Lovebird plucking around neck/collar area!

[1lilmrnstr]

I have 3 lovebirds, 2 males named Kiwi and George, and 1 female names Mango. They have been together all their life. They were hatch mates and probably have the same parents.
The female, Mango, is very attached to one male - Kiwi. They are all in separate, large cages in the same room.
I can only let out one male at a time. Otherwise the Mango and Kiwi pick on George. He can be out with Mango, no problem, but not with Kiwi at the same time.

Mango got very broody and started plucking her collar area in the front. She laid several eggs which we took away because we don't breed. (Too many animals without homes already so we choose to not add to that problem.) She seemed to get over the broody behavior for a while. Unfortunately she has continued to pluck.

Took Mango and the boys to their checkup and discussed with her how to stop the plucking.
This is what she recommended:
.✓ Move her away from the boys to another room. First we tried a different room but they would still call to each other. We moved her to my daughter's house so she wouldn't hear them.
✓ Cover her cage for 12 hours a night.
✓ Give her new toys and allow for lots of free time from her cage. We also rotate toys in and out for variety.
✓ Ensure she gets a healthy diet. We feed La Febers for seed and always give fresh veggies and fruit daily. Treats, such as millet, only occasionally. She always has a cuttle bone too.
✓ Ensure she is eating, drinking and bathing normally.
✓ Keep her cage cleaned. We do this daily.
✓ Non-absorbant e-collar if plucking continues.

We noticed she seemed depressed and was plucking more when she was at my daughter's house. My daughter has budgies so she did have other feathery friends but was not around other lovebirds. Same food, same cage, same schedule, etc.

Reunited the three lovebirds (in their own cages as usual) as the only change was negative. She is happier and more active again and eating normally again. The plucking is continuing and back to less plucking since she was reunited. She doesn't display any mating behaviors with either male. She does shred paper anytime she can get it and will build a nest but no eggs at least.

Now we are using a little e-collar which she constantly picks at trying to get it off. I don't blame her one bit! It took a few days for her to get her balance back and to be able to walk, fly, climb, etc. During that time she was monitored continuously to make sure she did not hurt herself, fall into her water, get stuck, etc I feel like the most horrible human in the planet even though I am just trying to help her. Please don't judge me too harshly! We are just at our wits end.

I need help! Does anyone have suggestions? Any ideas of what we might be doing wrong or if there is something we need to change or fix?

 

[Debbie292d]

I can't help much with a lovebird, but have that issue with a macaw. We tried everything you did. Vet checks came back with nothing wrong. I had her for five years before she started plucking and nothing had changed. Five more years went by and I got the idea to get her another macaw. We found one at a sanctuary that also was a plucker. It didn't help. It's now 10 years after that and the two of them both continue to pluck. They are happy, sassy, healthy, have toys, wood to chew, good parrot pellets, and bananas are their favorite fruit. They go outside on nice days as we have an aviary. Two different avian vets are at a loss as to why they do this.

If I'd found something that worked, I'd tell you, but it sounds like we've both tried everything possible. If the collar shows improvement, I'd continue with that and sure hope it stops her.

Good luck!

 

[Catastrophic]

I’ve kept lovebirds for a decade at this point, and I believe this is more of a stress problem. but I haven’t raise lovebirds in a caged setting in years at this point and keep them all in a aviary which has massively helped with their overall health and longevity of them. What type of feed are you feeding them and have you considered worms or mites being the issue? I’ve had birds in the past pluck their feathers due to mites. Hope you find your solution!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I know why it happens and I can explain it but, in the end, I don't think you'll like or even accept the final analysis.
I haven't personally kept a macaw as a pet but I have worked at a macaw rehab, breeding and restoration program in Costa Rica. At the time, we had more than 400 Scarlet and Great Green Macaws at the facility. Most were rescues from makeshift zoos, hotels and people's homes where they kept them as pets. Many of them that had been kept as pets had the biggest issues. The problem is that these birds mate for life. When kept as pets, they usually view their owner as their mate. There are some problems with that.
First, they outlive their humans. If one chooses to get a large macaw as a pet they are, in effect, condemning that bird to a future life of emotional turmoil. The greater problem is that besides mating for life, it isn't like human marriage, it is a true lifelong commitment in the bird's way of thinking they have bound themselves to each other and their mate would never leave them. But the human will leave, even if they choose not to. The human will die. The bird will outlive you, they will outlive your children, even if your children vow to keep and wed themselves to the bird all their lives, it still won't matter. We had a breeding pair of Scarlets that were over 90 years old. When they lose their mate, they can and usually do go crazy. that can manifest itself in many ways. That can be violence or self-mutilation. The plucking can be a nervous way to occupy their mind. A stress reliever. Under normal circumstances, the bird would occupy its time with their mate: preening, feeding, canoodling, foraging together in the forest, soaring in tandem in the skies, nest building, raising young, etc.
Hanging out in a cage, no matter how large, waiting for brief, periodic interactions with their human mate is unfulfilling for such intelligent, long-lived animals.
The rescues in our care, in many cases had just become dangerous violent creatures lashing out at anyone who came close. We had one scarlet macaw that was totally bald except for its head. A sure sign it was self-plucking. I knew of a young adolescent girl who got a large macaw as a pet. With her spending lots of time with the bird, till she went away to college, the bird had necessarily yet erroneously assumed the girl was its mate. However after returning from school, the bird was livid, not being able to absorb the fact that its mate would abandon it. From that time on the bird relentlessly attacked its owner and could never again be allowed to be in the same room.
Most large cities have rescue facilities with a fair number of these birds yet now unqualified to be pets.
As tempting as it is, given the realities and disparities between species, I don't feel these majestic birds should ever be taken as pets.