Nanday conure screaming and parrot plucking

Question
I have an African Gray parrot under 10 y/o, 4th home.  Plucker when I received him 3 years ago.  How can I stop plucking behavior?  Also Nanday Conure who is a screamer.  Just received him 1 week ago.  Told he was a screamer. How do I stop it.  It is continuous.

Answer
Hello Susan,

Since your bird is showing a symptom of an illness (feather plucking) she needs to be seen by your avian veterinarian ASAP. Feather plucking often (perhaps always) begins with a medical problem (nutritional, bacterial, fungal, etc.) and should be treated as a medical and/or nutritional condition until extensive veterinarian testing has been done. So if you haven't yet made that appointment, now is the time. These are the basic minimum tests I recommend that you ask for at your appointment:

1.       Avian blood panel (the most through one available)
2.       Cloacal and Crop swap
3.       Fecal
4.       CBC

Upon examination your avian veterinarian may need to do tests beyond this for a better evaluation. Feather plucking is unfortunately an elusive symptom so be prepared for extensive testing and for this to take some time. But to help her your avian veterinarian must be a partner in this.

Your avian veterinarian is also the first step for your new bird. As with any new pet it's best to start off right by getting that health exam. Also excessive noise can be a symptom of illness.

At your appointment make sure to have a thorough discussion on the nutritional needs of your birds and if those needs are currently being met.

Once you have established the health of you conure then you can work on understanding normal healthy contact calls and reducing the excessive screaming. Here are past answers that can help;

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Birds-General-2349/Piercing-Chirp-Alexandrine-Ringnec...

Jennifer
www.feathersandscales.com