|
Fact Sheet
Feather
Picking in Companion Birds
Introduction Causes Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment Prevention
Introduction
Feather picking
is one of the most frustrating problems confronting a bird
owner. Few things could be more horrifying to a bird owner
than to discover the bottom of their bird naked and the
bottom of the enclosure filled with feathers. Such a discovery
usually triggers many questions: What caused this? What
am I doing wrong? Is my bird in pain? How can I make him/her
stop?
Well, to begin, realize that
birds spend a large portion of their day grooming their
feathers. This is called preening and it is natural,
normal, and instinctive. Given their importance for flight
and insulation, feathers are absolutely essential to a
bird’s way of life. Birds in the wild spare no expense
to keep their feathers in absolutely pristine condition.
With that in mind, it is easy
to see why feather picking is considered part of a behavioral
continuum that ranges from normal preening, to over-preening,
to feather picking, and finally to self mutilation.
Over-preening or feather picking
occurs when normal feather maintenance is carried to pathologic
extremes. Most experts believe that feather picking is
a unique condition of captivity. Why? Well, as important
as feathers are to a bird for flight and insulation, severe
self-induced feather damage would not be compatible with
life in the wild.
Some bird species are definitely
more prone to feather pick than others. Any bird has the
potential to feather pick, but the African Grey
Parrot, members of the Cockatoo family,
and members of the Conure family are most
commonly affected. In the case of Grey’s and Cockatoos,
many authorities suspect that the high intelligence level
of these birds contributes to the problem. SOme authorities
also suspect that feather picking may be more common in
females than in males.
Causes
of Feather Picking
There are many causes of feather
picking but they can all be classified into one of two
broad categories: Medical or Psychological.
Most experts believe that
only about 5% of cases of feather picking are medical in
origin. The vast majority (95%) are thought to be psychological
in origin.
Exactly what triggers psychological
feather picking in companion birds is unknown. It probably
varies from individual to individual.
Psychological feather picking
has many similarities to the human syndrome called Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder (OCD). OCD is a type of anxiety disorder affecting
about 0.05% of the human population. Interestingly, the
condition is more common in people of above average intelligence.
To simplify: humans affected
with OCD display what are termed “stereotypic” behaviors.
Stereotypic behaviors are repetitive and persistent and
seem to serve no obvious purpose. Furthermore, they are
often exaggerated grooming behaviors. Examples include
constant nail biting, incessant fiddling with the hair,
frequent hand washing, repetitive touching of light switches,
etc. Apparently these stereotypic behaviors are a result
of some powerful internally derived thought or urge.
Functionally, OCD may work
something like this: A thought or urge continually resurfaces
in the affected person’s mind (the obsession). The individual
regards the thought or urge as "bad", seeks to
suppress it, fails, and then becomes anxious or frustrated
at his or her failure. In other words, anxiety develops
in the individual’s mind because they want to do something,
but they know they should not. This internal mental conflict
is unresolvable and eats at the individual over time. Eventually
he or she finds some relief by displacing his anxiety onto
the physical world in the form of ritualized or repetitive
behaviors (the compulsion).
Sigmund Freud captured the
essence of this phenomenon very succinctly. He is credited
as having said, “Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
are impelled to perform actions which not only afford them
no pleasure, but from which they are also powerless to
desist.”
Similarly, in birds a large
number of unusual behaviors are all though to be stereotypic
behaviors from which the affected birds are powerless to
desist. Some examples of such behaviors include: feather
picking, self mutilation, constant screaming, endless perch
pacing, constant perch dancing, repetitive egg laying,
and psychological water drinking. These activities serve
no obvious purpose that we can discern. They certainly
don't seem to afford the bird any pleasure. Perhaps these
behaviors are external manifestation of an internal mental
conflict that the affected bird can not resolve.
So what could be bothering
a bird so much that it would chew at it’s own feathers?
Nobody knows for sure. but here are some possibilities:
- Bad Genes. Just
as there are self-destructive people in world, so too
are there probably are some birds who will destroy themselves
no matter what we do. These birds have some sort of organ
deficiency or organic behavioral dysfunction. They would
not have survived in the wild. Captivity, however, has
allowed these harmful genes to be passed down through
the generations. Thankfully, there are few birds in this
category.
- Adverse Life Experiences. The
majority of feather pickers probably fall into this category.
Something about the life experience of these birds has
led to the development of stereotypic behaviors. The
triggering life experience may have been early life experience.
For example, avian authorities say that it is very uncommon to
see a wild-caught African Grey Parrot who is a feather
picker. However, some experts claim that as many as one
in five hand-reared African Grey’s will feather pick.
