If you keep a sole budgie it is vulnerable to become a feather picker if you are not able to take care of him all the time very intensively. The best would be to get it a partner as soon as possible. This avoids your budgie to harm himself by picking its feathers.

Once a parakeet started its automutilation loads of empathy and patience are required. In any case you should contact an avian vet in order to get some medicine to support the bird's feather growth (e.g. minerals, special food supplements). Despite the fact that a naked parakeet is not quite nice, the little guy freezes much faster than a healthy and feathered fellow.

Please check exactly why the parakeet started its automutilation. If it is lonely give him the proper company of a fellow friend. For some years it is a well-known fact (in circles of experts) that solitary keeping is cruelty to intelligent and social animals like budgies, other parakeets and larger parrots.

Furthermore it is important that the bird never is bored. Offer him a lot of variety e.g. by appropriate toys and possibilities to climb. Additionally you should offer your feather picker different fruits and vegetables as their taste stimulates the bird's senses and helps to avoid boredom, too. The bird even should "work" for its seeds. For this you can offer it different sorts of millet or oats in the panicle. You also could bake your own nibble sticks. To get more information please read the nutrition chapter of this web project.

In some cases birds not even pick their own feathers - they become the victims of others that show this misbehaviour. The photo on the right shows Lessley. This young bird was the victim of its own mother who was picking its feathers in the nest box.

Not every bird whose body shows naked skin has to be a feather picker himself. If it gets a skinhead another bird might have caused it. Due to anatomical constraints birds are not able to pick feathers on their own heads. Additionally you might consider potential hormonal problems. In some circumstances the bird can lose its feathers on bigger areas. Please contact an avian vet to get help.

If small naked areas occur, please have a closer look at them. Maybe the bird has an itchy eczema? In this case it is quite obvious why the desperate bird picks its feathers! You see, feather picking is not necessarily the consequence of boredom or sexual frustration. But it can become a bad habit that can be compared to nail-biting humans.

The considerable part of feather pickers shows this self-destroying behaviour as the birds suffer from continuous mental pressure. The birds of a friend's happy and healthy budgie flock changed mysteriously. Nearly all birds began to pick their feathers - not only themselves but also each other. The photo on the right-hand side shows budgie lady Paula who died some weeks after the picture was taken. She suffered from a bad infection.

After a long research for reasons and some dramatic deaths in the flock, my friend found the cause: Her animals have been extremely frustrated. The birds were kept exemplarily, with loads of flight possibilities and best nutrition. This is why the birds were in a breeding mood. But as they had no chance to breed for years due to a lack of nest boxes and so on they became mentally depressed. The result of this depression was devastating.

German version of this text: Gaby Schulemann-Maier,
translation of this chapter: Isolde Aufschläger .

Link tip: Do you want to discuss with experts and other bird owners about your bird's health? Then please feel free to visit the English forum of . Of course you will meet me there, too. My nickname is "Feenseeschwalbe".

This chapter in Turkish on muhabbetkusu.org