End Parrot Feather Plucking in Only 30 Days!

Some parrots are more prone to be pluckers, like the African
Greys. The reason behind the plucking is almost always due
to behavioural problems like parrot boredom, parrot physical
problems or lack of interest in the parrot surroundings or its owners.

Because plucking is a cyclic behaviour, once a parrot starts
to self-mutilate, it is very hard to stop it from doing this. So,
you must know HOW to stop the cycle.

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Why do parrots pluck in the first place?
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There are a variety of reasons for a parrot to become a
serious feather pluckinger. I will just name a few below:


Reason # 1:

Your parrot is not receiving enough human interaction - if
you don't give proper attention to your parrot, he may turn
into a feather picking parrot!


Reason # 2:

Your parrot is receiving too much attention - parrots are
like small babies who need your lov and dedicated
attention. But like a spoiled child, if you give them too
much attention, your parrot will probably react by
plucking feathers!


Reason # 3

Someone hit or screamed at your parrot and it became
emotionally abused or there was a single frightening
experience in its life;


Reason # 4

Dietary and nutritional imbalances;

Reason # 5

Environmental problems - this can be things like
the air being too dry or smoking around your parrot.


Reason # 6

You are not stimulating your parrot's intelligence,
so you may even experience crazy parrot behaviours
other than feather plucking.

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How to end parrot feather plucking cycles
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To end parrot feather plucking behaviour, you must
be dedicated and spend quality time with your parrot, for its
psychological health and well being, as activities help
the parrot avoid distress and prevent some of the most
common feather picking and screaming problems
parrots owners face.

For instance, you can rotate your parrot's toys on
a regular basis. So, here's a small list of parrot tips
for you to consider:

Feather Plucking Tip #1:

Place bird-safe tree branches around your parrot - this is to
transfer attention from the feathers to the branches, and your
parrot will probably start to chew them instead of his feathers;

Feather Plucking Tip #2

Give your parrot natural vitamins and minerals by feeding a good,
varied diet that includes fresh fruits and vegetables - these are
crucial to the natural feather condition of your parrot;

Feather Plucking Tip #3

Provide fresh eucalyptus branches and fresh water
daily - this helps prevent boredom;

A great case study we show people about feather plucking in
this email series is one in which parrot expert Chet Womach
talks about his client who was always smoking around his parrot.
Soon after he stopped it, his parrot feather plucking went down
to about 75%!

Feather Plucking Tip #4


Provide your parrot with toys that allow it to perform feather
grooming behaviors such as toys with strings, ropes, or leather
strips, so that it can apply its energy to these toys. Also,
provide toys such as puzzle toys so the parrot will be
challenged to use its mind to get to the treats inside and
prevent boredom which is a major cause of feather plucking.

With this said, just by analyzing the reasons behind the feather
plucking of your parrot, you'll hopefully use these tips to stop
your parrot from feather plucking during the next 30 days.

Yet, if you feel you want more personal advice, then I highly
recommend you check out this 71 minute phone interview with a
secret parrot expert that exposes...

- 53 strategies to get your parrot to stop plucking its feathers!

I highly recommend you check out the strategies in the page below!

some more useful info on Feather Plucking

Feather plucking in the larger parrots is a behavioural problem until proven otherwise. However, we all desperately want to prove that there is an underlying medical problem causing the bird to pluck its feathers and long lists of possible medical causes of feather plucking have been published (e.g. Jenkins 1999). Because of these potential medical causes of this abnormal behaviour it is thus now seen as mandatory by vets and owners alike that the feather plucked bird should be extensively tested for the presence of various viruses, endo- and ecto-parasites, Chlamydia as well as for haematological, biochemical and hormonal abnormalities. If nothing treatable is found the next step is to examine the environment for possible allergens and the pet bird owners are instructed to change the environment or not change the environment, provide toys or take some irritating toys away, all depending on the situation. The latest "cure" advocated by a few is the misguided concept of "obedience training" for parrots. Many owners are misled by some of these "behavioural consultants" to believe that the individual bird will stop plucking its feathers if it is trained to be obedient.

