hearing him will distract her.

 

excellent point and very important to follow