BONGO BIRD
Breeder's of Beautiful
Eclectus Parrots
Feather Plucking: Some Causes and Cures
By Jane Hallander
There's little to rival the helplessness and anxiety that parrot
owners feel when they see their beloved companion birds pulling out
feathers, as if it were a terrible compulsion. Many times a bird that
has been given the best of care can start removing its feathers, all of
a sudden.
Feather mutilation comes in several different patterns. Some birds bite
their feathers off at skin level, leaving nothing but broken feather
shafts and down feathers. Others actually pull feathers out intact until
they're down to bare skin. My own experience indicates the type of
feather mutilation often correlates to the initial problem. For
instance, a bird that needs more moisture is likely to bite its feathers
off in an effort to relieve the itchy skin, rather than pull feathers.
There are numerous reasons parrots pluck or bite their feathers. The
first consideration should always be physiological. While many parrots
pluck due to environmental or behavioral problems, a trip to a good
avian veterinarian to rule out health problems is a must, before
contacting me or another behavior consultant. If a veterinarian has seen
the bird and determined it to be healthy, the next step is to look
toward environmental or behavior causes for the feather plucking or
biting.
What I do is slightly different from most behavior consultants, in that
I first ask the bird telepathically why it plucks. After the parrot
tells me the root of its plucking behavior, I then suggest environmental
or behavioral modification----based on the cause or causes of the
problem. I have had very good results with this method, since I know the
cause of the problem literally from the parrot's mouth.
Environmental Causes of Feather Mutilation
Moving a bird to another location in the house can cause feather
plucking. An outgoing, interactive Grey resides in an area where it
receives a lot of attention from people walking past its cage and then
is moved to a quieter place, where it seldomly interacts with its
people, may start plucking to get more attention. The reverse is also
possible. A timid, shy Grey, who suddenly finds himself moved top a high
traffic area of the house might start plucking out of nervousness. While
we have two situations where moving the birds causes feather mutilation,
the reasons for plucking are not the same. The outgoing, gregarious
parrot plucks for increased attention, while the timid bird plucks
because it is nervous about the increased activity around it. However,
the cure is the same----move the parrot back to the area in which it was
happy.
Construction or home renovation work may also be a root cause of feather
mutilation. Renown parrot behavior consultant, Sally Blanchard, first
brought to my attention the fact that construction vibrations disturb
some parrots enough to make them start plucking or biting feathers. Sure
enough, when I asked several Greys that started feather mutilating at
the same time their owners' had home renovation work done, they sent
visual pictures and emotions of disruption in their lives from the
vibrations and sharp pounding noises. In these cases, I usually
recommend that the bird be housed away from the noise and vibrations of
construction work.
Sometimes fear brought about due to an environmental change may cause
feather mutilation, and even phobia. One such Grey was housed in a room
where workers were installing overhead track lighting. Not realizing
that parrots are not yet domesticated animals and that they often fall
back on their genetic and instinctive wild heritage, the owner left the
Grey in the room during the construction period. This parrot not only
started plucking, but it also became phobic in a room with track
lighting, thinking the long snake-like track lighting fixtures were the
equivalent to urban raptors. Again, removing the bird from the
construction area until the work is finished is the way to avoid these
problems.
Lack of sufficient moisture is another environmental cause of feather
mutilation. Life in Africa is not a dry one. I've seen reports of
rainfall up to 100 inches per year in areas inhabited by African Greys.
When our birds are subjected to inadequate moisture, especially during
the winter months when heaters dry out the air, they often develop
itchy, dry skin and start picking at it. Before long, feathers are being
pulled out and then...a habit forms. My Timneh, Jing, demands a spray
shower at least twice a week and is placed on a mirror perch during my
own daily showers, to make sure she gets enough moisture. She loves her
spray baths and fluffs her feathers and preens in the steam from my
showers.
My final environmental feather plucking example is lack of sleep,
especially in young birds. Parrots need at least eight to ten hours of
undisturbed sleep every night, with immature birds having at least 10
hours of sleep time. Trying to sleep in a covered cage at eleven o'clock
at night in a family room with the television on isn't undisturbed
sleep. Parrots in the wild roost as soon as it gets dark and they remain
asleep until daybreak-often 10-12 hours. I've worked with several Greys
who plucked simply because they were not getting enough sleep time. If
you can't put your bird to bed at a reasonable hour for adequate sleep
time in its regular cage, get a smaller sleeping cage and put the bird
in the sleeping cage in a quiet room at an early hour.