The facts are, that very few, if any, of the conditions and diseases such as Chlamydia, which are often listed as possible causes of feather plucking, will cause the larger parrots to pluck their feathers. It is much more likely that the plucking birds were more susceptible to the disease because of the feather plucking than vice versa. I have treated a fair number of feather pluckers with Chlamydia for instance, but none of them even considered, stopping plucking when the Chlamydia cleared. The clipping of the wing flight feathers by owners, the breeder or even the veterinarian are also often seen as a cause of feather plucking. However, having had the opportunity to follow several groups of hand-reared parrots through weaning and feather clipping it is clear that it is not the feather clipping at weaning that makes the bird pluck its feathers some months or even years later, but the inherent behaviour and ecology of the individual bird, whether wing clipped or not.

All the potential causes of feather plucking as listed by various authors and repeated ad nauseam by even more authors especially in the lay literature, all remain just potential causes. The fact remains that some species of parrots and some individuals in the species that are known to be feather pluckers, never pluck their feathers even though they are all prone to the various diseases, parasitism, hormonal imbalances, allergies and wing clipping that are often listed as possible causes of the feather plucking.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the ecological and behavioural reasons why certain species of parrots often pluck their feathers, others occasionally or seldom do so and why some species never do. This is vital background information for every veterinarian dealing with such birds and can be used very effectively to discuss this problem with the owners of such birds. It is hoped that this different approach to feather plucking will stimulate more interest in the natural behaviour and ecology of the species kept as pets as such information is lacking for most of the species.

Since the parrots kept as pets are only a few generations away from the wild, the behavioural patterns and the genetics that determine the behaviour are still identical. These inherent behavioural patterns are seen daily as normal behaviour during feeding and handling food, preening the feathers and playing with objects to name but a few. Only when these normal behaviour patterns are exaggerated do we see the abnormal behavioural patterns such as feather plucking. If we consider that the intelligence of an African Grey Parrot is comparable to a five year old human child and that their emotional development is like that of a 2-3 year old child (Davis 1991), some knowledge of the natural behaviour and ecology of the individual parrot species is thus essential in understanding some of the basic reasons why parrots pluck their feathers.

There are three angles to consider: Intelligence, social behaviour and natural habitat. These are all interrelated and in most cases at least two or even all three of the factors are involved. The more factors involved the more likely that the species or individual bird will show, what we regard as abnormal behaviour, such as feather plucking. Each of the parrot species display differences in the intelligence and one can thus not generalise. Also, within species, individual birds will often show exceptions to what we would consider as normal for that species and there would thus always be exceptions to the rules. However, to consider these factors in general terms will go a long way to explain why some parrots pluck their feathers when kept as pet birds.

Intelligence

Only birds with above average intelligence pluck their feathers when kept as pet birds unless there is an underlying medical problem. It is well recognised that some parrot species are more intelligent than others. In captivity this is often seen as the birds that "talk" better or does lots of tricks or can recognise individual people, objects or actions in a household. These individuals are often also recognised as the very active and often over-active birds that never stop vocalising, playing or walking or flying around the room.

Social behaviour

Only birds with complex social behavioural patterns in their natural environment pluck their feathers in captivity. Contrary to what is advocated by some "behavioural consultants" the dominant birds are not necessarily the individuals that occupy the highest physical position when the flock is feeding or during other social activities. The sentinels that occupy these positions in the flock are often the up-and-coming young individuals that are still dispensable in the sense of genetic material. The dominant individuals with the proven survival and breeding record will not move within an area of the flock where they might be exposed and thus caught by predators. ("Behavioural consultants" maintain that to train a bird to be "obedient" it should always be handled below the eye level of the owner. This is intended to indicate to the bird that the person at the higher level is dominant. In fact this might actually convey a completely different message to the bird.)

Natural habitat

Only birds that occur in complex natural habitats pluck their feathers in captivity. With the exception of some species of cockatoos, all the larger parrots that regularly pluck their feathers in captivity occur naturally in fairly dense forest habitats. In these forests it is not only the vegetation that is complex and stratified, the total environment is complex and this includes aspects such as the microclimate, sounds and colour patterns. The seemingly less complex habitat in which some of the Australian cockatoos occur might in fact be very complex but we as humans probably only perceive it as simplified.

