your thoughts on my ece loosing feathers

[Angela Kemp]

Hi everyone. I am new here. Have a ece called Peter I raised him from a baby.
My husband got for me as very ill at the time. The local vet says hes got a mental problem not a physical one. Whenever he sees any flys, mosquitios or
any flying bug he starts to scratch. Perhaps i have spoilt him to much and he is used of having us around. His feathers seem to take forever to grow. His body can be beautiful and his head poor or the other way round. He has several teddys that are his sexual play mates. We have other birds but always have had them. He has a good diet made up of lots of different things.
Bottom line is he is a spoilt brat. He sleeps on my pillow, when he gets cold he comes under the blanket. When hes thirsty he gently bites my lip. When he had to got potty he starts to scratch so i wake up but mostly he bits me gently on the cheeck. When he gets scared he says "its alright, its ok, mummy comed" we speak german and english to him so he talks in a mixture.
He often comes up to me makes the noise of a kiss and says Oh i love you.
So theres my peter bird..so what u reckon...spoilt yes??
I have included some pictures..full of feathers and at his worse. Also when he won the local pet comptetion for the cutest pet.

[huntress]

My first thought would be allergies. And a second opinon. Is your vetrinarian specifically an Avian vet? The reason I ask is because Avian medicine has come a long way and they way you say sometimes its his head and sometimes its his body.... You say you feed him a variety? Are there any colored/flavored pellets in his diet? Eckkies have a more specialized need in the diet which Im sure your aware of but he REALLY sounds like allergies and that would mean a long term expiriment by removing one thing at a time for a few months at a time. Hope this helps BTW, SPOILT IS GOOD,LOL!!

Start by removing anything with Artificial flavor and color for about six months and see what happens

[Sashagirl]

Well said Huntress I was thinking the same thing.Can you list what his diet consists of?I am now owned my 7 Eclectus and when my youngest Eclectus Merlin joined me I had so many problems with him.After monitoring his
diet closely I realised there were certain foods he couldn't have.I went through the process of elimination and it was very frustrating for a while.I identified the different foods that he couldn't have.Now all my Eclectus share the same diet.I haven't had any problems since.At one point Merlin was lossing feathers and I thought it was molting only to find out it wasn't.Merlin has really improved and it has been such a relief.

[Amie]

My first thought is actually seasonal plucking, though I would definitely take Huntress' advice as well. In the last picture, he's DEFINITELY barbered. . . .he looks just like my little nudist Scarlett. But, he has no bald spots, so I'm thinking it's not behaviorial plucking so much as his skin may just bother him during the mating season.

If it happens that his feathers look awful during the Spring and Fall, but beautiful during Winter and Summer (or vice versa, depending on where you live), that points to seasonal plucking. In that case, you may only need to shower him and possible mist him with aloe during the mating season, and it may fix itself.

Also, I've noticed from my experience and that of other bird owners (specifically ekkies and greys) that shelled peanuts can often cause skin irritation. If he's eating shelled peanuts, replace them with shelled almonds or shelled pinenuts, as a precaution.

Congrats on cutest pet!! He definitely deserved it!

[Monica]

Besides diet, I'm also wondering about cage.... do you have pictures of his cage?

And what about his love toys? He may be frusterated due to his love toys not responding to him, which could be a part of the problem. Sexual behavior usually is not encouraged in dogs or cats... actually for the most part, it's discouraged... I mean, after all, it would be VERY embarassing to have friends or relatives over, and have little kids with stuff toys laying about... and when people come over the dog goes over to the toys and starts humping them... or worse, the dog decides to hump the peoples legs! You would not encourage that type of behavior in dogs, so likewise, we should not encourage it with birds, either. Thankfully though, dogs are less complex than parrots and thus easier to deal with! If a bird adores an object, but at the same time causes frusteration, then removing that object could cause screaming or plucking, or even just a depressed bird....

Local vets... avian or not? Have any done any blood tests to ensure your eckie is healthy?

[Angela Kemp]

Thanks so much for your replys. Ok found couple pictures where he hangs out. they older ones hes got alot more toys around. Can see in one the feather problem again and the other oh hes going for a scratch.
Answers to few of questions..he dosnt have a cage, he lives freely in the house with part of the back room for playing, going potty and hanging out. There is a big cage in back room the galah is in it but on one side it has a play area and feed area. Peter uses that.Also in the other part of the house were we carry out our electronic repairs, Peter and the conure fly freely also with branches of trees cemented in with toys and stuff..
Pellets he eats same plain ones. I do think that perhaps it may be something in his diet as u mentioned. We have put him on a strict proper bird diet, think sometimes he thinks he is a dog. Helps himself to our plates. Always after fried potato chips which is big no no but u should see him move to get one. Looks like a duck with a bad woddle.
Peter has only two little teddys which he will have anything to do with. And they are his. They sit on bench with a mirror in front. He flys down to them when he wants to..or walks whatever suits him at the time and depends where our german shephard is.
Now shelled peanunts oh u must be kidding. He is to lazy. Funny he acts like a real bird when my husband around, holds food in his hands and eats properly. Oh but soon as he spots me, its a con. Drops the food and waits for me to pick it up or him. He crunchs the peanut and shell and drops the lot. Told u he is spoilt. I think that is because a few years back we were doing some building around home. The door was left open and my husband thought peter went looking for me. Well he went missing. He was very young. Well that broke my heart. I searched from sun up to sun down for 2 days. I knew he was close by as could hear him, he made this stupid squeal he tried to copy from our conure. And i found him looking under a gate at me. He got on my hand and i lifted him up until could get him over the gate.. I cried...he snuggled into me. And slept and ate for the whole day. His wing was injured and i promised him that nothing ever will hurt him ever again. Could not have children so he was it. heh sorry to go on but thanks for listening.