My African Grey Started Feather Plucking! Why + How I Stopped It 

I rescued an African Grey who would pluck and like you I did EVERYTHING I could think of. Nothing worked. Finally I read this article from like back in the 90’s about how African Greys especially are prone to plucking if not bathed at least 4 times a week because they come from a rain forest that gets down pour a couple days a week. I bought this mister that hairdressers use where you pump it with your hand once and it continually sprays super fine mist. I started doing that everyday for two weeks and then went down to just three or four days a week and my rescue stopped plucking. My other greys love this mister as well. Apparently African Greys cannot fully remove the sheath of their feathers without more water than many other species (because they are so dry from the dust they produce). If the sheath is having a hard time being removed they itch and pluck. I just wanted to comment in case Gypsy just needs more mist in her life. I love your videos. ❤️🙏

Your transparency is admirable. You're a great pet parent. We all know that.

I’m kinda vibing the bananas in the back tbh

I used this on my cockatiel! It was a total lifesaver. He got stepped on and then lost feathers from stress. This honestly helped so much.

Yay! Bird content! I appreciate you being upfront about all the different scenarios that may have lead to a solution. Well, either way I'm glad Gipsy is okay!

Fantastic video my friend! So nice to see the progress and thanks for being so open and relatable. People usually want to hide these sort of challenges and I commend you for sharing and supporting your bird keeping community! ☺️👍🏼

Great explanation, and it’s good to see you back with some more bird info. Keep working hard

your channel is by far one of the most underrated channels your videos are so interesting u deserve more views

I'm so glad to see that she is doing better! I am really glad to have these tips in case my green cheek ever decides to!!

My literal inspiration for my channel! Love the vids Tyler!

You are so educational and also a great birb dad! ❤️ cant wait for more birb content!

Just saw an ad for Zen habitats ! Congrats on being in it that must have been really cool

I'm so glad shes doing better 🥺 and as for more bird content you could literally just post a video of them hanging out with you for an hour and I would watch all of it

I instantly thought of Snake Discovery’s macaw when I saw this video. Iirc, theirs was neglected from the previous owner and is now a severe plucker out of habit. Wonder if they’ve tried this? I’m glad you were able to fix the issue though!

Thank you for posting this. I’m bringing home my white-bellied caique baby in a couple of months and for me, knowledge of what’s to come helps with all the overwhelming info there is out there! 👏🏻😁

This was so very helpful!! My eclectus began plucking a few weeks ago and my stress level has been so high because of it. I got Harry when he was 9 months old and he's now 23 and has never had a health problem and I felt it must be some external stressor, but I did what you did, tons of research--dizzying to get all of that. Learned a lot but no real answer. I have moved often for work and even overseas and he's not shown any stress in those times. Now we've been here in this house a year and all is peaceful so I kept trying to figure what could possibly, and so suddenly, be bothering him. It is really so hard to witness and I did what you did, too, adding toys, figuring out foraging tools, trying to keep him busy and distracted. Then it occurred to me--we've always lived in places where heating is uneven and almost always by radiators that worked intermittently. I wore sweaters but Harry often flew into the coldest room and spent time there easily by choice. But three months ago the landlady for this old Victorian had a new, very efficient heating boiler installed. I turned the heat on in November and loved it--a real change in my comfort zone. Two weeks later Harry began the plucking, and in same places you mentioned for your African Grey. I realized a few days ago the new heater is absolutely the only change in his life environment. I got a monitor and the humidity levels were way down. Parrots need between 40 and 60% humidity and the rooms were at half that or less. Two days ago I got a cool mist humidifier and he seems so much calmer and God willing the plucking has become less--when I took off his cage cover this morning there were no bitten feathers on the floor of it. Relief doesn't describe the feeling of gratitude. He has a way to go--he has that same ruff of down feathers around his neck and some chest feathers gone , and the idea it might take a year for the full feathers to return is hard to think about, but if this increase in humidity levels continues to make a difference, well, just too fine that feels. Not to mention, I started spraying a mist on him several times a day,. Anyway, a long-winded way of saying your video matched my experience so much and that was so comforting and now I hope to see him stop altogether. I'll get that King's Cages bottle, too, for sure. Thank you. Such a gracious and helpful video.