The main difference between these two groups of birds
is in their early life experiences. One group grows up
in the wild with parents and siblings. The other group
grows up in a box with no siblings and human hands instead
of parents. The difference in socialization is apparently
critical. Alternatively, the triggering life experience
may occur in later life. For example, a bird might encounter
something that is very frightening or something that
is challenging to the perceived social order. Perhaps
the bird finds itself in a situation that is confusing
to its understanding of the current social hierarchy.
Any of these situations could create an unresolvable
mental conflict in the bird’s mind, and it may react
with displacement behaviors such as feather picking.
- Chronic Motivational
Conflicts. The bird wants to do something
-- say fly about the room, or open the latch and release
itself form the cage-- but it knows that it should
not. This again could create an unresolvable mental
conflict in the bird’s mind, and it may seek relief
through displacement behaviors such as feather picking.
- Chronic Physical
Restraint/Confinement. It is rare to see a
feather picker who has spent his entire life living
on a free standing perch. Nearly all feather pickers
live in bird cages. The practice of keeping a pet parrot
in a cage in the USA began in the early 1950’s. Prior
to that time, pet parrots lived on free standing perches,
or they walked the house, or they lived in flight aviaries.
Forcing an intelligent and active creature such as
a parrot to live in a small metal box represents a
forced lifestyle change that is very different form
what the parrot has evolved for. These birds would
normally spend hours each day flying and climbing and
walking up and down trees. Is it a stretch to imagine
that this might cause the bird some anxiety?
- Unstable Social
Order and Social Inconsistency. It appears
that about the time people started confining parrots
to bird cages, they also stopped house training them
and teaching them basic manners. This may have proved
to be very damaging to the psychology of the parrot.
Parrots are very intelligent and social. They are also
flock creatures. They evolved to expect rigid social
hierarchies and clear behavioral boundaries. Consequently,
it is really no more difficult to house train a parrot
than it is to house train a puppy. You just have to
work at it! Remember too that it is the humans who
provide the social frame-work for a companion bird,
and it is the inconsistencies of the humans that under-mine
that social framework. Why, a bird might ask, is it
OK to scream and throw food during the 6-o'clock news,
but not during Jeopardy? Or, why is it OK to chew up
this wooden perch but not OK to chew up that wooden
door jamb? They’re both made of wood! What are they
going to get onto me about next? What have I done now?
- Conditioning. A
happy well-adjusted bird in a flock setting will grow
up learning that unacceptable behaviors do not bring
it the attention it needs and desires. In the home setting,
however, humans may frequently accidentally condition
or train their bird to feather pick. Here is how it might
work: Imagine a lonely bird. It spends all day alone
in its cage . Out of boredom, one day, it begins to pick
at it’s feathers. Later, the bird observes that this
causes some degree of excitement among the humans in
the household. Birds delight in activity, attention,
and excitement. The humans rush around excitedly and
pick the bird up, handling it for the first time in weeks.
They examine the bird, pet it, and talk among themselves
in worried tones. The bird thinks that's just great!
He or she is eating this stuff up! What do you suppose
that bird will do the next time it is feeling lonely
or bored?
- Reproductive Stress. “Sexual
frustration” is commonly cited as a cause of feather
picking, especially in the older companion bird literature.
While this probably does occur to some extent, most avian
medicine experts now seem to think that this factor may
be a bit over blown. It is true that if a solitary feather
picker is introduced to a new cage mate of the opposite
sex, the original bird will often reduce or stop it’s
feather picking. However, almost never do the two birds
go to mate. They may eventually, but not initially. More
likely, what is happening is that the new bird acts as
a distraction for the original bird. The original bird’s
mind is now occupied with something other than it’s own
internal mental conflict.
- Medical Disease -
As mentioned, true organic disease causes about 5% of
cases of feather picking. However, those are the very
ones most likely to respond to treatment! Shame on us
if we fail to look for an underlying medical problem.
Regardless of the underlying
cause, feather picking may eventually become a habit. So,
even if the original cause is identified and corrected,
the habit will often persist.
Symptoms
and Diagnosis of Feather Picking
Feather loss is usually easy
to spot. However, feather loss is not the same thing as
feather picking. Feather loss or feather damage on
the body and neck with preservation of feathers on the
head is the hallmark of feather picking.
Regional feather loss - for
example, the tail only, or the breast only - may be simply
normal molting. Feather loss or feather damage everywhere,
including on the head, suggests feather picking caused
by a cage companion or by a systemic disease like Beak
and Feather Disease.
