Possible feather plucking.

[a11ycat]

Hi,
This evening I noticed my Senegal parrot has some bald areas around his neck. If it is feather plucking, I haven't seen him do it and it would be the first case with him. The area is about 2cm wide on his neck and extends in a small band around the front of his neck and it is definately in reach of his beak.
There has been quite a bit of change in his life recently, as in December I moved to a new house, then over the Christmas holidays I was away and he was looked after by my boyfriend for 3 weeks. I've now been back with him for two weeks and hadn't noticed a problem before and I'd like to think I'm quite observant about my birds - I'm more likely to overreact.
This past week I've also started introducing pellet food into his diet in the aim to eventually switch him to pellet food. I think he has eaten some of the pellets, though certainly not all, finishing off the seed in his bowl completely and wolfing down any food treats or veggies that he gets. Currently he is getting a mix of pellets and normal parrot food; about 1/3 pellets to 2/3 parrot food.
I'm wondering whether this process might be stressing him out and causing him to pluck or whether it is something else and what I should do to help.
Any ideas?

Concerned parrot mommy.

[Berserka]

I would definately be of the opionion that so many changes have stressed him out.
You have named:
1. Moving to a new house
2. Being gone for 3 weeks
3. Boyfriend bird sitting
4. Trying to change him to pelleted foods
All this is within one month! That would stress me out.
This is how he see's things:
My mummy/girlfriend has made us move nest, then mummy/girlfriend abandoned me, mummy/girlfriend left me with the contender, mummy/girlfriend is trying to poison me with different 'things' I don't really recognise in my food bowl.
I can't cope with this anymore! *Plucks feathers* (us human's, we'd pull our hair).

You have both gone through so much this past month it is no wonder. He really doesn't understand, especially when you left after moving 'nest', he probably thought you'd abandoned him.

It is possible that he has mites that are making him itch and he's pulling/biting at his feathers to alleviate it. If you have further concerns then maybe a visit to an avian vet is in order - if you can find one that also practices in parrot behaviour as well even better.

But my opinion is, the poor boy (no doubt you too) are very stressed out and needs some TLC.

I hope he settles down quickly for you.

Here is a link with information about how to convert to pelleted diet: www.vetafarm.com.au/manage/documents/Pellets.pdf