Hi /an/,
My girlfriend has two conures, a green cheek (pic related) and a sun conure.
Over the past couple of months, the green cheek has been plucking his belly feathers, and they're turning into this grey fluff (see pic).
Does anyone know what's going on, or what to do?
Here is a picture of him before he started plucking his feathers
>>2136164
rotated
feather plucking could be a sign of boredom or unhappiness, something could also be wrong take the bird to the vet to rule out any health issues, buy it some toys, get it some foraging stuff, keep it engaged and give it extra attention
>>2136164
bored, stressed, whatever. Google it up. Fairly common in parrots/smarter birds experiencing the things above.
Maybe bugs as well. Can't remember if parrots molt or not. I'm a chicken guy.
>>2136170
what happened to its nail?
>>2136172
parrots molt, but a normal molt doesn't look like that
>>2136174
Oh he was like that since they adopted him. I don't remember the story, but yeah, one of his claws is weird
>>2136184
it's missing, was he abused? neglected? how long has she had him?
>>2136214
I think he was born like that -- and it hasn't bothered him ever (see >>2136167; he is healthy but still has stub toe)
She's had him for like 4-5 years, since he was a teenager in bird years.But he hasn't started this plucking thing until the past several months.
oh yeah, he also started biting at her dad, even though they were always on good terms before that. I don't know if he's doing something to stress him out.
>>2136263
Ask her dad if anything changed including new smells on himself, if he accidentally hurt him/dropped him/scared him, or even just got too loud near him.
But the feather plucking doesn't seem like it would be related to that unless her dad is around a lot? Has anything at all changed in both of your lives? Are either of you leaving the house more than normal? Any new pets or a new job that could have introduced a new smell?
It could be bugs too like the other anons are suggesting. You should take them both into the vet for a check up and make sure nothing pet related is going on, and have him specifically checked up on.
You could try engaging him a bit more too. Introduce some new toys outside of his cage, maybe try some soft music and talk to him a bit.