Behavioral Causes of Feather Mutilation
Although boredom is often listed as a prime cause of feather picking,
a far more likely reason is that they are not getting enough focused
attention. By focused attention, I mean one-on-one person to parrot
interaction-not your sitting at the computer, while your parrot sits by
itself on the perch next to you. While no one can spend all of their
time entertaining their African Greys, they certainly can spare 10
minutes several times a day of focused attention. Most parrots are
extremely interactive animals and require stimulation from their owners
for a stable mental life. If an intelligent animal, such as a Grey, is
ignored, that same bird might start looking for focused attention any
where it can find it. Unfortunately, feather mutilation is a sure fire
way to get an owner's attention. Parrots are very much like neglected
children, in that they'll take attention any way they can get it-by
positive or negative means.
Parrots should have plenty of toys in their cages for mental stimulation
while their owners are away. Keep those toys that you know your Grey
likes in abundance in its cage. Good toys that keep a bird's mind off
plucking are anything made out of wood, especially hand toys, such as
Parrot Treasure's Fun Pops; small chewable toys, such as Fowl Play's
Shortcuts; or mirrors, like Bell Plastics' Cube Mirror. I've found that
a special dish for hand toys that hangs from one side of a cage is an
excellent diversion for an inquisitive Grey.
I've known African Greys who literally hold their owners hostage by
threatening feather plucking behavior. One Grey comes to mind who wanted
the new powder coated cage that had been purchased for the second bird
in the household. The Grey owner had an even larger powder coated cage
on order for the African Grey, but of course, he didn't know that. So
the Grey moved into the smaller bird's new cage and refused to leave.
When the owner approached to take him out, he calmly pulled out a tail
feather and waved it in front of her. After three tail feathers were
pulled and waved at her, she gave up, letting him keep the cage until
his arrived.
Also looking for attention, some Greys will start feather plucking if
they feel insecure about other birds in the household. If the Grey
perceives its bonded person paying too much attention to another bird,
it may start plucking to bring the owner's attention back to it. Greys
can be very competitive animals and will do anything to keep their
owners' attentions on them.
This leads us into secondary reasons for feather mutilation. Most people
don't realize that there can be more than one reason for their Greys'
feather biting or plucking. What may have started for one reason can
easily turn into a more difficult problem, once the bird realizes it can
always get its owner's attention by plucking. I have seen many birds who
continue plucking after the original causes of plucking had been
resolved, simply because they knew they would get an attention reward.
At that point, their owners were completely in the dark about what may
be causing their birds to pluck, since they couldn't relate the plucking
behavior to any particular events.
The attention reward varies. Some people yell at their birds when they
see them pluck their feathers. Others walk up to the cages and tell the
birds how pretty they are, hoping to praise them into stopping their
plucking. Some admonish their birds with stern voices, while others
become upset and concerned, allowing their birds to see their concern.
Whether it's yelling or just THINKING about the plucking, all are
success stories to the birds who crave attention by pulling out their
feathers.
My advice is simple. If the bird indicates to me that it's plucking to
gain attention, I tell the owners to turn around and walk out of the
room when he or she sees the parrot pull or bite feathers. Not only must
the owner leave the room, but he or she must also think about something
else. REMEMBER that your mind is an open book to your parrot. Therefore,
JUST THINKING about its plucking is still a reward to it. Many birds
will only pluck when they see their owners watching them or when their
people walk into the room, knowing the humans start worrying when they
see their parrots pull their feathers.
If your Grey plucks to receive attention, you should increase the amount
of attention paid to it in a focused attention manner. The parrot needs
to learn that it will get attention for certain behaviors, however, not
for plucking. I tell my clients to transfer their praise and attention
to something their birds do that's not destructive, teaching their birds
to use that positive behavior to ask for attention, rather than pulling
feathers. Simply removing attention from plucking by walking away or
ignoring the feather mutilation is not enough. The bird still wants
attention and will do whatever it needs to get that attention.
Deliberately rewarding these cute actions with praise and attention
often teaches the bird to perform the cute act, rather than pick its
feathers, for attention.
