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A few years ago my lovely African Grey parrot went through a phase of plucking her feathers out. She ended up bald all over apart from her head.
She cost us hundreds in vet bills just to be told its a habbit.
Shes been brilliant again for years and has had a full body of lovely feathers...................

Today i got up and shes been plucking. [:(] her neck is now bald. The way shes going, she will look oven ready again in no time.

wow Mrs S I have exactly the same problem with big bird, we had to move him on Saturday as he is almost totally bald. Other than looking butt ugly he is fine, we have tried everything, vitamins, a UV light (took me hours to wire it all up) and a new cage. Still the little monster is plucking. I know they need sunlight, stimulation, company but also they need their own 'space'. He hates everyone except my son who he loves so we have put him in his room, its a huge room, so should be Okay. He is much better now, I put it down to the darkness in the hall, there is no fresh air there either, plus we only walk past. He is now glued to the TV and seems much happier.

We had her at the vets.She had blood tests and she was even put to sleep so they could check it wasnt a problem with her internal organs.
Everything came back fine.
I do know with African Greys that they are very tempremental and dont cope well with change (a bit like our kids hey?) It can take something as silly as moving furniture around to set them off plucking. Once they get into the habbit, its painful when the feathers start growing back again so the easiest thing for the bird to do is pull them out again. Its one big viscious circle.
We have tried pain relief drops in her water in the past and at one point she even had to wear one of them collars that look like a lampshade. It was far too heavy for her and she kept falling off her perch so we took it off.
Aloe vera juice sprayed on them is supposed to be good at it eases their sore skin but i have never been able to find any.

I'm just going to have to keep my eye on her but i know from past experience that once she starts she wont stop.

Just to add, my friend also has a bald African Grey.

Oh I see, so moving him isnt such a good idea, had to chuckle with the our kids thing as we often say he fits right in. New toys have to be wrapped in newspaper or he wont even look at them, when we put him in his new cage, he sat looking out and wouldnt look back, he was seriously miffed. Anyway, ours didnt start plucking until we moved house, he was in our old dining room which was light airy and there were lots of plants around. (apparently plants by the cage are a real boost for them). Our hall, which is the only place we can put him, is dark, and stuffy only having borrowed light, there are no windows that open, so we thought it might be lack of light. My sons room is big enough to split into two, so we have a study area, thats where we have put him, hopefully he will stop plucking soon. Thanks for the aloe vera tip, I will try that. Or perhaps they all pluck every so often? I dont know, but the vet isnt worried, he just had a look at him and said its psychological. He is talking and singing and generally being himself in every other way.

Deffinitely nothing to worry about. Its really common in African Greys. We have never moved her cage in about 6 years because we darent.
I was actually wondering if the 2 new cats were harassing her while we are out but then i think, shes hard as nails and calls our other cats over just so she can bite them.

The only thing that worries me now is that she might get cold with winter coming.

Is it true that parrots can live until about 50? I thought I had read that somewhere but am not sure if it is right.

Hi Melanie

25 to 50 (african greys) is often quoted in the books but some have known to still be alive at 70 or even 80. It depends on the quality of life, nutrition, stress (whoops, might have reduced mines expectancy) enviornment and mate.

That's fantastic to think a pet could actually outlive us.

ladyh they are brilliant creatures, so intelligent and very funny. Mine used to only have feathers on her head at one time because that was the only place she couldnt reach to pluck. It was hard to touch her back then because her skin was so sore and would bleed and parrots dont hold much blood (another bit of useless information)
She honestly looked like an oven ready chicken.

Although shes been plucking, shes still very happy gabbing and swearing and she comes to the side of the cage and asks for a kiss if i go over to her.

She had a big set of rings in her cage that she would sit on and yesterday the rings were on the bottom of the cage so i am wondering if it fell off with her in it. The fright could be enough to make her pluck again.
Thankfully it doesnt look like shes plucked any more today but yesterday she plucked right the way round her neck so she now has a bald necklace.

Melanie, i have read about people who have to mention their parrot in their will to make sure it goes to the right person in the unfortunate event because they can live that long.

Ahh lily and Mrs S they sound brilliant.
I went to a friends house years ago and they had a parrot, but it didnt like visitors particulary and scared me to death it kept trying to peck my toes. I couldnt wait to get out of there.It ran around the floor trying to get me ha ha . But they are cool birds.

Ang x

Does she say really rude swear words, and if so who has taught her such scurrilous behavior??!!!

Yes Melanie she does.
Anyone that even walks past her cage gets called a N** Head.
Also she used to call Jon an Ass Hole if he didnt share his food with her.
She calls the cats by name and when they go to her she bites them and laughs.
She asks the dogs if they want to go out.
She asks our youngest boy if he wants to go to the toilet.
She will dance if i ask her to.

The list goes on and on and on, shes says all kinds of things.

She sounds adorable - please bring some photos to Frugal Friends.

African Grey Parrots are one of most charming parrots we can keep as pet. African Gray Parrots has been kept as pet for over 4000 years in Egypt. Also they are very intelligent birds. We can train them to stop biting, obey, associate human words with meanings etc. and to intelligently apply the abstract concepts of shape, color, number, and zero-sense etc.

http://www.birdtricks.com/macaws.html