Pacific Parrolet - Feather Picking

Question
I have 3 parrots. A timneh grey, jenday conure and a parrolet. My parrolet is the little one with major attitude, aggression, and feather picking problems that I can not seem to improve with all my efforts. I read everything I can get my hands on, but nothing I try turns this little guy around. He is a male around 4 yrs old. I have taken to my bird vet, and he is in excellent heath but seems to be going though some sexual things seeing me as his mate, regurgatating, nipping and picking. I can only hold him for very short periods of time. And boy can he nail you. My other birds have beautiful glossey feathers. They all have very good diets, with fresh foods and zupreem pellets. This little guy whos name is  "Tiny" looks terrible. Help? Thanks

Answer
Hello,

Sorry for the slow reply, it's hard for me to sit down at the computer for very long anymore!

Plucking and aggression problems are both complicated issues and difficult to settle.  There's no quick fixes, and even the long-term fixes are few and far between, and don't work for every bird.  I'll tell you what I can, though.

It definitely sounds like a hormonal response, a desire to breed.  I'm curious, is it seasonal at all?  All my birds are responding to the lengthening days at this time of year and starting to show some breeding behaviors.  Might be worth trying to artificially decrease day lengths in order to decrease breeding behaviors, by covering the cage and making sure the bird is getting a solid 12 hours of dark every night.  Worth a shot, anyway.

To a certain extent, though, if tricks to discourage breeding behavior don't work, it's better to let him carry out as much of those behaviors as he can.  Biting and plucking often result when the bird feels a sense of frustration - a desire to carry through on certain behaviors but no means to do so.  I'm not saying you should run out and buy him a mate - I actively discourage pairing and breeding pet birds just because they're hormonal.  First, because it doesn't always solve the problem, second because their owners aren't always equipped (or interested in) breeding, and finally because I hate to see difficult pets bred and passing their genes to the next generation.

That said, you can allow him some outlet to his behaviors.  A small nestbox to play in may not be a bad idea - several of my pet birds have nestboxes they sleep and hang out in.  My little black-capped conure spends a lot of time in his at this time of year.  He protects it from intruders (me!) and that's fine with me, it's his own space.  I also think allowing birds to have a nestbox lessens their territoriality around the cage - without a box, their whole cage is their nest and they'll try to protect it.

To try to stave off the plucking, I'd give him lots of shreddable toys - sisal rope and raffia are great for pluckers, you can buy both from any craft store.

Pluckers also usually benefit from several soaking baths a week, if he doesn't mind being sprayed.  To some extent, even if he does mind a little but doesn't panic (you don't want to stress him), it might still be a good idea.

Is he less aggressive away from his cage or space?  One way around (rather than through) the problem of his aggression might be simply to train him to step up on a handheld perch from his cage, and handle him elsewhere.  Similarly, it might help to take him into a completely unfamiliar room and practice basic training - especially "step up."  Laddering him from hand to hand for a few minutes at a time until the response becomes automatic might help with step ups even in places where he's more likely to show aggression.

Okay, I'm about out of ideas.  Here's a website on feather picking birds:
http://www.featherpicking.com/
You can also join the featherpicking mailing list from there.  It's a fairly well-populated list and you may find someone with a bird going through similar problems, maybe they'd have some more suggestions!

Hope that helps,
- Lara
psitta@yahoo.com