Help........Ollie 3 yr old CAG has started plucking like mad around his neck and now down to his chest. The olny thing I can put it down to is the arrival of Beckham B/L grey.

As Becks is so very scareed of humans I put his cage next to Ollies, at first Ollie was preening him through the bars and all seemed ok. Quite often they sway cages, Becks seems to like Ollies cage and it appeared Ollie was ok in the other one.

Ollie has gone from liking my OH to biting him and today growled at him. Instead of Olliehelping Becks to come round it seems that Becks is training Ollie to be more 'wild'.

Have I made a big mistake in trying t let them become friends, Becks follows Ollie everywhere but obviously Ollie is not happy with something.

What on earth can I do to stem the plucking? Have moved Ollie away from the bird room (he was always an only bird) will try to give him more attention. I feel awful that something is upsetting him and I don't know what it is. His old owners are coming to visit him soon and instead of a friendly (to men) happy fully feathered bird they will find a semi tame plucked one!!

Any advice on what to do??????

On the plus side Becks is doing well and seems quite contented!

Oh Lesley, I feel so guilty!

Do you want me to find somewhere else for Becks? Poor Ollie, I don't know what to say!

It has been suggested that this could be hormonal!! We have a suspicion that Ollie is female maybe.

Vicks.....I don't think it is in Becks best interest to move him as he seems happy, whistling away and is making slow improvements, in that he has stopped growling at me, will sit at front of cage now as before he retreated to the back and 'ALMOST' took food from my hand!!!!!

I have moved Ollie to another room so he can be with us more, also got the aloe in a spray and serving up chamomile tea!! Will see what happens with fingers crossed.

God don't you just wish you could ask them what the matter is? Came home from work and my husband said prepare yourself for a shock......Ollie has stripped his neck and chest bare!!!!

Have now moved poor Becks into dining room and got Ollie back in his own cage and all back as it was before Becks came. Now feel really guilty that Becks is on his own! Will make time to spend with both of them in turn, keep it like this and see what happens.

The funny thing is he seems quite happy!!! Chatting and whistling away and his usual busy self.

Yep Crystal, I have spoken to Shaz in depth and she has givien me some ideas, she feels it's quite probably hormonal. Of course I now feel quilty for moving Becks out, I bet he wonders what has happened.

I'll tell you what.......I never used to worry about my kids this much!!!!!

Well......it continues!!! Ollie has now stripped neck, chest, started on legs and back and tail too. He is snipping them off rather than plucking them out.

Am trying everything I can and doing what has been suggested to me by others too. God this is so awful!!!

Yes, I am Helen, am doing everything I can think of. Funnily enough he is also shredding his rope perch and his pape cage lining too which is why I though the people who said it might be hormonal could be correct.

It is so sad to see the feathers all on the cage floor....even the red tail feahers!

Hi, My African grey did the exact same thing plucked all his neck feathers out when i bought another one. I took him to the vet and he said it was stress?? He advised me to put drops of lavender around the room which i did and he stopped. Whether this worked or he got used to the new bird i will never know. Hope he gets well soon...Will

hi lesley,

belle used to pluck her chest and legs a few years back,

like you i tryed most things the vet sugested, they didn't work.

we noticed belle was abit more aggressive when she was plucking,which made us think it was hormone's.

in the end we decided on an hormone injection...and it did the trick

now if she starts to pluck, i just take her back to the vets for her hormone's (with regular checks to see if she needs a top up.

Lavender oil....interesting!! I might try that, I guess it's ok for birds then?

I think this might have started when Becks came and Ollie started to 'preen' him through the bars, however it soon became obvious that Ollie's version of preening was in fact plucking as Becks then had a bald patch on the top of his head!! Poor Becks ws so desperate for bird company he let Ollie do it and even begged him to do it.

Anyway....they are now kept apart, Ollie is shredding like mad....thanks to Argos catalogues  and his rope perch!!!  He has a couple of feathers growing on his neck and no obvious signs of plucking or snipping....mind you he hasn't many left to remove! So fingers crossed for him.

Ollie and Amy (LSC) have a new passion now.....we have a fabulous walnut tree in the garden and we have a dustbin size load of nuts drying in boxes and they LOVE to sit on the side of the box and throw out the nuts and watch where they've gone...they do it for ages, mind you it takes me flipping ages to collect them all up into the box again!!! Have to watch you don't tread on one and slip.....not in the mood for a broken bone at the moment!!