Let us first consider the species that do not pluck feathers as a rule. The smaller psittacines such as budgerigars, the variety of grass parakeets and cockatiels do not pluck their feathers unless there is an underlying medical reason for it. It is well known that intestinal protozoa infestations in cockatiels cause them to pluck the feathers around the cloaca, abdomen and sometimes even the breast. Lovebirds again, seem to be fairly susceptible to dermatitis that might be the cause of feather plucking in these species. Lovebirds are probably susceptible to dermatitis because of environmental imbalances when kept as pets. For instance, the Rosy Faced Lovebird Agapornis roseicolis naturally occurs in a dry, hot desert to semi-desert environment and in captivity are often kept in moist and cold or humid and warm environments that might cause an improper skin microbial flora resulting in dermatitis and this might cause this species to pluck their feathers and cause self-mutilation.

If we consider the natural ecology and behaviour of these species that do not pluck their feathers it is obvious that in nature budgerigars and many other small and medium sized psittacines occur in large flocks mainly to maximise feeding efforts and minimise the predatory pressure on the individual. In these large flocks there are very little structure or socialisation other than to feed together. Most of these species occur in fairly open habitat where food is patchily distributed. It is thus sensible to feed in a group or at least be part of a flock that might benefit the individual. Although the natural behaviour and ecology of many psittacines are imperfectly known it is clear that most of these smaller species show less complex behaviour patterns and occur in less complex habitats which might account for the absence of abnormal behaviour such as feather plucking when kept as pets.

To illustrate some of the points mentioned above a few of the species that often pluck their feathers will be discussed.

African Grey Parrots Psittacus erithacus

This species is surely the most renowned feather pluckers. This is probably because these birds are highly intelligent, have a very complex social structure in the wild and occur in a structurally complex habitat. African Grey Parrots inhabit primary and secondary lowland forests over most of their distributional range where they roost communally in flocks of 5000 -10000 birds. In the mornings the birds leave the roosts in smaller groups of 2-12 (in Gabon) or 6-10 (in Guinea Bissau) to feed in the surrounding forest (Fry et al. 1988). On Princepe Island the Timneh African Grey P. e. timneh seems occasionally to forage in slightly larger groups between 3-30 individuals (de Naurois 1981). A definite hierarchy structure is recognisable in such flocks with one or sometimes more individuals being dominant. It is known that individual African Grey parrots can individually recognise many other individuals in the flock and the foraging flock sizes of 2-12 (sometimes up to 30) is probably an indication of how many individuals can be individually recognized. This ability to individually recognize others is necessary to maintain the flock hierarchy and thus the stability. Although these parrots are monogamous breeding birds they usually breed in dispersed colonies of several hundred nests 10-30 m apart (Fry et al. 1988). If the above basic information about the ecology of the African Grey Parrot is related to the abnormal behaviour of feather plucking when kept as pets we can get some idea of why the birds do this. It is the experience of many people who hand rear African Grey Parrot chicks for the pet market that as early as four weeks of age it is possible to tell that specific individual chicks will not be good, tamed pet birds. These Individuals are still sold in the pet market and often start plucking their feathers within a few months of being weaned or they become the in-the-corner-growling-type birds even though they were hand reared.



When a hand reared African Grey Parrot is introduced into a household it is able to recognise everybody in the household, including the other pets, neighbours and other frequent visitors to the house as part of its flock. They will form bonds with various degrees of stability with every one in the flock depending on the hierarchy structure. Usually one person in the household is regarded as the dominant individual of the household flock by the parrot. This person is often the one that does not have much contact with the bird or ignores the bird since in parrot flocks one is only ignored by dominant birds unless you want to challenge them for the dominant position. The person usually feeding the bird and cleaning the cage is seen by the parrot as a flock member lower in the hierarchy. This is probably because in parrot society one is only fed by members of the flock lower in the hierarchy than oneself. Single house parrots usually love to interact with recognised but infrequent visitors to the house. These members of the flock do not pose any threat to the hierarchy structure of the flock or food or potential mate resources. However, sometimes the bird will also be aggressive towards specific individuals because of threats which they may pose.