Yes! More bird content! I just have to be careful when I see a video from you as I am traumatised from geckos. I’m glad Gypsy is doing better! My Grey just started doing this when we got a new pet in the house, so this comes handy!

Aw I’m so glad she is doing better!! ♥️

Hi Pet Parrot Lovers, Our male Eclectus (Mambo) has been living with us for 20 years now (Australia). We hope this feedback "Comment" helps other pet parrot owners, as this is why and how we have had no difficulty with Mambo 🦜plucking his feathers: 1) Early in Mambo being our young, hand-raised, tame pet parrot family member we noticed that Mambo would intentionally bath itself when given its morning fresh clean drinking water 💦 (fresh water also given late afternoon before his tea), but he would choose to bathe himself only once weekly, and would also get our attention too! 2) We early read that the Eclectus parrots' original natural habitat is the Tropical Rain Forests of North Queensland and the Tropical Highland Rainforests of PNG (Papua New Guinea), & some of the tropical Pacific Islands. That’s when we thought that they would live with showers of rain 🌧 in their original tropical rainforest habitat, and we put this together with Eclectus’s also being a very high DANDER bird that Mambo would probably enjoy, at his chosen time to bath, with us also giving him a gentle shower spray with an indoor pot plants water 💦 spray bottle. Well yes indeed! Mambo LOVES his weekly bath 🛁 plus light water-spray shower all over and under his body -- he even spreads his wings wide so we can spray under both his wings and both sides of his chest. Mambo prefers this weekly wash in the morning, and he happily chats away after his bath and water spray. So pet parrot lovers, our take on why Eclectus parrots 🦜 (& some other parrots too!) have a reputation for being feather-pluckers is NOT necessarily a nervousness condition, nor consequent to a health issue or boredom either, but rather with their high dander skin-replacing body, the build-up of dander becomes irritating to them. Thus the scratching and pecking at their irritated skin (with feathers coming out while trying to relieve themselves of the dander skin irritation) is why parrots understandably scratch & peck their skin. I would be scratching my skin too if I didn't shower daily, and I don't even have a high-dander skin!🤗 And yes, the stress-factor to the parrot with the DANDER irritation can understandably impact their general health and wellbeing, and happiness! This DANDER skin irritation probably adds to bad behaviour, like screeching, etcetera. We have 3 pet parrots, and they have never had the problem of plucking feathers. They all live indoors in our home with us to keep them safe from outside predators (snakes, rats, and predatory birds - e.g. Butcher Birds, Magpies). I have had pet birds most of my 70 year life - and approximately 100 racing pigeons as a young teenager and belonged in the latter 1960’s to the Brisbane QLD Racing Pigeon Federation (the best I got was a 3rd place 🥉 in a long distance pigeon race back to their loved home lofts -- birds love an easy resort-lifestyle and security). Enjoy wonderful pet birds, as they love human company too! Cheers, Garzo 🎶🦜 - see in the RU-vid Channel “ILLUSTRA MEDIA” documentary entitled “FLIGHT: The Genius of Birds” Trailer on RU-vid, and with a Google search, the complete documentary is available for purchase on DVD 📀, it’s an awesome documentary. Enjoy 😃

thank you for sharing! there’s so much shame surrounding feather plucking, the sad thing is that it is so common in captivity. talking about it is so important 🙏🙏 my rehab CAG is dealing with it still, but the good new that it does become better when treated.

