African Grey Feather Pulling
by Anna Hart
Filed under Parrot Care
Help! My African Grey is pulling feathers! My African Grey is pulling many feathers!
If you want to scream because your African Grey parrot – or other parrot – is pulling feathers, please don’t. Your screams will only make matters worse. You want to find out why the parrot is pulling feathers, and correct the situation immediately.
Reasons for African Grey Pulling Feathers
There are a number of reasons that African Greys pull feathers. Many times, it is a simple matter of boredom. Consider that African Grey parrots in the wild spend a great portion of the day flying about the Congo, foraging for food. An African Grey pulling feathers may simply be a bored bird. It may want more excitement in life. It may need a challenge.
1. Foraging Tree: An African Grey pulling feathers – or any parrot – may need only a tree branch in which you hide treats. It’s called a foraging tree. Purchase a large branch of Manzanita wood at a pet store. Fix it upright in your African Grey’s cage, or use an outside-the-cage tree with a seed stand. Hide things in the tree. Use small toys, bells, and bits of food that will not spoil quickly. Tuck them securely into every cranny. Hide them well so that your parrot is forced to climb around and look to find them. Then watch your African Grey forget pulling feathers and get involved. You may want to find a Manzanita tree on sale, as this is not a cheap solution. Make sure it is well cleaned and sanitized before using.
2. Jungle Gym: Another way to stop an African Grey pulling feathers is to give it plenty of time outside the cage on a jungle gym. Provide a way for your parrot to occupy its time. An hour or so on a jungle gym will leave it satisfied and less inclined to pluck feathers.
3. Smoking: Your African Grey may be affected by cigarette smoke. Not that the parrot is smoking, but any smoking in the house is dangerous to the health of parrots. Fumes from cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoking can rapidly kill an African Grey. Feather plucking may be the first sign.
4. Other Fumes: If you see an African Grey plucking feathers, it may be telling you that other fumes are making it ill. Parrots are highly sensitive to a number of vapors that we take for granted. The furniture polish you use when you clean the room where your parrot lives or plays can make it seriously ill. Floor polish is the same. When you cook in Teflon-coated pans, you release into the air gases that can kill your African Grey. Feather plucking is a warning.
What to Do
Act quickly if you see your African Grey pulling feathers. Look around for toxins in the home. Take the bird to a veterinarian for a check-up. Talk to the vet about possible toxins in the home. Rid the home of all, or plan how to keep the parrot out of range when you use them.
Order a good “detox” formula to have on hand for feather plucking. It will let you counteract toxins immediately, even when a vet is not available. We found a good formula at Bird Tricks. Click here to visit and order right now.
Bird Tricks has videos that teach you how to keep your parrot healthy and happy. They also help you train your parrot to stop biting, and to do tricks. We review Bird Tricks on this website. Read our review by clicking here or on the dark blue Bird Tricks button at the top of this page.
Hi,
I have lived with my African Grey for 14 years and she talks a lot, is very inventive, and is easily bored. I have found that hanging an old phone book on a coat hangar in her “house” or on the outside of her “house” (cage) will keep her working at making “chads” daily. It can be a bit messy, but my bird loves “going to work” and gets noticeably irritable when she is not given a book to work on. I remove all coated paper and the yellow pages, leaving only the regular directory available. Pretty bird has worked on about 100 directories a year for about 10 years, with no side affects except that she is an extremely happy parrot who does not bite, scream, or have any offensive habits. (Friends save all old phone books for her).
Pretty Bird has many toys available to her both in and out of her house, but chooses the directory over other entertainment more than 1/2 of the time.
When tired, Birdie says “Birdi tired, Birdi has to go to sleep, Birdi worked hard today” If not covered, the communication gets louder until she finally says “Hey! Birdi worked hard, Birdi tired, is someone going to put this bird to sleep?”
Pretty Bird is on my shoulder as I write this and is paying attention to all of the characters being printed. Sitting on my shoulder and flying around the house are also some of her favorite past times.
Pretty Bird has never pulled her feathers or showed any signs of boredom since I have put the book in her house. (a friend told me about chicken farmers long ago, who put a catalog upright in the coop with chickens to keep them from pecking at any one chicken)This was my reason for trying the books in the first place.
Hope this helps some African Greys’ friend to make their pet less likely to pull feathers.
hello i have an African grey parrot its 2 months old and when i come close to him he starts to scream and he bite me once when i go far from him he is a calm bird and i see his feathers is not healthy coz the colours if his tail is not normal so can i have some bodies help plz