Self mutilation is feather
picking with subsequent damage to skin and muscle. Self
mutilators that work at it long enough can permanently
disfigure themselves.
Proper diagnosis of feather
picking is complex and time consuming. To be candid, it
will not be inexpensive either. So why bother with diagnostic
testing? Well, there are at least four good reasons:
- In the veterinary literature,
the majority of feather pickers that have reportedly
achieved long term remission were the ones with some
treatable medical disorder.
- A few feather pickers
will turn out to have an untreatable medical disorder
such as Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease. It is important
to know if such a fatal and contagious virus is present.
- Psychological feather
picking is a diagnosis of exclusion. That means that
it is only through failure to identify a medical disorder
that one is left with a diagnosis of physiological feather
picking.
- Psychological Feather
Picking is one of the least desirable diagnosis because
it carries such a poor prognosis. Treatment of feather
picking is most likely to be successful only if a specific
treatable medical cause can be identified.
At Chastain Veterinary Medical
Group, we have evolved the following protocol to work up
a feather picking bird:
- Observation, collection
of a detailed history, physical examination.
- Laboratory testing: CBC,
full biochemical panel, serum bile acid analysis, and
DNA Probe tests for Beak and Feather Disease and Avian
Polyomavirus.
- Parasite Checks: fecal
parasites examinations for internal parasites, special
tests for the parasite Giardia.
- X-rays.
- Examination of damaged
feathers: examination for parasites, cytology and culture
to determine the nature of any infection present.
- Examination, biopsy and
culture of any skin wounds.
At the end of all of this testing, we will have either identified a treatable
medical disorder, or an untreatable medical disorder, or eliminated medical
disorders as probable causes.
Treatment
of Feather Picking
Proposed treatments for feather
picking are many and varied. Some treatments, such as dissolving
aspirin in the bird’s drinking water are potentially dangerous.
Others, such as scolding the bird or stuffing the bird’s
enclosure with lots of toys, are not dangerous per se,
but they are unlikely to work because they do not address
the real underlying problem. The following discussion outlines
the approach to feather picking that we have evolved at
Chastain Veterinary Medical Group.
- Temper expectations
of a quick and easy cure. Whatever is causing
the feather picking probably did not develop overnight.
Nor is it likely to resolve overnight. Therefore, simplistic
techniques like spraying the bird with bitter apple
or other foul tasting substances is not likely to works.
Likewise, the real problem is seldom simple itchiness
or mite infestation, so applications of aloe vera or
insecticide sprays are unlikely to be helpful. Remember
that once initiated, feather picking can become habitual
and may continue even after the original cause
is gone. Furthermore, chronic feather picking
can cause enough damage to the feather follicles that
the feathers will never regrow, even after the original
cause is removed. Therefore, a successful therapeutic
end point for psychological feather picking is a reduction
of the destructive behavior. Total elimination of the
behavior with restoration of the bird’s original beauty
is uncommon. A thorough diagnostic work up of a feather
picking bird is essential. Again, treatment is most
likely to be successful only if a specific medical
cause is identified.
- Treat any systemic
disease identified. Treatment of feather picking
is most likely to be successful if a specific and treatable
medical cause can be identified.
- Treat for bacterial
or fungal skin infection. Regardless of original
cause, secondary bacterial or fungal infections of
the feather follicles are often present. Treating these
will often make the bird feel much better. In a few
rare cases, treatment of infected feather follicles
has solved the problem.
- Consider treating
feather picking Old World birds for tapeworms. Part
of the diagnostic work up of feather picking birds
should include fecal parasite checks. Unfortunately,
these are not 100 % accurate. Therefore, regardless
of the test results, some authorities suggest a trial
treatment for tapeworms.
- Consider treating
for Giardia. Giardia are microscopic protozoal
parasites that can infest the digestive system of birds.
As with tapeworms, part of the diagnostic work up of
feather picking birds should include special tests
for Giardia. However, the little devils can be very
difficult to identify. Therefore, regardless of the
test results, most authorities suggest a trial treatment
for Giardia.
- Optimize the diet. Even
today, many pet birds are still being fed incorrectly.
This is doubly harmful if the bird is also a feather
picker. It is very likely that feather pickers have increased
nutritional needs due to blood loss and increased replacement
feather production. The best diet for the majority
of pet psittacines is thought to consist of about 80%
formulated bird pellets and 20% fruits, vegetables, and
table food. No Seeds Please!
- Remove from exposure
to any contact irritants. Contact irritants
include such things as second-hand cigarette smoke,
nail polish fumes, hair spray, gasoline fumes, soot,
etc. In recent years, several anecdotal reports have
linked feather picking with exposure to second hand
cigarette smoke. Some authorities feel that the tars
and nicotine may coat the feathers and irritate the
bird.
