How much humidity is good?

[CoCoLo]

Hi, I posted my first message her about a week ago when I mentioned CoCo was plucking and had been to the vet, had some tests done and found to be very low in Iron and Potassium. She has a shot for parasites as well.

I believe there is a way to read the humidity in a room. If so, does anyone know what a good value is for CoCo? She is still pulling out her new feather growth and appears to be itchy still. I have Central Air and a couple Parrotlets, a Conure and Amazon. None of them seem to be going through what CoCo is going through, but maybe Greys need more humidity?

I've got so many questions I don't know where to start. It just breaks my heart and frustrates me when I see her pulling her nice new feathers out. (She pulls them just as the feather is emerging from the sheath.) Tonight I made the mistake of showing my frustration to her when she started to pull out her new growth.

The Harrison's seems to have given her a bit of energy as she is now able to fly a lot better that she used to. Before that (on her seed diet), she was only able to fly about 10 feet before she would lose altitude and go to the floor. Now I have seen her take off and go straight up and fly at least 3 times that. So it's great that her nutritional levels must be coming up even only after just over 1 week of the new food! Even the sheath of the feather's she is pulling out are a lot stronger than before (the sheath used to just crumble in my hand before, now I have a hard time ripping it with my fingernails)

Here go with my questions: (besides the humidity):

1) If she is only pulling out new growth (no touching old feathers or her down), can certain things be ruled out? (ie could there be something wrong with these feathers due to nutrition that she is puling them.

2) If it is nutrition related, how long normally does it take for her levels to get to normal now that she is on a good diet? (maybe the plucking will stop after this?)

3) Positive re-enforcement. I understand this, but don't quite understand how to use this method on a feather plucker (she plucks only about 3 times a night) and if I am to reward her when she is not plucking this will be all the time and I don't know how she can possibly associate that not plucking is good. I have even been told not to do a thing when she plucks, however do not see how these 2 things will help at all.

Here is what CoCo looked like about a year ago (with my pup) and about a month ago (poor thing)

Thank you for any suggestions.

[babypiggy]

yes there is a thing that can tell u how humid it is in your place
its called a hygrometer
if u have a pet store around u can get on in the reptile section
;)
there are two tpes; a cheap dial one which are not that accurate and a digital one which is more accurate.

from what i've read added humidity may help in birds that pluck if there is nothing medically wrong with them. Also it doens't not give an percentage of humidity it just says it's fairly high
so i would think that would be 60-70% (reptile wise)
lol

if she is only plucking out the new feathers they may be bothering her as they are itchy
will she let u touch her new feathers?
u can try to crack them.. also try spraying her with organic aloe vera juice and also u could try giving her organic red palm oil


thats all i can think of

[Bela]

Going through a plucking bird with no confirmed medical ailment myself. I thought it might be the temperature in the house, but this weekend, she was rubbing her head on her preen gland (all white fluff no feathers now because she's removed them all). I did notices about six big pin feathers about a half an inch long coming in. As she fervently rubbed her head back there, wings openend, I thought maybe it wasn't temperature but humidity. AC running and it's dry as a bone in here.

She got a steam bath and mom then spritzed that area with some cool water. It did seem to calm her down. Now that she has removed a large number of feathers, I'm thinking she'll be getting lots of steam baths as the new feathers start to grow back.

As for positive reinforcement, I totally understand. One thing I did try was this: I would talk to her all sweet and smile while watching her play in her cage. She would begin to preen then rip a feather out right infront of me. I gave her the stink eye, no smile, turned around and walked away. This is the same method I used to get my other grey to stop cursing. That bird doesn't curse anymore, and although it is really hard not to show sad expression while they yank feathers infront of you, they really don't like when mom walks away or even turns her back to her. Mine too was yanking at night and I have tried to remedy that by using lighter fabric for a cage cover and leaving more of the front of the cage open. The sun has been rising just before 6am and if I don't wake up before that, it seems to me she starts with the fether pulling. The position of the sun has changed and I think she is getting more light in the morning than before. OK, I'm going off topic, sorry, but I do think increased humidity could be quite helpful. Especially if you can spend some time with your baby in a steamy environment like the shower.

I am also now running the humidifier just outside of her cage and the number is coming back around 60-62%. Not running it too close to the cage because I don't want condensation building up on the bars and maybe damaging the bars if water sits on it for too long.

[CoCoLo]

Thank you very much for the reply. I will get a hygrometer to see what the reading is. If it is low I'll go out and get a humidifier for around her cage. See if that helps.

Sometimes she will let me touch her feathers, but I don't think enough to break them as you say. It's also very hard to spray her as she absolutely hates being sprayed. I've tried making a game of it but she just hates it. But take her in the shower and I can hold her under the shower and she just sits there (I don't think she likes it, but figures she can't do anything about it so just sits on my hand while she gets a good soaking.

I'll try the aloe vera juice as well. I am using pluck no more, but as of now it doesn't seem to help with the new growth. The product makes her down and everything look very healthy (or that could be her new diet), but so far still plucking. The product said it needed about 20 days to see anything, so I am still hopeful at this point. Hopefully her new diet will begin to show results eventually.

I've got a bottle of red palm oil that I tried and she doesn't like. I'll try to slowly mix it with her food and see what happens.

Thanks again :)

[CoCoLo]

Hi Bela, thanks, yes I have been reading about your problem too. I've been reading a lot of books ever since she started developing this problem, and a few of them mention that real behavioral issues can develop for Greys right around the 2 - 4 year mark (Coco is 4). They are saying that if the eggs are taken away from the parents and the bird is totally hand raised from that point it can cause issues at around the 2 - 4 year mark such as (and CoCo has them all), plucking, taking only to one person and able to socialize with anyone else (aggressive to other people). CoCo, even though my girlfriend cleans her cage and feeds her will try to bite her any chance she gets (and draw blood). She will chase her around the house on the floor and the dog as well.

Apparently they need that initial bonding with the parents before they are taken away from the parents. They say if the eggs are taken away it will speed up the whole mating process again which leads to more $$ for the breeder.

I'm torn at this point what to do. I'm going to build a foraging tree to try and keep her busy with her natural instinct and buy a humidifier if needed. It's hard to keep her busy all the time as I have to be at work several hours a day. It's a shame, if I would have known that greys in general require more attention than other birds I would have reconsidered. I feel really bad if she is doing this because of me. I am attached to her now, but If I am causing her any grief I may look at other options if it makes her happy (there must be aviaries that could take her so that she could be in a more natural environment) It's just stressful watching her pull the feathers out. Maybe if I could convince myself that even if she continues to do this (and becomes bald possibly), she still loves being here...

[CoCoLo]

I've just thought of something. Our cage is right in front of a bay window (she is spoiled and gets a scenic view while we get to stare at her cage). Now I am thinking this might now be the best for her? I don't think it is the root cause of the plucking, but do you thing Greys would prefer to have their cage against a wall or in a corner and maybe the front facing the window a little ways away? I'm thinking they are very skittish in the wild and having the cage like this means that both sides of her are unprotected at all times. With a wall behind her she may feel more at ease? I thought it would be great that she would be able to see outside and what is going on, but maybe not in general for greys? (if there is a feeling of being trapped...)