I’m so glad to have found this video! I could have totally made this video myself, sounds EXACTLY like our situation and how I’ve been feeling! We also moved, he didn’t appear stressed but started chewing his wing and tail feathers off! He’ll let them all grow back then randomly just chew them off again! This time though appears to be worse than ever before! I’m going to buy this today! Thank you so much!!

im so glad shes okay! i love that bird

We don't have birds because our lifestyle doesn't allow for it, but we (my 2 yr old and I) love seeing your birds (even if he calls them chickens 😂). I'm so happy we'll be seeing more of them in your videos! ❤️

This is excellent and very insightful. Thank you for sharing.

Looking forward to more bird videos. I’d like to see your cage cleaning routine. Any behavior videos, play time and how your birds interact with each other would be of interest. Thanks for producing valuable content that is fun and entertaining at the same time.

Thanks a million for this video! My little African parrot needed the help of Pluck No More and Rainforest Mist Feather Shine to relieve a bit of itching and plucking. She has improved greatly and on the way to 100% back to normal. A friend sent me your video and I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing this information. The vet would not have told me this. ;-)

Yay excited for bird content my mom just got budgies she adores them and needs more videos on birds!!❤️❤️

loved this and her acrobats!

My African grey also does the fire alarm and the house alarm 🤣 and both of my dogs barking at the same time. I’m glad you fixed the problem!

Thank you for this upload, I'm about to adopt a African grey that plucks and I definitely need the research and tools to help my soon to be feather baby out

I love your bird sm!

She is so cute lol i love gizmo so much i cant wait for more bird content!!

Very honest video. Thank you for sharing

Happy for you that Gypsy is feeling better! With my Goffin, I've tried avicalm, pluck no more, feather fast, ect. None of them worked for me, it's now a habit for Cheeky unfortunately. I caught it early and went to the vet too, spending thousands of dollars but never found out why she plucks. Cheeky's feathers also don't have the protective layer to keep oils off of them now from her plucking. Cone didn't work for us either, Cheeky actually acted psycho and threw herself against the walls of her cage in a frenzy so she couldn't wear it for safety reasons. It's so hard as a parront not blaming yourself when they pluck, I am always guilty because the bird community has a lot of toxic people that pick apart every thing you do.

So glad she's doing well ❤ i think a great video would be why gifting birds is a bad idea (the holiday season is coming). Its a good opportunity to address the option of rescuing

This vid is very helpful! This vid might help me in the long run since I'm currently doing my basic research about a bird and what they really need for the past few months, cuz I'm a little unsure of what to do with a pet that might become my life long companion and there's that fact that they're SO different from reptiles (well I only have reptiles as a pet so I'm not sure wether I'd like to just have a parrot without intense research of that many possibilities that might occur in the long run)

Great video! I am going to try Pluck no more again. I used it several years ago on my AG and it worked for awhile. She started plucking again so I stopped using it after spending more than $500 on the product. I don’t mind spending the money if it works. Tried Avi Calm too, that seemed to work for a time but again, started plucking. Went to the vet, all normal. Have done just about everything that you tried. I am happy for you that you had some success. Hope it lasts.

Glad she's doing better 😊💞💞😘

Thank you for recognizing it’s a habit as well! I rescued a naked parrot and people always tell me he’s not happy! Ik he is bc he does it when he’s preening and over preens!

Glad she’s doing better! That’s crazy that it takes so long for the exterior feathers to grow back. It seems like that would be a huge detriment in the wild if a bird lost feathers to something

Thank you Tyler. She is very pretty.

Glad Gypsy is doing better!

Bird content ideas: would you ever pay for freeflying lessons with your birds, why or why not? Do you clicker train or have Generalized training sessions with your birds, if so what's your routine? Do you think every other pellet is crap if it's not cold pressed? (My bird is on Roudybush which I thought was good enough but some people say it's still crap). Do you clip your birds, how do you feel about clipping for safety (is that bs or smart)? How do you deal with hormones and your birds? Where do you pet them/ do you ever cuddle them?

