feather loss

Question
My 3 year old African Grey (Bobbie)is losing (his/her)I don't know which, under feathers at a rapid rate. From below his head down his neck & craw, advancing down his belly.  Most of his outer feathers on his underside fell out or he picked them out several months ago and haven't grown back.  last year he plucked his red tail feathers gone.  I took him to the vet, the tested his blood and found he had heavy metal in his blood and his thyroid was out of balance.  We treated him with vitamins and sulfur (vet's instructions).  He took the vitamins pretty easily, but the sulfur was a different story  It was a big job just to get some of the sulfur into him.  we changed his cage, because of his picking at it, removing anything that might contain dangerous metals. put him in another cage which he doesn't pick at, but he does eat his wooden perches.  His diet consists of mostly seeds, peanuts, no vegetables, he won't eat them. I try fresh fruit, leafy greens, boiled eggs, he won't eat them. He still whistles, talks, barks. He's very verbal and enjoys being in our company. Any suggestions for me would be most welcome.  Jeanne

Answer
Hi, Jeanne.

Feather plucking in parrots can be attributed to many things.  Can be medical or psychological.  Sounds like there is a medical reason for this plucking.  Therefore, you need to work with your avian veterinarian on this medical issue until it is completely cleared up.  If the medical problem clears up and the bird is still plucking, the plucking could be a habit "left over" from the medical condition or could be psychological as a result of something else.  Something you'll need to work at with the bird to fix.  Psychological reasons can be many, such as not enough time with its humans, not enough mental stimulation, toys that don't challenge the bird, etc.  A mainly seed diet can also add to this problem.  If a bird isn't on a healthy, nutritious diet, it can result in many medical/psychological problems, especially for greys because of their high intelligence.  In getting a parrot to eat other types of foods, you have to try offering these other foods in different shapes, sizes, varieties, etc., until you find exactly what you bird prefers.  Birds won't eat foods they don't recognize as food, so you have to keep offering the new foods every day until the bird eventually tries the new foods.  Also, if seed/peanuts are available at the same time other foods are offered, most parrots will always choose the seed over the other foods...be sure to remove any seed when offering other types of nutritional foods.  You really need to wean your grey off seed and only offer seed as a treat or occasional snack.  I'd recommend also getting your grey used to eating pelleted food, which contains many vitamins/minerals just for birds.

You might want to research Dr. Pepperberg and her research with greys, such as Alex.  You can find information on the internet.  

Chrys