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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.
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