Feather-plucking
Feather-plucking has characteristics that are similar to trichotillomania, an impulse control disorder in humans, and hair-pulling which has been reported in mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, sheep and muskox, dogs and cats,[5] leading to suggestions for a comparative psychology approach to alleviating these problems.
Feather-plucking is often attributed to a variety of social causes that may include poor socialisation or absence of parents during the rearing period and because of this, the individual subsequently expressing the disorder fails to learn appropriate preening behaviour.
When 18 feather-plucking grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) were provided with food in pipe feeders rather than bowls, their foraging time significantly increased by 73 minutes each day and their plumage improved noticeably within one month.
[1] Feather-plucking has also been interpreted as a coping strategy for negative affective states e.g. stress, loneliness, boredom, induced by inappropriate social or environmental factors.
[13] In addition, parrots that feather-pluck have been found to have higher levels of corticosterone,[14] a hormone secreted by many animals when they are exposed to chronic stress.
Many medical causes underlying the development of feather-plucking have been proposed including allergies (contact/inhalation/food), endoparasites, ectoparasites, skin irritation (e.g. by toxic substances, low humidity levels), skin desiccation, hypothyroidism, obesity, pain, reproductive disease, systemic illness (in particular liver and renal disease), hypocalcemia, psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD), proventricular dilatation syndrome, colic, giardiasis, psittacosis, airsacculitis, heavy metal toxicosis, bacterial or fungal folliculitis, genetic feather abnormalities, nutritional deficiencies (in particular vitamin A) and dietary imbalances, and neoplasia.
Organic bitter sprays are sold in pet stores to discourage plucking, especially of newly grown feathers, although this may make general beak-based grooming difficult for the animal.
[20] Administration of fluoxetine is also known to reduce feather-plucking activity but only for very short periods of time, with the birds generally relapsing after several weeks of therapy and requiring a continually increasing dose of the medication.
