# my male if plucking the feathers from my female



## patpeplow (Jan 30, 2012)

I basically rescued these birds form a like in a small room with a closed door with no music or anything and they were being terrorized by cats. but now they are in a good environment and are always out of the cage and have lots of love. At first i thought they were giving eachother kisses but then realized that the male was plucking the feathers from her face, i dont know if its accidental bcause he is being very gentle almost like hes preening her. what do i do?


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## DyArianna (Aug 7, 2011)

Hi there!  Do you have any idea on how old the birds are? What do you feed them on a daily basis? Also, do they have a mineral or salt block in their cage as well as a cuttlebone? We also love pics.. so if you can post some pics of your two, especially the one with the feathers missing, it might help out a bit. 

There are also a ton of threads from previous posters on the forum. You could try doing a search for feather plucking and read up on some of the advice given.


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## patpeplow (Jan 30, 2012)

they are on a gourmet seed diet it has a ton of great stuff in it, until we get home then they are out and about usually flyin down tryin to get a nibble of whatever we're eating, we cut up fruit and lettuce, they get millet as treats, they really liek scrambled eggs, their kinda picky when it comes to the fruit and stuff though and they had 2 mineral blocks and 1 cuttlebone in theire cage, and i think they are around 7 from what i was told.


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## DyArianna (Aug 7, 2011)

Their diet doesn't sound like it's the problem. Could there be something stressing her out?? Have they mated before? Is it possible she could be getting ready or wanting to lay eggs? What do you have for toys in the cage.. anything she can shred?


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## DyArianna (Aug 7, 2011)

A couple of other thoughts though.. a lot of seed mixes may actually LOOK appealing to us humans, but really have a lot of fillers added that just don't need to be there. It is suggested to go with a plain seed mix. Another thing I noticed is that your hen appears to be overweight. You can see a crease down her chest and this is a sign of being overweight. Also, do you know if they are related? If they are, or you think they might be... you would want to strongly discourage breeding if this is what your hen has in mind.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

If you are using eCOTRiTiON bird food it would contain too much fillers and not enough seed, and over a long period of time because the bird has to pick thru the mix it can suffer malnutrition. Natures mix is a plain seed mix with no additives and may be a better option: http://www.wctropicalbird.com/fooditems/seed/natures_bulk_seed.htm This store also carries the Roudybush pellets (Nibbles) and Nutri-Berries, which many birds enjoy. And since your birds like to eat share your food with you ORIGINAL CORN BEAN MIX, which is a soak and cook blend made for birds would be an interesting and nutritious food for them.

You can check the hens body in regards to being overweight: http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=17680

Many times when you have 2 birds of the opposite sex, when hormones kick in one bird will pluck the other. If you do not know their background it might be prudent to discourage them from reproducing.


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## patpeplow (Jan 30, 2012)

thank you so much for your replies, i knwo for a fact that they aren't related, the male had a different friend early in his life and i was told the other bird flew out an open door so they got the female after that. And the only stress i coudl think of woudl have been the cats where i got them from but she seems happy and adventurus here. And i guess shes been overweight since i got her, whats the best weightloss program? and its like they try to mate but he doesnt really know what to do lol. and they have a few toys and cardboard witch they love to shred.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

*whats the best weightloss program?*
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Exercise....plenty of out time from the cage....like walking and movement. Or if in the cage a large rectangular cage that the length is more than the height so that they can move back and forth.


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