Chewing Tail Feathers

[peanutskeeper]

Hi All from Canada!!!!
Im new to this Site so I thought I would give you some info. I have a 7 year old Umbrella Cockatoo who I adopted from a woman about a year ago because he was spending weeks at a time in his cage.
When I got hm he was VERY skinny and missing quite a few of his wing feathers and his Tail featers, I hoped he would leave the tail alone but everytime he gets a few new feathers he leaves them for a few days then BAM they are suddenly gone.
Im not sure what to do... This guy is my pride and joy Im trying to do whatever he needs to get this worked out... Hes such a BEAUTY but would be greater with a tail
Thanks for some help...

[donnakris]

I wish you the very best of luck. I have the same problem with Morgan. Someone had clipped/cut not only his primary feathers but his secondary feathers and all his tail feathers when we got her. I can't even count the trips to the vet, the blood feathers pulled, and everything else. I wouldn't even care about her not having all her feathers if she would just stop with the bleeding. It scares me to death that she'll start at night when everyone is asleep and I'll wake up to a tragedy.

[peanutskeeper]

EXACTLY!!! Scares the Heck out of me too... I dont care about the feathers either but it HAS to hurt !

[jmfleish]

I'm going through this as well with my D2 Reggie. If you haven't been to a vet yet, I would highly recommend it. I took Reggie in to two different vets and finally went back to our normal vet after doing some research of my own. Picking is a hard thing to deal with because there are so many different causes for it and often there isn't just one cause. The one thing that I knew with Reggie is that his picking wasn't normal. He was going after brand new feathers, especially his tail feathers and ripping them out when they were about an 1/8" long and there would be blood everywhere. An article that I read by Pamela Clark stated that too often vets want to diagnose picking as behavioral and clients are willing to believe that this is the problem. The first thing she asks when a client comes to her for behavioral help with picking issues is ask if the bird has been to a vet and if they have, she asks what tests were run. She said that almost always, the client can't answer that question and I was stunned that after two vet visits and nearly $400, I couldn't answer it either! She said the very first tests you should always run are asper, giardia, and heavy metals. Well, I was almost positive Reggie didn't have asper and my vet agreed, so we decided not to bother with that one. I was pretty sure he didn't have giardia which can be hard to detect but I insisted on that one. I also insisted on the heavy metal tests even though I'm very careful about what I give my birds, going almost exclusively with SS toy parts. My vet was certain he didn't have heavy metal poisoning and was stunned when the tests came back positive for zinc toxicosis. At least we had a diagnosis but the hard part was yet to come.

I did more reading and was shocked to find that they believed that heavy metal poisoning, especially in Cockatoos was highy undiagnosed because vets either didn't know to look for it or owners didn't want to run the tests. The tests are expensive but for peace of mind, it's worth it. 2.5 ppm (parts per million) is considered high normal for 'toos and Reggie initially tested at 3.0ppm. My vet decided that we should take a wait and see approach. I had him x-rayed to make sure there was no metal in his body and nothing turned up. I had him re-tested about two months later after taking out absolutely everything that was even remotely suspect from his environment and he tested at 4.8ppm. We decided to check him into the hospital and start the chelating process. Two shots per day of calcium EDTA for five days. His zinc levels were tested again at the end of the five days and his levels were down to 2.0ppm. Because I still don't have a clue as to where the zinc came from, I'll have to have him tested again in about two months. He's still pulling feathers but it isn't as bad now. I don't have a clue if we've removed the zinc or not but I have a suspicion that we haven't. I need to have his cage tested and my water tested but none of my other birds are having problems. It's frustrating and infuriating at the same time but I can tell you without a doubt that I will not use anything but SS for toys anymore and I'm looking into an SS cage for Reggie as soon as I can afford one. His vet bills are topping the $2000 mark and he hasn't had a tail in over a year but at least he's still alive and I know what I'm dealing with even if I can't figure out where it's coming from. Sooner or later I have to be able to figure it out. I can't stress enough to have the heavy metal test done if you have a picking bird...it's an easy thing to rule out!