New Macaw

I need advice, I am not sure there is anything I can do, but it's worth a shot. My boyfriend and I recently adopted a 23 year old Blue and Gold Macaw. Her original owner passed away and she spent the last 3 years with a man who did not know how to take care of her. Needless to say, she was not easy to handle for a while. Well, she has completely latched on to me and feels completely comfortable now. My question is this...after her first owner died, she plucked all of her feathers out on her chest and legs. Over the last 3 years, she has kept them plucked, she is completely bald on her chest, legs and some of her back. New feathers have recently started to come in, yet she pulls them out. I feel she is doing this out of habit, but I didn't know if there was anything I could do to help her grow them back. She is a beautiful bird, I just wish her would let her yellow feathers could grow in. Any advice?
Thanks,
Krista

 

Hi your right she is now doing his out of habit and its usually verty hard to break it.

What you can try is spend as much time with her as possible talking to her petting her and so on.
Giving her toys to take her mind off things usually helps also giving her different foods like fruit vergtables and a mixture of seeds and pellets.

Using a spray bottle normally used to spray plants can be used to give her a bath simply use warm water and spray her feathers about 5inches away from her all over she will open up her wings and spread them and turn upside down this will get rid of any dust that could be agrivating her.
Also having her checked by an avian vet to make sure she has no mites that might be causing her to pull her feathers out this is just a suggestion....


But the toys and treats is usually enough to stop her from doing this.

Good luck and hope she comes out of this habit patience is the key.

mike