BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds Not sure what to do about my finch???

Hi,
I wrote a previous post concerning my finch which has lost feathers around the tail feathers.I have seperated her yesterday.I`m afraid she might be pulling them herself as i found 2 feathers on the bottom of the cage.She is really an active bird.Is there something i can give her to help get her feathers back?I don`t want her to get ill?Don`t know much about these birds.
thanks

When a bird plucks herself, you really should be taking her to an avian veterinarian to find out whether something is wrong or not.

Its possible, since you thought that another bird was doing it to her, that the area is itchy and she pulled these last two out while trying to scratch the area.

Its also possible that she had been doing it to herself all along & you will want to find out what the problem is before it becomes a habit.

Feather plucking is like humans biting our nails. Some birds do it out of boredom, some because they're nervous. Of course, it could be something deeper than that, so a trip to a good avian vet may be in order. Since I have close to 40 finches, one that appears plucked is taken out of the flight and put in a "hospital cage" and given a product called "feather-up". 9 times out of ten, this does the trick. Since I have a colony of birds, I watch for a while to try and piece together which bird is picking on him or if its just self mutilation.

hiya your finch might be pulling her feathers out as she wants to breed and make a nest the best thing you can do is put a nest in the cage and if she pulls out the feathers and puts them in the nest the u no that she wants to breed. p.s don't worry it's a common thing and the feathers will grow back. :rolling: any questions about finches just e.mail me at gpt69@hotmail.com