Giving your bird oral medication can really help to ensure proper dosage and good recovery from illness. Move slowly. Stress bars are horizontal lines that run across the shafts of the feathers, and give a good generalised indication that your bird is stressed, although of course it does not help you to identify the cause of stress! Otherwise, knowing common cockatiel behavior can help you determine what he's trying to say and how to fix it. Stress bars are the most commonly found physical indication that a pet bird is suffering from stress. You can cover your parakeet’s cage at night to instantly calm him down for quiet hours, and providing plenty of interesting toys, rotated every couple of weeks, will keep your bird’s mind engaged when he is without company. Your birds will pick up on your demeanor, so if you are stressed, they will become stressed, too. I have no experience when it comes to pets and hope that some one can help provide a guidance as what to do to save the little bird. A pet prescription can remedy all sorts of problems, says animal expert Arden Moore. Your new parakeet needs a place to call home, and equipping that home with the right accessories can help keep him calm. Insufficient diet also leads to skin and feather problems, which the bird tries to solve by feather plucking. You can't accuse a parakeet of hiding his feelings when he's stressed. I live in Auckland, New Zealand. Whilst regular handling is important for health checks, chasing a bird around a run for 5 minutes every time will not help. Another stressful situation occurs when the bird is moved from one place to another, or when there is a change in its habitual environment. Watching for signs of shock in Birds: Shock usually is a result from physical or emotional trauma, such as but not limited to, being terrorized by a cat, to much blood loss, infection, poison or dehydration. Without giving you a poultry veterinary science lesson, let’s just say that stress causes changes to occur in the gut that lowers the pH. Shock may range from mild to severe, and can cause total collapse, coma and death. Spending time around animals, such as going bird watching, enjoying the company of a therapy dog… If you notice your bird sleeping more than it used to or moving less overall, it may indicate a high level of stress. Recent research into nature’s impact on mental health gives us reason to believe so. Stress bars are horizontal lines that run across the shafts of the feathers, and give a good generalised indication that your bird is stressed, although of course it does not help you to identify the cause of stress! A stressed bird will squawk, scream, fidget and otherwise let you know that he needs some calm—all you have to do to give it to him is figure out why he's bothered and address the issue.