Feather plucking can frustrate and worry many bird owners. It is a major problem for birds, but is difficult to treat because of its many varied causes. The first thing you need to do is determine if your bird is really exhibiting feather plucking, and is not just grooming, preening, or molting. If you want to stop your bird from feather plucking you'll need to discover what issues are stressing it out and take care of it.
Generally, feather plucking is a complex problem. In other words, there are several contributing stressors that come into play resulting in a bird that is driven to destroy its most precious asset - the very feathers that allow it to fly retract mean or attract a mate. As you can see on the hierarchy of parrot needs your pet has the following needs:.
As you can imagine, just like you and I, when your bird isn't getting its needs met it becomes stressed out. The more stressors the bird experiences the stronger it's stress reactions become. So, now it probably makes sense how a complex set of unmet wellness needs result in the severe reaction of feather plucking and other challenging behaviors. If you want to stop your bird's feather plucking habit I'd suggest that you follow the science.
Applied Behavior Analysis behavior scientists can literally tell us the most effective strategies for resolving challenging behavior in our pet birds, like feather plucking, Here they are in order effectiveness:. Let's tackle these in order of effectiveness. You'll want to put your energy in the most effective strategies first and then move on to the other strategies. If you create a plan and a timeline of how you'd like to approach these remediation steps it will really help you out.
Without a plan it's easy to develop a sense of hopelessness about the situation. A bird behaviorist can coach you through this whole process. Parrot wellness encompasses six components that greatly enhance the health and well-being of companion birds by providing an optimal quality of life. The components include the following:. Nutrition: It is critically important to feed your pet bird an optimal, species-specific diet to prevent the effects of malnutrition.
Your bird needs to be eating a high quality, premium bird pellet like Harrison's, Roudybush, or TOPS pellets accompanied by a wide range of uncooked, fresh, plant-based foods such as vegetables, low sugar fruits, herbs, grains, tree nuts, and more.
Like any good parent, it's important to know what normal behavior is, as well as, training for new skills and shaping manners. Over and above, it will be important to learn effective strategies to turn around challenging behavior.
Applied Behavior Analysis Is the behavior change process a choice. Or, you can work with a bird behaviorist to make faster progress. One best things that you can do for your bird is to teach it how to forage and our foraging activities as much as possible.
Foraging is the process of working to obtain food. Wild parrots do it all the time. In fact, they spend a good portion of their day just finding food sources and working to obtain they're rich nutrients. Wild parrot parents teach their young how to forage so you'll need to teach your pet bird the joys of foraging. It's not that hard to teach a bird to forage. In fact, I've got a video on it here. Or, if you prefer to read about it, check out my book here.
These are toys that are designed for you to hide your bird's food in it. Some of my favorite foraging toys or should I say my bird's favorite foraging toys , are found below. I've tried some of the cheaper foraging toys on Amazon but I was concerned about the metal hardware that was used to make them.
That's why I recommend that you stick with quality, well-known brands. While feather plucking is a behavioural disorder, moulting is a normal cycle where birds shed their old feathers and regrow new ones.
Birds who are feather plucking and molting tend to have similar personality and behavioral changes such as:. The table below will help you identify the symptoms of feather plucking and help you tell if your birds are plucking and molting. Note: different species molt at different times of the year and the length of time it takes to complete a molt is different species to species too. Intact feathers large and small down feather containing the entire shaft lying on the bottom of the cage.
Areas of the body that are mainly pecked or plucked are the more accessible regions where the bird can easily reach with its beak such as the neck, chest, flank, inner thigh, ventral wing and tail.
There are many reasons as to why birds pluck their feathers and there usually is a combination of factors that triggers plucking. To hopefully help you identify the reasons that could have caused your bird to feather pluck, this section categorizes the causes of feather plucking into medical, environment, dietary and mental factors. Folliculitis Folliculitis is a condition in which skin and feather follicles become red, inflamed, itchy and painful which causes birds to pick at it and pluck their feathers.
Folliculitis can be caused by bacterial, viral or fungal infections and can be the primary i. Bacterial infection of the skin and feather follicles are usually caused by improper sanitation and cleanliness. Dermatitis skin inflammation The discomfort and itch from irritated and inflamed skin may trigger feather plucking behavior. Causes for skin irritation include:. Although PBFD does not technically cause the plucking behaviour, many symptoms are very similar to the tell-tale signs of feather plucking.