When single house parrots start plucking their feathers it is usually because something has gone wrong in the house flock which has upset the stability and probably also the perceived hierarchy structure in the flock. Real life examples are the very boisterous dog in the house being run over and dying, the child in the house being sent to boarding school, one of the occupants starting to work a different shift and the classic changing of appearance of people in the house such as growing a beard or becoming a blond overnight. In nature similar changes in the social experience of the birds undoubtedly also occurs but why then do they not pluck their feathers in nature? The answer is fairly simple and it is connected to the three aspects mentioned earlier, intelligence, social behaviour and natural habitat. The intelligence of the individual bird we cannot take away and at best we can only stimulate the further development. However, for both the complex social behaviour and the very complex natural habitat we can only provide vastly inadequate substitutions. Although preening the feathers is a necessary activity, it is only done when the bird is content and secure. In nature this is done for short and often very short periods and such activities will abruptly stop when the birds have to fly off, because of danger, to seek another food source or interact with another member of the flock. In the pet birds that spend most of their time sitting and being content because the food source does not need any discovering, periods of danger are few and far between and active and intense interactions with other members of the flock are at best only for a few hours every day, comforting behaviour such as preening can be overdone. These parrots will thus take great comfort in preening and also plucking their feathers. This is not just boredom but also frustration that they are not able to use their intelligence. Even in nature these parrots will use tools and it has been observed often that they will use wood splinters to scratch with and preen their feathers with (Janzen et al. 1976). We as humans cannot provide an environment that is complex enough, in all aspects, so that there is no time in the day (or night) ever to overdo the preening and thus start feather plucking. To provide the African Grey parrot with stimuli and challenges on all fronts gives the only possibility of curing this behavioural problem. This is easier said than done. The proof of the success of this is seen in the "huge aviary" treatment. With this treatment feather plucking birds are introduced into a very large aviary where interactions with other birds are frequent (usually every few minutes), where they have to seek food and discover ways of getting hold of the food and in general experience a slightly more demanding environment. Only two of the 32 severely plucked, mostly African Grey parrot individuals introduced into such an aviary over the past few years did not completely stop the plucking behaviour. Some of these birds started plucking their feathers again when they were re-introduced into their original household environment. One individual also started plucking his feathers each time a specific cockatoo was introduced into the aviary.

One of the last resort treatments often advocated for habitual feather plucking parrots is to use these birds as breeding birds in aviaries. In many cases it does cure the feather plucking but it also allows the genetic make-up of the birds to be propagated, potentially producing more feather pluckers.

Orange-winged Amazon Parrot Amazona amazonica

Amazon parrots as a group, are not generally known to be feather pluckers although there are individuals who show this abnormal behaviour. As a representative of the group the Orange-winged Amazon Parrot will be discussed briefly.

These birds occur in the natural state on the edges of rain forests and deciduous forests but also in cultivated areas and near human habitation. Although Amazon parrots also occur in flocks these are very large (up to 200 individuals) and are usually the result of convenience for finding food sources. Because of the large number of individuals in such flocks there is probably no, or at least limited individual recognition and probably no hierarchy structure as exists in African Grey Parrot flocks.

From the limited information above it is clear that in the wild Amazon parrots lack the complex and intense social structure of the African Grey Parrot. The complexity of the habitat is probably also less and foraging strategies are accordingly different.

Blue and Gold Macaw Ara ararauna

Some of the larger macaws such as the Scarlet Macaw Ara Macao and the Blue and Gold Macaw are well known for their feather plucking behaviour. Other species of this group never seem to pluck. As an example the Blue and Gold Macaw will be discussed briefly.

These birds occur in pairs or in small flocks of up to 25 birds in rain forest, gallery forest and in dense savannah. Little else is known about their natural behaviour (Low 1972).

It is well known from birds in captivity that pairs form very strong bonds, that they can recognize individuals and are quite intelligent. All of these traits would qualify them as candidates for feather plucking.