- Provide frequent
exposure to fresh air and sunlight. Many experts
recommend that the owners of feather pickers invest
in a large outdoor flight enclosure. This should be
something big enough that the bird will perceive it
as a large room rather than as a tiny cell. Caution:
Never take your bird outdoors unless it is in an enclosure
of some sort.
- Provide an 8 -
14 hour photoperiod that varies with the season. This
is easily accomplished by placing the bird’s enclosure
in a solarium or near a window. Even better yet is
to take the bird to an outdoor flight enclosure during
the day.
- Institute basic
bird training. Most avian experts agree that
that the majority of feather picking birds have never
really been socialized or formally trained. Simple
basic training helps socialize the bird, as well as
bond owner and bird. It also provides a basic frame-work
for social interaction. The key is consistency. Again,
much of the internal mental conflict in a feather picker
may be due to unstable or inconsistent social order,
or lack of basic behavioral rules. A bird growing up
in an environment without rules will grow up like a
weed. Eventually, it will become frustrated as it matures
and runs into human imposed limitations. This may cause
any number of objectionable behaviors (e.g., feather
picking, screaming, pacing, etc.). Proper early training
and adequate socialization can prevent feather picking. Once
picking is established, however, basic training will
not completely solve the problem but it may decrease
the severity of it. In order to be good companions,
birds should be trained to respond to a minimum of
six or seven commands such as "come," "up," "stay," "wing," "foot," and "go
potty".
- Get the bird a
job. The idea is to give the bird something
to occupy it’s mind during the day. A simple way to
give the bird a job is to install perches and toys
which the bird “must” destroy -- for example, pine
cones, square pine perches made of pieces of un-treated
non-toxic two-by-four lumber, etc. It is the rare parrot
who can look down at a two-by- four pine perch and
not feel compelled to chew the square corners off!
Once the bird finishes with one side, simply flip the
perch over and you have another week’s worth of distraction.
Changing the bird’s daytime environment to an outdoor
flight enclosure, as mentioned previously, might be
an even more ideal way to give the bird a job. For
example, every morning (weather permitting) the bird
is taken to the outdoor flight enclosure and left out
there to do its own thing during the day. When the
owner returns home in the evening, the bird comes back
indoors to interact with the family. It then spends
its nights indoors on a free standing perch, not in
a cage. Some experts recommend that bird owners completely
abandon conventional bird cages and instead allow the
bird to live all the time on a free standing perch
while indoors.
- Some other things
to try in order to keep the bird’s mind occupied
might include: new toys, moving the enclosure to a
different room, rearranging the furniture in the room
with the bird enclosure, offering low energy density
foods such as water melon, installing unstable, wobbly
perches, offering time consuming foods, teaching the
bird how to play with its toys, etc. Some birds that
are feather picking due to sexual frustration will
stop when placed in an aviary or breeding situation.
Others will not.
- Radios & TV -
some birds that are feather picking due to separation
anxiety will reduced or stop the behavior if a radio
or TV is left on in the family's absence. Similarly,
a tape recording of normal family activities may help.
Sometimes these changes have no effect at all.
- Consider a video
camera. Setting up a hidden video camera to
secretly record the bird’s day may prove very informative.
In this way it may be possible to identify the specific
factors that trigger feather picking -- for example,
a tormenting pet, harassment form an adjacent bird,
or separation anxiety.
- Consider drug therapy. If
the above therapies are ineffective after a two month
trial, then drug therapy may be attempted. The drug haliperidol
has given the most consistent results in our hands. Other
drugs that occasionally work include Prozac and Human
Chorionic Gonadotropin.
- Elizabethan collars
are controversial. Collaring a bird only masks
the symptoms of a deeper problem. Collaring the bird
will indeed stop the feather picking, but it also removes
the one displacement behavior that the bird has to
relieve his internal anxieties. So, now the affected
bird is likely to be really frustrated! Collaring is
most appropriate in those cases progressing to, or
already involving, self mutilation. Collaring for cosmetic
reasons alone is not appropriate.
Prevention
of Feather Picking
Unfortunately, there is no
sure way to prevent the development of feather picking.
Following these suggestions may help, however:
- Avoiding those species
prone to the behavior. Cockatoos, African Greys and Conures
are most notorious for feather picking.
- Institute proper training
and socialization. Start them early ! The birds themselves
expect it.
- Feed your bird correctly.
As discussed -- 80% formulated commercial bird pellets
+ 20% fruits, vegetables, people food.
|
