Feather Plucking
BY LAURELLA DESBOROUGH
Copyright Laurella Desbrough (eclectusbreeder.com).
All rights reserved by the author.
As we work with our pet birds
and breeding pairs, we are
constantly coming up with new
problems and, hopefully, new
solutions to the problems.
Feather chewing, pulling,
clipping and plucking is
something that can occur in a
pet birds or breeding birds, and
can be the behavioral result of
a variety of causes. Articles on
feather plucking have been
written by veterinarians, pet
bird owners and bird breeders.
Surveys have been made to seek
causes for the problem.
Certainly, I would suggest a
review of the literature that
has already been written on this
subject. The August 1997 issue
of Bird Talk presents a
good overview of the problem.
I believe one of the simplest
and perhaps most profound
statements made about feather
plucking is that it is an
extension of normal preening or
originates from the preening
urge. In feather plucking, it
becomes excessive in duration
and in the mechanical work of
the beak on the feathers. There
are probably at least three
major causes of feather picking
in birds: severe physical pain;
chronic condition of poor health
or disease; and emotional
causes; such as boredom,
frustration and anger.
Feather plucking caused by pain
can be exemplified by the pain
of toenails cut far too short,
the pain of a failing heart or
the pain of a broken wing.
Another type of physical cause
is extreme irritation from a
chronic condition or disease:
examples include a Giardia
infection, vitamin toxicity from
feeding an excessive amount of
man-made vitamins, extreme
dryness of skin, along with
dirty feathers from the lack of
a good bath and a bacterial
infection of the skin follicles.
These are just a few physical
conditions that can lead to
feather picking. All of the
foregoing examples are known to
me, some from experience with my
own birds over the years but
most are from the experiences of
other bird breeders or owners of
pet birds. Obviously, most of
these situations can be remedied
with the result that the bird
stops feather picking, and
eventually the lost feathers are
replaced with the next molt.
Emotional causes of feather
picking are many and varied;
however, the pattern of the
plucking is not necessarily
varied. When a pet bird or
breeding bird is continually
stressed or frustrated without
being able to escape from the
situation, a common response is
feather picking, chewing or
pulling. Generally speaking, the
bird does not respond to a
frustration situation with
immediate feather picking, but
experiences the negative
situation for many days or weeks
before beginning to chew at
feathers. A good example of this
is provided with the case of a
small conure whose owner took a
second job in the evenings. This
bird, which had the expectation
that every evening it would
spend some time with its owner,
now found over many days that
this did not happen anymore.
After about a month, it began to
chew the tips off the upper wing
coverts. Eventually, the owner
realized that an excessive
amount of feathers were on the
cage bottom and sought help.
With changes in his schedule to
make some accommodations to the
needs of his conure, the bird
stopped feather chewing.
An interesting feather-pulling
situation developed with a male
yellow-naped Amazon in a
breeding facility. He was in a
cage alone, since he showed a
serious dislike for his
potential mate. Not only was he
caged alone, but he had been
removed from the Amazon section.
He was placed about 20 feet away
where he could see the other
Amazons, but he was not near
them. In the following months he
seemed happy, then one day the
feeder found a lot of green
feathers on the floor under the
bird's suspended cage and made
the assumption that the bird was
starting to molt. The next day,
the floor was covered. The
feeder looked closely at the
bird and found the entire right
leg and body around the leg
bare. An area around the neck
and upper back was also
bare--the feathers had been
pulled out.
After providing food and water
to this bird, the feeder
serviced the other flights,
keeping an eye on the Amazon.
Although he moved to the food
dish, the bird was so intent on
pulling feathers that he pulled
some between each bite of food.
The feeder thought it must be a
serious disease or pain
situation. After completing his
morning feeding, the Amazon flew
to an upper perch and leaned
over, wings quivering in the
typical pose of wanting
something.
The feeder asked herself several
questions: What does this bird
want? Does this bird want to
return to its potential mate?
Does it want to be with the
other Amazons? The bird was
moved back into its cage with a
female yellow nape. He flew
furiously at the female with
intent to do serious physical
harm. She was netted quickly and
removed from the cage. He
remained in the Amazon section,
exactly where he had been
previously. Immediately, he flew
to the side of the cage facing a
pair of double yellowheads and
started very loud Amazon parrot
"talk." All the Amazons began
loudly vocalizing and continued
to do so for 30 minutes. The
yellow nape male never pulled
another feather, and all the
pulled feathers grew back. To
this day, over a year later, he
remains a beautifully feathered
bird, still unpaired.
In this case, a positive change
was made to the bird's situation
on the second day of pulling.
Since the feather-plucking
behavior had not become
habitual, it was easier for the
bird to stop. One may assume
that he had been extremely
frustrated at being separated
from the Amazon flock. This
example may indicate that a
quick response to the problem is
more likely to achieve positive
results.
Feather-Picking
In addition to actual physical
causes, such as an infection in
the feather follicles, this
behavior may follow severe
stress. It may also be
associated with the onset of a
molt, indicate acute boredom or
result from a bad wing clip.
When feather follicle infection
is not the cause, an analysis of
events affecting the bird during
the 10 days prior to onset of
feather picking may reveal the
cause.
Placing a new bird in the cage
of a single pet bird can
devastate the original bird,
just as adding a new bird to a
single-bird household can be
upsetting to the first bird.
First, seek to define and
correct the problem by changing
the situation for birds that
seem to be picking due to
stress. An easy way to slow down
or totally stop feather-picking
is to stuff the cage with clean
tree branches or stalk-type
plants, such as ornamental
ginger, that are nontoxic for
birds. Stuffing the cage means
to literally pack as many
branches or plants into the cage
as possible while still leaving
a space near food and water
bowls. The bird should have to
chew its way through the
branches. Of course, do not use
fruit branches that have been
sprayed or branches from trees
that grow along roadways where
the county may spray them. These
tree branches and plant stalks
provide many hours of activity
for birds that need to chew,
clip or otherwise work with
their beaks. This also distracts
the molting bird from the itchy
feathers dropping out and the
new pins coming in. Many parrot
species will spend happy hours
turning branches into debris.
