lovebird losing feathers

Question
QUESTION: My lovebird is started losing feathers around her neck about 3-4 months ago. At first I thought it was stress then she had an egg so I thought it could be because of that. Months later it has gotten worse. When she lifts her head up I can see her neck clearly and the front of her chest is mainly under feathers and is starting to go bald. I have begun to think it was mites or something. I have sprayed the cage and the bird and have started to treat her for that about a week ago. I am just a little worried about her. I have never had a problem like this with any of my lovebirds in the past 10 years. Any advice would be nice. Thank you.

ANSWER: Hi, Debrah,

What type of diet is your lovie on?  Is she the only bird in the house or does she have a mate?  How old is your bird?  Is she on eggs?  Do not spray mite spray around your bird or on your bird.  Parrots don't normally get mites unless they are housed outside and are exposed to them (keets and sometimes tiels can get scaly mites, but these aren't the same thing).  The spray can harm your bird.  It could be that your bird is just molting continually, it could be stress from raging hormones (then came the egg), it could be related to poor diet.  Your bird might also have a medical or psychological problem that is causing her to pluck her feathers.  Send answers to my questions above and any other details you can think of and we'll see if we can figure this out.

Chrys

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My bird eats 1/2 seeds and 1/2 exact. She is the only bird in the house and I would say she is a little over a year old. She did recently have some eggs but I take them out of the cage soon after. It just seems like an awful long time that this his has gone on for and her chest seems pretty bad. I have never had this happen with any of my previous lovebirds so thats why I am worried. I have plenty of toys in there since I thought maybe boredom was the problem. (I took most of the toys out before because shes gets a little snippy when playing with them too much) I also have been taking her out more. I am not sure what the problem is. Thanks.

Answer
Hi again, Debrah,

Each bird is different so this would have nothing to do with other lovies you've had not experiencing this problem.  Sounds like your lovie is plucking herself most likely from a variety of reasons.  She's really too young to be laying eggs...this might be stressing her out.  Keep her available light down to 8-10 hours per day to keep her from laying eggs.  Take anything out of her cage that remotely resembles a nest/nesting box.  How much of the exact feed does she eat (or does she eat the seed mainly)?  This problem can also be related to lack of a healthy diet.  If she's eating mostly seed, you need to get her on a varied diet of healthy, nutritious human foods.  Seed is high in fat, low in nutritional value so perhaps she's lacking vitamins/minerals or is malnourished.  She could be plucking herself out of boredom...try letting her out more often to spend time with you and ensure she has plenty of mentally stimulating toys.  When/if she lays more eggs, don't remove them...let her go through the entire incubation process until she abandons her infertile eggs on her own.  This might be a big part of the problem.  Does she bathe?  If not, try spray misting her with warm water (water should be warm when the water is sprayed on the bird, so start out with hot water in the spray bottle).  If she doesn't like this, give her a dish of water so she can bathe on her own.  Make some changes and see how these work.  Rotate toys and try some new toys that she likes.  Come back if the problem persists after you've tried some of the above suggestions.

Chrys