Awww poor thing! I love parrots, good thing your so careful

love your vids! and so does my bird! haha he always chips loud when he hears ur voice!

I live for Gypsy's chaotic energy. She also looks like she has one of those feather boas on lol

Thanks for the video and the tips! Three of five of my birds are plucking. Maybe they are learning it from each other. I tried this once before. As a person with a full time job being out of the house ten hours a day during the week, I found it very difficult to spray them three to four times a day so I gave up on it. Plus my birds don't like spray bottles. Not sure how to get them used to it without it being traumatic. Most of my birds prefer the shower but my cockatoo just doesn't like getting wet at all. She's one of the ones with a problem. Her plucking started with a trauma when the first floor of my house started filling with smoke and I had to evacuate the birds quickly. A few days later she mutilated herself and hasn't been the same since. She wears one of those collars but it doesn't keep her from reaching everything. She is able to eat and get around ok with the one I got for her but I wish we could go back to before she was plucking.

love how u reply to most of the comments respect ✊🏼

I've seen several of your clips and love them. Is cleaning the African Grey's dust in your home a big chore? Should I get a different bird like your Severe Macaw or Sun Conure?

I love your video so much

Tyler could you please give an update? Are you still using pluck no more? Do you have an understanding of ingredients and how it actually works? I do understand calming to them. Is it also shooting to the skin?

I would love a video about tips for homemade products for cleaning a bird's cage. I'm so glad she's okay now! She's a gorgeous and silly bird, I love her

I am glad to watch this. I am going to try this product. I have twenty year old bare eyed cockatoo who started plucking. She started after her BFF our rainbow lorikeet died. They grew back after awhile. Then I had to move and share a place with roommates. One who I later found out would bang on her cage and scream at her. I kicked him out when I found out. She is now a happy bird but she stills plucks out of habit. It is hard as bird mom to know that your bird got stressed enough to pluck

At what point do you stop using the pluck no more? And since you have stopped using it, has Gypsy shown any signs of regression? Have a great day! 💛

Can you make more pet peeve videos I feel everything you’re saying and I find it super entertaining

I grew up with a Senegal and Meyers that started plucking because my family moved 3 times so I could definitely see that as a possible reason why Gypsy started FDB. It's very encouraging though that she turned a corner and stopped:))).

Thanks for the video I will try it I have one bird that plucks and now my other bird is doing it as well I’ve tried a lot of things online I will try this one and see what happens thanks again

Did Gypsy start by over-preening, which led to plucking? My 4yo female Greater Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo is over-preening. She gets a bath at least twice/week, and the vet said she is healthy but over-preening could be related to hormones.

I've just been through the process to adopt a beautiful grey and I'm excited but I'm really nervous, I'm hoping that all i provide is enough for her ❤ expense isn't my worry but her happiness is everything to me.

Gypsy's attitude is all i needed today 😂

Hi! I have just seen your video and I am facing the same issue with my parrot from the middle July until now. Although my situation is more complicated, because my bird has traumatized himself. However I've been to a doctor I have made exams just to be sure and eventually I have put on him a colar which until now he has used to it and that because his wearing almost 2 weeks. However, I would like to ask you in how many days did you see results by using the "pluck no more"? And which way you used it? By putting it in the water or in his bath time? I'm asking because now his wearing a colar and the bath is not a good option for him and me.. Xaxa! Thank you!

Thank you for this video. My sweet Fernando, our African Grey, didn't start plucking until we lost my sweet baby girl, my Sun Conure, Oriana. We had her for 24 years and him 22 (since they were both 6 months old) so he's only known life with her in it. He's only known life with her cage next to him both at home and in boarding. I tried chamomile tea in his water to calm him. I know he felt my anguish over her loss. He saw her pass because we were all in her same room when it happened. He saw her leave and never come back and had some separation anxiety with his daddybird, who is is person, days and weeks after. He couldn't even go to take the trash out without him thinking he wouldn't come back. He does a pigeon whistle my hubby taught him and waits for hubby to do it back. As far as moving, they are so used to moving back and forth, being in the car that this has never phased them but I know they are definitely prone to being anxious with new environments. I'm so glad you did your work and tried to find out. Not everyone knows how to take care of birds so they give up on them and bring them back. Thank you.

