blue and gold macaw nesting behavior??

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blue and gold macaw nesting behavior?? - plucking

by Tish
(Havre De Grace , Maryland USA)

I have had my macaw for about 5 yrs, was told when she was giving to me she was between 8 and 12 yrs old? About six months after I got her she started plucking her feathers on her chest. I took her to a avian vet who did several test and put her on diazapam and a anti depresant.. nothing seam to work.
They suggested to give her a lupron shot. which was way out of my price range since she may need it 2 times a year @ $600.00 a shot.
She has contiued to pick all her feathers on her chest and back.
Now she stared with a what seams to me a nesting behavior?
She tears all her paper up on only 1 side of her cage and is spending alot of time on the bottom of the cage.
She also has been perching differently with 1 leg on her food dish and the other on her perch with the tail touching the perch. she will stand upright on the perch at times and start this whinning sound while her head is streached back.
All this is new and she has been doing this for about 1 and 1/2 weeks.
when I get near the cage she wants to go to the bottom to get some attention. I wanted to discourage this so I would walk away. being that she would consider me to be her mate.
worried ...should I be concerned and will she get over this herself

Comments for
blue and gold macaw nesting behavior?? - plucking

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Dec 22, 2010

she layed an egg
by: Anonymous

well tonight she layed a egg. wont leave the bottom of her cage. WOW....Poor thing seamed like she went through alot for that egg. Its not fetile. So what dod i do now.???

Dec 14, 2010

she?
by: Tish

The previous owners said she laied a egg at one point. I saw it. but it was broken on the bottom of the cage. She was not diplaying any odd berhavior then either.
I have also read that once they start plucking it is very hard to get them to stop.

What about the behavior about spending alot of time on the bottom of the cage? This had happened suddenly. She has a very large cage with two sides, but only tears the paper on the one side.
As far as all those test the vet didnt offer or think I needed to have it done. I am thinking I just am over my head and over my buget on this. I dont want her to have undiagnosed problems either.
There is only 1 aveian vet in my area. Not to many around.

Dec 13, 2010

B&G plucking
by: The Avian Vet

First, you need to get a diagnosis for why she is behaving this way. How do you know that she is a she? Was she DNA sexed? Were x-rays taken? Did they do a triglyceride blood level? I do not think this is a behavior problem. Most feather damaging birds I see have health problems and not behavior problems. The diazepam and antidepressants are not effective in 99.99% of cases because it does not get to the root cause of the problem. First you need more diagnostics to determine if this is truly a reproductive problem. Start with radiographs to see what the ovaries look like. IF that is not conclusive then you need endoscopy. Lupron is an effective treatment for some cases, however, $600.00 per injection is incredibly high, and second, without diagnostics, including radiographs, endoscopy and triglyceride levels, there is no way to know if she even needs it or not. I think you need to do more to find out the cause, and maybe see a specialist.

Dr B

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