Hello, I have a bird I brought home two days ago from Petco. They kept it in a plexi glass enclosure, but the woman really teamed it so well he’s very loving but I’m noticing him starting to pluck his own feathers as well as pick at my skin. I’m hoping it’s because he may just be settling into a new space, but is there anything I can do to stop this behavior early ?
Hi,
It would be very unusual for a bird that young to pluck his own feathers. Are you sure this is not normal preening? If he is pulling feathers out, and causes a bare spot, this is not good. But if he is just running his beak through his feathers, this is normal grooming behavior. An occasional feather may come out, but if there are a lot of feathers, then you either need to take the bird to a Vet, or return the bird to the shop. Unfortunately, if this is a variety of Green Cheeked conure, they have been badly inbred and there are a lot of health issues with many of them. There are a lot of color mutations, so the bird might have been called a Pineapple, cinnamon, yellow sided, or any of a number of names depending on the mutation. They can be a good pet, but are not as easy to care for and keep tame as sellers would have you believe. I would recommend that you watch a recent webinar we presented on these conures.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
