Self-mutilating Peahen, anyone seen or heard of this?

[DylansMom]

One of my two Amazon parrots feather picks, she has been doing it for over twenty years. I believe it is a skin issue, the dryer the air gets the more she will chew up her feathers. I have heard that the smarter birds will become bored and relieve their boredom by chewing. So I guess that she has two strikes against her as she has a fantastic vocabulary and loves to entertain.

Unfortunately, I don't think this relates to peafowl unless it is a skin issue. I will keep an eye on Nanu for any picking but so far I haven't seen him doing any picking.

Back in the eighties I used to raise pheasants and used the no pick specks but that was because they were picking on each other. They worked for that but I would never use them on a free-ranging pea.

Last year, way back in '014, one of our Royal Palms was attacked on her nest by probably a coyote and got really bad claw marks on her back. Nasty six inch gnashes that ran pretty deep and the feathers were gone as well. We kept Blue-Kote on her back and there was no one picking on her. I also used it on pheasants back when with good results against feather picking.

My vet also recommended we hang a flake of alfalfa bale in our pens to relieve boredom. She said that it is only natural for the peas to pick at things, giving them something to entertain themselves will keep them from not only picking on each other but from picking at dung on the ground which adds to sickness. We still have quite a few pumpkins that when they are not frozen rock solid help keep the birds entertained.

I have 4 of their adult offspring here, all full sibs to Nanu and so far none are doing this, the oldest ones are 6 now. She still has access to her outdoor run, and now that Tsunami has gone to her new home momma hen is allowed to go out anytime she wishes. There is plenty of dried out grass and weeds out there, so I would think hay would be redundant at this point.

I'm leaning toward skin condition, I would think boredom would result in year round picking, not winter only. My skin gets dry in winter as well, and both Arbor and snowshoe's birds pick in winter as well, so that seems like a pretty good possibility. So any idea how to apply moisturizing lotion to a peahen's wing?

 

[KsKingBee]

I have seen a couple of sprays in the pet stores and on-line for feather problems. One was a taste bad formula, the others were more for irritations and healing. If the Blu-Kote does not work you might consider one of those.

 

[TOP KNOT]

I read about feather mites in my chicken health handbook, it says they are to small to see. With the naked eye.

 

[DylansMom]

I read about feather mites in my chicken health handbook, it says they are to small to see. With the naked eye.

http://beautyofbirds.com/featherlice.html

They are quite visible to the naked eye, and I have seen them numerous times. Had my arms covered with them while returning a swallow that fell from it's nest, looked like fine ground pepper crawling all over me.

 

[enola]

Yuck!!!!

 

[TOP KNOT]

Different type of mite, sorry to bother you

 

[DylansMom]

Yuck!!!!

Yes indeed, fastest I ever got in the shower!

 

[DylansMom]

Different type of mite, sorry to bother you

No bother, I appreciate the input.

 

[Garden Peas]

I have 4 of their adult offspring here, all full sibs to Nanu and so far none are doing this, the oldest ones are 6 now. She still has access to her outdoor run, and now that Tsunami has gone to her new home momma hen is allowed to go out anytime she wishes. There is plenty of dried out grass and weeds out there, so I would think hay would be redundant at this point.

I'm leaning toward skin condition, I would think boredom would result in year round picking, not winter only. My skin gets dry in winter as well, and both Arbor and snowshoe's birds pick in winter as well, so that seems like a pretty good possibility. So any idea how to apply moisturizing lotion to a peahen's wing?

Well, the timing suggests a relationship to growing new feathers as well as dry winter air. That over-preening thing makes sense. And with new feathers growing in over the winter...

And even if she isn't bored per se, she might improve some if you can find interesting things for her to do, if there are things that attract her more than her itchy feathers. Kind of a distraction thing, like trying to keep a kid with chicken pox from scratching until they bleed.
Can you try applying lotion from the inside out?

So maybe some vitamin E oil supplement and some other fat in her diet? To try to alleviate dryness?

I'm thinking putting oil on feathers might be problematic, and whatever it is better be ok to ingest, so you don't inadvertently poison her if you try it on outside. I'm wondering about lanolin and a q-tip... but that's gonna be an interesting roll in the wood shavings... better get all rested up and healed from your fall for that one

I don't think I would use mineral oil or anything that the bird shouldn't consume in food, but if it is too tasty, she could decide she loves eating it, and then you would REALLY have a problem.

Plus you don't want to totally discourage her from preening and grooming. It's tricky, if you think about it.

When I was trying to find out what kind of lotions and sunscreens I could use on my dog's nose, I ran them past the vet, since they were certainly going to get licked. I was surprised at how many things could NOT be used on the dog's nose (basically any normal sunscreen was out) due to toxicity issues. Frustrating. I'm thinking a similar problem could arise here with lotions and oils.

Good luck, this has to be frustrating. Glad the Blu-Kote is helping, that's great news!

 

[enola]

I wonder if there is something you could feed her that would work, sort of condition her skin from the inside to the outside ??