We rescued two African greys and they barely have feathers and they were also very neglected because their nails are super super long but we’re taking them to the vet and they’re getting the nails cut as well on Monday

That’s so annoying hoping for something wrong with her but not wanting anything wrong she has nothing wrong so you’re back to square one. 😂

My Quaker just recently started plucking because I was busy with work one week and wasn't holding her as much as I usually do... (I think that's the reason but I'm not sure) so hopefully this works because the only other options I have is a bird sweater or cone

Im in South Africa. Hope this product can still be available to bird owners in South Africa. Gonna try get it.

How do get this for my Africa grey . My bird plucking is doing this and I talk to Rio all the time

My Dusky Conure plucks spring then. Middle of fall. Then my sister passed away. I moved to a new condo. Made a bird room she plucked so bad she could not fly I'm going to try the no pluck. She is a strange bird too.

I think it would be fun bird content to see you try some training tricks from BirdTricks (on youtube). they usually start people out with target training.

I just want to know how you can get your bird to drink that whole amount of water? 8oz per day?! My African Grey is been plucking for over a year now, I tried the ‘pluck no more’ in her water, but she would probably only consume 5%! Help please!

My African grey had lots of exercise, we whistled together, I worked at home and we played and laughed together, but he plucked. Spray often. If they have a full 10 hours of sleep, that will help their immunity in general and mood. Mine wanted to stay up with me and I should not have let him. Honestly your grey's plucking doesn't look that bad, but I know you want to stop it in its tracks. You're on the case I can tell!! The hormonal thing is so true. Can you put her in sunshine for part of the warm days, using a day cage or smaller cage? Mine loved that and he could mimic the Northern geese sounds.

Ive seen some birds start plucking because underlining bacterial infections too.

I was wandering the same about my bird. want her to be happy, gave her lots of love and attention and her feathers grew back

Can you do a video about whether or not birds are affectionate? I'm thinking if a bird might be the right pet for me..

How old are your birds? Sorry if you've already answered it somewhere else i was just wondering.

Will there be an update on the water snake? Just curious abt her.

Do you think this could help for just unhealthy looking feathers?

How do you even take care of all of your pets and still have time to do stuff

Definitely going to buy it my parakeet started to pluck

@ tyler Rugge thanks for the info my IRN has the same problem I have try everything I will try the product I tried to linked up but didn’t found the page do you know if they still sale the product?

Thank you sooo much I used this on my cockatoo. I had that cockatoo since I was 10 years old and now I am 28 I would be sooo sad if something bad happened to him

are their such things as flightless birds people keep as pets other than chickens and ducks???

My Grey also plucks and i have noticed that no medicines work. I have tried everything. What really works is giving them a bath, with a hand shower. At least twice a week. In the summer you bath them more often. They also feel miserable when their skin and feathers are dirty. Greys love music. They love beat box, and nursary rhymes and they love to dance and sing. My grey loves to sing. Each month i teach him a new beat and a new song and whenever he starts plucking, i start singing to him and he will join in and sing and dance and he will forget about the plucking. Music calms them and somehow it is a way to break the plucking habit. My grey was naked. He chewed all his wing feathers and tail feathers off, he mutilated himself and he was ugly. Untill i tried this method. All his feathers grew back in 3 months. Each time he plucks, i sing. He is starting to love his shower and he feels and looks great after a bath. Keep their minds occupied with something interesting like sing and dance. They will still pluck, but giving them alot of TLC, and by taking them out of their cage to explore and to get them to know you better. I still give him his multivitamins and his fruit and vegetables, sometimes he eats it, and sometimes he dont. But what really helped the most was the bathing and singing.

i just started clip her wing and since two days she started plucking i hope she will stop

Hi what big bird do you recommend I'm planning on getting a bird I've had birds before.