Eclectus parrots Eclectus roratus

Naturally these birds occur in primary rain forests in pairs or small parties of less than 10 birds. These parties are closely knit groups and it has been observed often that the whole group attend at nests when one of the females is breeding. It has also been observed that when brooding the eggs the female may pluck feathers from her breast (Forshaw 1981). There is probably a well defined hierarchy structure in these groups and these very intelligent birds are known to recognize individuals in the household very much like African Grey Parrots do.

Eclectus parrot hens are notorious as feather pluckers when kept as pets and they often start suddenly when they become sexually mature. Males seldom pluck their feathers. The fact that at least some females pluck their feathers in nature is probably a good indication that feather plucking behaviour in captivity might be related to sexual frustration since it is usually only the females who pluck. However, these birds qualify on all fronts as potential feather pluckers as they are very intelligent, show a very complex social structure and occur in a complex forest habitat.

Hawk Headed Parrots Deroptyus accipitrinus

These parrots again occur in a very complex rainforest habitat where they forge in the canopy for nuts, fruits and berries. They occur in pairs or small groups of up to about 10 birds. In these groups there are some hierarchy structures and the communications between birds in these groups are well developed.

Individual Hawk Headed parrots are often feather pluckers to the extreme. What is interesting about this species is that the feather plucking behaviour seems to be inherited to a certain extent. It was noted that the off spring of breeding birds who feather pluck are much more likely to also pluck their feathers.This is probably because the level of intelligence and the behavioural traits that accompany this are inherited and this is probably true for all the birds mentioned above.

Cockatoos

Some species of the cockatoos are well known for their feather plucking behaviour while other species never seem to do this. Most of the cockatoo species are highly intelligent and a lot of them seem to be feather pluckers to some degree.

Conclusion

The natural behaviour and ecology of the larger parrot species is a major underlining factor in determining if a bird is going to pluck its feathers in captivity or not. Knowledge of these factors can only be of benefit to the veterinarian, bird owner and the bird itself. Medical reasons for feather plucking behaviour should be examined when appropriate. However, the knowledge that the very intelligent individuals who are content and usually very tame are the ones that will pluck their feathers if they are not stimulated and challenged on a minute by minute basis will go a long way in understanding feather plucking in pet parrots. The huge aviary concept should be used to stimulate some of these birds by allowing them to interact with other birds as this seems to be the only way to cure a large number of these birds from plucking their feathers.

The reason behind the plucking is almost always due
to behavioural problems like parrot boredom, parrot physical
problems or lack of interest in the parrot surroundings or its owners....

Parrot boredom? And what is the proof of this?

Parrot boredom....and what is the proof of this?

Love the content of the article. I thought this might be helpful to Stop Biting

Some forget alot of problems of plucking is DIET! What do you feed your greys? They need more certain vitamins besides Ekkies than other parrots. 95% of pluckers in my league of vet experience were feeding nothing but seed diet. Harrisons diet is formulated from an Avian Vet and alot of birds that plucked before have been put on this diet and seen remarkable results in 6 mos of no plucking so look at what you are feeding and go from there

Can someone tell me the name of a few bird-safe tree branches, please?
Thank you
Dgines

This thread has been archived at End Parrot Feather Plucking in Only 30 Days! in category Parrot Feather Plucking

my african grey max was in great feather condition untill we took him to an avian vet for a check up and after having his nails clipped ( vet cut his nail too short and it bled ) once we got him home he sat in the corner of his cage for a day without saying anything and then next day got up to find he pulled his chest feathers out , after calling the vet to complain he just replied it wasnt his fault and if we would like to take him in he would treat him , never again , its been 20 months since that vet visit and max lets his feathers grow but then pulls them out again , so i think he was traumatised by that vet visit and it is just habit now for him to pull them out , even though he has lots of toys and attention and out of his cage time .and yet we bought another grey 5 weeks ago that was a plucker due to not getting enough attention and in those 5 weeks we have had ollie he now has a new set of lovely feathers .
dave

so i think he was traumatised by that vet visit and it is just habit now for him to pull them out