The normal healthy parrotlet spends a few hours every cleaning and grooming their own feathers. This is usual and is a good activity for them to keep their health and durability of their feathers. The feather plucking to every bird is considered as not a normal avian activity. It usually happens when the bird will remove its entire feather from its body until you see its skin.
Plucking feathers usually happens naturally in birds. It is one of the proofs of the physical or simply the behavioral problem with the animal that requires to be observed to make sure the long-term health that you want for your pet. If you notice that your bird may have this kind of self-obstruction practice, you are required to take action as soon as possible. Once this practice was to start, this can be hard to eliminate, can possibly lead to advance worse plucking, and may lead to self-mutilation.
Possible Reasons Why Parrotlet Pluck Feathers
Birds do feather plucking for so many possible reasons. There are several physical and psychological factors involved. Let’s dig dive further.
Physical Reasons WHy Parrotlets Pluck Feathers
1. Allergies
So many household items can possibly cause to be allergies in parrotlets. For example, air fresheners, smoke, a deodorant that sprays, and any other definite kinds of cooking materials that may cause an allergic reaction in some birds.
2. Dirty Enclosures
It might be the usual cause to have different possible problems. So as a pet owner, always make sure to have proper everyday cleaning routine to your pet’s cages.
3. Parasites
There are a lot of different bugs or sometimes insects that can possibly clench into your pet’s skin that might cause the bird to irritate. These may consist of the bird fleas, feather mites or lice, and the worms in birds.
4. Skin Infections
Skin infections usually happen when the bird’s skin or the follicles of its feathers become infected; then, this might cause a lot of irritation to parrotlets. The parrot may start to scratch all over its body; it will pull out its feathers and chew at the skin to soothe the problem. These commonly happen to develop into feather cysts in parrots.
5. Internal Disorders
The bird will bite at the area where it feels painful. That is its way to rub itself to soothe the feeling of discomfort. Commonly tumors, cancers, and infections can step to this kind of problem.
6. Poor Diet
Like any other disorder that can cause negatively in your pet, sometimes the blame is on a substandard diet. This can sometimes cause your pet to have dry skin and can lead to plucking its feathers.
7. Not Enough Space to Exercise
If there’s no adequate space or place to exercise, your bird can be affected Negatively. Like humans, insufficient time for exercise can lead to depression in parrots; that is why they are also required to have ample space for them to move around.
8. Low Humidity
If your pet parrot initially came from the rainforest, then it possible cause an itchy skin because of the conditions of low humidity.
9. Heavy Metal Poisoning
If your little parrot has a powerful beak that may chew off the wires of its enclosures, especially if its cage was made from lead or zinc, then these metals may have a possibility to enter your pet’s bloodstream, and this might cause feather plucking.
10. Hormonal Disorder
Itchy skin and feather problem disorder can be sometimes because of hypothyroidism in parrots.
11. Environmental Conditions
Always observe your pet parrot if it has full access to the natural light with cycles and a full-ventilated room having a good airflow. When they have a small cage, it does not allow your pet out of its enclosure to have a short amount of flight so that they stretch their wings.
Psychological Factors That Cause Parrotlets to Pluck Feathers
1. A Feeling of Being Lonely
Most parrots even they are young; they are usually social kinds of animals that live in groups. Therefore, the idea of keeping your pet on its own for the whole day can be very upsetting to its psychology, so as the effect of frustration they may pluck their feathers.
2. Anxiety
It is the most common cause of psychological reasons regarding your pet’s feather plucking condition. Try to observe for a parrot and its surroundings to think about what may be the cause to have anxiety. Maybe your parrot loses a mate or its family member for the past few days. On the other hand, maybe your pet may get enough attention.
3. Your Pet May Feel Bored
Your pet may start plucking its feathers as an alternative to have something to do when you just provide them a cage with no toys as well as ladders for them to swing.
4. Sexual Annoyance
It can cause your pet to pluck its feathers, and this can be worsening because of the parrots over bonding with its human owner. As a pet owner, you do not want your pet to treat you as its mate.
Recommended Steps to Stop Parrotlet Plucking Feather Behavior
1. Give your pet enough attention or give them another bird to become its companion. Bonding time that is out of its cage with you as an owner and to your other family members should be given. But when you are too busy and have no time for that, then as an alternative thing to do is give your pet a companion or a friend that they are with to promote the well-being of both birds.
2. Bring your pet to an avian veterinarian. This is usually done so you can figure out the physical problems that might cause your pet to pluck its feathers. The vet may examine the skin and the blood of your pet and suggest to change its diet, or they give vitamins that contain minerals. But, sometimes, the avian vet cannot be able to figure out the stress of the birds, so you, as a pet owner, need to identify the reason why your pet is stressed and then provide an action to make some changes.
3. Provide larger enclosures. With just a simple house of bird can be the cause to make your pet to stress out. So you need to change the size of the cage to allow your pet to have a short amount of flight that can simply determine the issue.
4. Give your pet a bathing opportunity. Usually, most birds love to clean and was itself just like humans usually do. Try to make it a habit every week to provide your pet with a warm shower. You can also provide a little birdbath to put in your bird’s cage so it can simply clean itself whenever they want.
5. Try to produce some more and fun surroundings. Offer toys, perches, swings, shreddable toys, as well as foraging opportunities for your pet. Your pet may surely love them all, and your pet may avoid plucking its feathers and may become happier.
Conclusion
There is a lot of basis for the parrotlet’s plucking feather condition, and this may be coming up with some solution that usually quite difficult to do. Still, this is the only key to act quickly if you observe this behavior develops. If not, then plucking the feathers of your pet may become a habit that turns out to be hard to unlearn.