I know this is about birds but... I’m looking for some beautiful new world communal tarantulas. Any ideas?

I was just given my husband's dad's gray when he passed I've known the bird 10 years and she has only ever had her tail feathers and head I'm trying so hard I think alot is just habit now she was always ignored yelled at sat in a cage next to a loud TV had 3 dogs running around was fed poorly and the smoked non stop in the same room as her andim trying so hard but it's like nail biting for us such a hard habit to break. I am one of the only people the bird will come to willingly and she let's me touch her but even with the calmer situation at my home she still seem so stressed she's 32 years old and I've had her a few days now I'm going to take her to a vet cause I'm sure she has calcium deficiency due to her poor diet before I love this bird and want to see her with her beautiful feathers for a change

What happened to mango??

Link to website please?

Hello tyler, im planning to get a bearded dragon for Christmas. I have some questions 1. Is it a good idea to get a bearded dragon during quarantine? 2. How can i find a great substrate? 3. How do i set up a enclosure? if i get the bearded dragon i will need lots of help.

Your african gray is really cute

My parrot is chewing his feathers 😞can anyone help me with this problem? It stopped for a month then started again.his diet improved too I don’t know what’s causing it.his feathers are like V shape now and I’m scared he will damage those new feathers that grew in one month

Hey Tyler do plan to breed your lily white? Or did you get for bragging rights?

Bro I am from India watching at morning 😊😊

This is definitely the wrong vid to comment this on lol but I wanted to ask for your advice since I'm a long time subscriber. I had 2 bunnies (from the same litter) that I got when they were a month old. Now shes around 7 years old. I say she bc around 2 months ago, my other one died :'(. She had cancer and unfortunately passed. This is the first time my other bunny is by herself. She seems a little bored and wants my attention a lot more than usual. When my other bunny was still with us, they would honk and it made me very happy to know they were so happy. But now, even when I give her some apple, she doesn't honk. They used to sound like horns and run in circles when id bring them a slice, but now she's silent. She's still visibly excited for the apple, but I haven't heard her honk since. She doesn't seem depressed, but she seems like if i don't do something, she could get there. She isn't spayed either and I've had some problems with bites to my other bunny. Only a few maybe 3 times in their 7 years, she bit my other one and drew a little blood but not too bad. (Was disappointed in her lol but still). Im really worried about her, and it just occurred to me that maybe I should get her a friend. Im not sure if she got along with my other bunny bc they were from the same litter. So I dont want to get her a buddy and then end up with them having problems. Do you reccomend I get her a friend? Thanks :)

hey Tyler! I don't know if you'll ever see this but hopefully you'll do. I have 2 lovebirds in the same cage. I got them exactly 1 year ago and when I got them home i noticed the "female" (im not sure if its a female, that what the guy who sold them said) had bareley any feathers on its tail, but i didnt really think about it, since she lived in a very tiny space with 3 other birds and thought that i was "saving" it. Well its been a year and notice that she still has like one or two feathers on its tail. Ive never actually seen the other bird pluck her feathers but he does seem very dominant towards her. Their cage is veery large (i fit in it) so I dont think thats the problem. I am very concerned, and ive tried two catch her before to either take her out of the cage to move her to another one, and also to take her to the vet, but the cage is so large that I cant catch her, and also she isnt really tamed. *I really need an advise* please it would really help me. THANK YOU 💖💖💖

Are you live in canada ?

My bird started plucking and would not stop to the point were the skin would bleed but we had it for 5 months before it started to pluck so we could not solve it so we found someone who has solved rare bird picking problem. The bird ok now.

Hey

Hey guys quick thing- The bird’s name (g-word) is a slur against Romani/Roma people. Just thought I should put that out there bc a lot of people don’t know, and it’s important not to use it