PBFD symptoms: gradual feather loss, shedding of developing pin feathers, abnormal and tattered looking feathers. Feather cysts Feather cysts are a common condition among pet birds that occurs with a growing feather is unable to protrude through its natural opening in the skin and curls up in the follicle, somewhat similar to ingrown hair in humans. Feather cysts can cause feather plucking due to the irritation and discomfort and can also be caused by feather plucking too.
Underlying painful lesions Feather plucking can be one of the symptoms of the following diseases and medical conditions as they may cause itchy and inflamed skin that leads to feather plucking.
Liver and kidney disease Feather plucking is one of the symptoms of liver and kidney diseases. Also, the diseases may cause itchy and inflamed skin that leads to feather plucking. Heavy metal poisoning Feather plucking is one of the symptoms of zinc toxicity.
The behaviour of birds is very much regulated by their biological clock, which is affected by external environmental factors. Below are some environmental factors that upsets their circadian rhythm, causing anxiety which can trigger feather plucking behaviour. Protein is necessary for healthy feather growth as feathers are mainly composed of keratin insoluble protein made of amino acids.
Birds who do not receive enough protein in their diet tend to suffer from unnatural feather loss and poor feather quality with very similar symptoms of feather plucking. Insufficient vitamin A may lead to dry and itchy skin that results in discomfort which may contribute to feather plucking. Chelated calcium deficiency The most common cause of feather plucking in birds is chelated calcium deficiency. As calcium is an essential mineral for both nerve and muscle function, birds who do not receive enough calcium in their diet often show nervous behaviour such as fear, aggression and feather plucking.
Despite popular belief, cuttlebone as it is not a bio-available source of calcium. Most of the cuttlebone that is eaten goes straight out in the poop and the calcium is not absorbed into the bloodstream. Trauma and stress Many parrots that were previously mistreated , neglected or traumatized tend to pluck their feathers as a stress-coping mechanism.
Depressed birds plucking their own feathers is comparable to people cutting their wrists, because endorphins are released despite the pain.
Loneliness, anxiety, frustration and fear Parrots are instinctively very sociable animals and rely on their flock in the wild to be alerted of danger. The Parrot chooses its favourite human and in frustration at the non-consummation may get aggressive or pluck its own feathers.
This sexual plucking is often marked with Cockatoos. Providing a mate is not necessarily the best solution. The Cockatoo whose innate nature tells her or him to mate is also habituated to living with humans. Presenting a Cockatoo bonded with a human with another Cockatoo can be a recipe for disaster. Credit: Dot Schwarz Giving the bird an enriched environment with branches to chew, toys to pay with often lessens the urge to pull out feathers and for the favoured human to avoid over petting.
Sometimes when plucking has become habitual, the bird relishes the sensation of pulling out its own feathers. It becomes a sort of vice equivalent to a habitual nail biter or even analogous to human psychotic hair pulling Trichotillomania.
And sadly if the feather is repeatedly pulled the follicles will die and the feather cannot never regenerate. Anyone who has taken in badly plucked birds and enriched their environment, while rejoicing at the return of many feathers, has to be resigned that there will remain patches of bare skin.
In these sorts of cases it can be almost impossible to prevent it. Feather plucking from boredom or from being too tightly caged or from being alone for too many hours are situations that fortunately can be ameliorated with care and enthusiasm.
My success story concerns Bobo an Umbrella Cockatoo who had had her wings cut to the bone and her tail cut off. When she came here she was covered in fluff with no feathers to speak of. Credit: Dot Schwarz After two years living in an enriched environment, my company and lots of out of cage time, her feathers mostly regrew.
She even managed a few hop flaps. What she never did was to enjoy the company of other Parrots. When the opportunity came to rehouse her to a loving one - Parrot household, I took it. A year later, Bobo has largely ceased plucking, although she can still snip her tail feathers. There is no hard scientific evidence that wing clipping is a factor in feather plucking. In my view, it is a pernicious practice because since the clipped bird knows it cannot utilize its natural means of defence and fly away, this can cause anxiety and anxiety in a cage bird often results in feather plucking.
Get the right cage for your Parrot here. Some suggestions for remedies An enriched environment with provision of ample out of cage time. Regular bathing or spraying especially in warm houses. Find Parrot baths here.
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