Feather Plucking in Parrots
One of the most unfortunate sights one can ever see in the world is a pet bird with a pluckng habit. My own cockateil, purchased as an older bird from a yard sale when I was in 6th grade, came to me with this problem. Any time she is left in the cage for more than 2 days at a whack, she starts ripping out her tail feathers and playing with them one by one. Unfortunately, once the behavior starts it's like nail biting in humans—depending on the length of time it's been doing it and other factors, it's really difficult to get a bird to stop.
But how does it start? Sometimes it is the result of a nutrition deficiency caused by the all-seed diet many bird owners give to their bird—lacking proper vitamins, the bird's skin gets itchy and dry, so it overgrooms. Soon it plucks the feathers entire from its rough grooming, which becomes a habit. Other times, it is the result of emotional disturbance caused by too many solitary hours in a cage. It's not only a way of getting attention, it's a self-destructive behavior that can provide entertainment to an unstimulated bird. My own bird uses her feathers as a musical instrument, running back and forth in her cage dragging it across the bars. If you take it away, she plucks another and repeats the behavior. Not all find the feather a toy. Some will go further than the feathers and rip off skin. There have been cases of parrots where they've died from self-inflicted injuries.
How likely a parrot will turn to plucking as an outlet to release stress depends on the bird, but some species are much more likely than others. It has been cited in most places the African greys are the most likely to feather pluck. African Greys are among the most intelligent of parrot species, the most notable individual being Alex, who was shown to have the intelligence of a 5 year old with the emotional development of a 2 year old. African Greys are really sensitive to their environment, and are highly neophobic and easily stressed. Smaller, less intelligent psitticines (parrots and parrotlike birds) such as parakeets and lovebirds are much less likely to show plucking behavior In fact, I've been really into bird behavior for years and have never heard or read of a parakeet that plucks.
Unfortunately because of the habit nature of this behavior, the best cure is prevention. Feeding a bird a diet rich in vitamins by providing a nutritious staple (pelleted food being much better than seed) and a constant varied supply of fresh vegetables is one way of eliminating the nutritional type of plucking. Providing the bird with a large variety of toys that are rotated often and hours of one on one time daily with their owners is the best way to prevent this behavior from starting. Once the behavior starts it's very difficult to diagnose the cause and treat it. Plucking is the symptom of a problem in the environment and not of the bird; it's really too bad more people buying birds don't realize this because feather-plucking is among the top causes for birds to be surrendered to shelters or given away for free on Criagslist.
For further reading:
For more information on African Greys:
An African Grey
The people that run this site also run a forum and can provide more practical information than any other place I've seen.
The Alex Studies By Irene Pepperberg Harvard University Press 2002
By the sceintist that works with Alex, it gives a nice overview of African Greys but focuses more on the training techniques used with him compared to traditional science. I highly recommend.
The largest bird rescue in America. They are open to the public, take in hundreds of neglected birds year round from all over the US. They have a lot of practical experience with birds and also a lot of professional staff on hand. They write many articles on bird behavior and rehabilitation.
Michelle Vigeant
Labels: bird, feather plucking, psitticine
posted by PWH @ 2:04 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
This is a very interesting article. I have never heard of birds plucking their feathers until now. You mentioned that the African Greys were most noted for feather plucking and you also mentioned that they were very intelligent. I was wondering if there are any studies that show if the intelligence of the bird is correlated with the plucking of its feathers? With your cockateil, did you notice any symptoms before the bird actually started plucking its feathers; did it begin bitting its toenails or behave in a similar manner? I am also interested to know if once the plucking behavior begins and becomes habitual, will the bird be able to fully stop the behavior given the right nutrition and placed in an healthy environment? Overall this is very well written and I am interested to know more about the plucking behavior in birds.
Posted By:
Nelina Bridge(4)
It seems to be similar as hair plucking in humans. Do you only have one bird living in the cage? You stated that solitude for hours at a time may be the cause of this behavior, do you think that if you had another cockateil the bird that you currently have will stop pluckin its feather out or is so accustomed to doing so that the bahavior will not change? It is really interesting to see that your bird plucks its feathers out and uses them as a musical instrument. This shows that they are able to make connection between object and what they can be used for.
Posted by: Vanessa Raphael (4)
I really liked your post, especially because you have personal experience to go along with it. It's really sad that a lot of pet birds suffer from this because their owners aren't providing them with the right kind of care. You mentioned that, depending on the length of time the bird has been plucking, it's difficult to get them to stop. Is there any neurological research that's been done to find out the inner workings of the habit? Or a cause on a molecular level for the forming of this habit? Just wondering if maybe you knew.
Great article! Really well written!
-Posted by Katie Ensor
I'm sorry that it took me so long to respond! I'm glad that I peaked your interests, psitticines are something that mean a lot to me, and I love going on about different behaviors.
We tried getting a partner for my cockateil, but she harassed her to the point we had to rehome the partner because we didn't have enough time to give to both birds individual out time and still have Artemis not pluck. She screams a bit before plucking and its the result of her being left in the cage too much or if she wants something and we won't give it to her (she's a junk food addict but it's really not healthy so most of what she gets she steals). She thinks that she is a human, and much prefers human company to bird company.
She actually has a pattern of behaviors that she does when plucking. She's root around her feathers in a manner that can best be described as angry and she'll make small squeaks of pain as she rips them. She plucks from the outside of her tail in, and will start on the wings before plucking too many tail feathers to fly. She pulls out a long feather, and then paces with it back and forth agaist a wall of her cage, brandishing it much like the token prisoner with a cup banging against the bars. When she gets bored of it, she will tuck it so that it balances between two of the bars or sticks it like a flag in her food-dish, then plucks another and repeats.
There has been a lot of research done into this to determine how to break the habit, but I honestly don't know whether or not it's been studied on a chemical level. Now you've got me wondering! The Gabriel Foundation has a lot of more in depth articles on the behavior, and I'm sue some research has been done into the causes. I do know that as someone had asked, intelligence does lay a major role. African Greys have another trait though that also makes them susceptible and that is that they are neophobes and can also be neurotic.
My personal theory for why this all happens is that we forget that physical growth doesn't equal to psychological and emotional growth. Many pet birds are bought and sold long before their natural childhood is over. They are put in a cage away from their flock and expected to entertain themselves without constant physical contact or presence of their flock. It's slowly being uncovered that congo African Greys (as opposed to the Timneh) have as much as 2 years in the wild where they are raised and schooled by the flock as well as their parents. Fledging and weaning does not necessarily lead to adulthood! Yet today, responsible breeders sell these birds at weaning, when they are easiest to handle and are adaptable.
Unfortunately, the adaptability of young birds has been exploited in recent years by irresponsible breeders who do not want to spend the time hand-raising chicks (which are better priced on the market due to the myth that they are tamer—chicks raised on both human offered foods and with their parents then weaned free-choice at their own pace are much less emotionally dependent and thus better pets and less likely to pluck!). They claim that hand-raising them yourself makes them bond better to you due to imprinting. Most people don't realize that parrots are not ducks and do not imprint like they do. The result of all these myths (as well as programs like Kaytee's where birds are raised factory style with no thought to emotional development) are that many if not most birds on the market are neurotic, clingy, dependent and have no idea how to have fun without a human present and interacting with them.
~Michelle
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