|
|
|
|
When Polly does more than just preen feathers |
|
|
Feather-plucking
is one of the banes of anyone who lives with companion parrots. The
term “plucking” can be used to describe a wide range of feather
destructive behaviour. It can involve over-grooming, wherein a bird’s
feathers may look a little ragged at the end; taken a little further, a
bird may chew its feathers to the point where there is very little
substance left; or, it may involve physically pulling a feather right
out of its follicle. In
the first two instances, the feathers grow back; in the latter, a
bird’s feathers may never grow back, leaving a permanent bald spot. Plucking, by the way, is something that has not been seen in wild parrots; it seems to be restricted to some – but not all – parrots that live in homes as companions to humans. It is not restricted to any one species, although some species seem to engage in it more than others. Congo African greys are one of the species that tends to be more susceptible to it, as do cockatoos. Other species, like Amazons, seem to pluck very little, although that’s not to say they never do. Although
there are many theories about what causes this behaviour in captive
parrots, no one really knows for certain, although sometimes there are
indications that it may be a single cause and possibly reversible. |
|
|
It
can be a lack of nutrition
in a bird’s diet. Let’s face it – we cannot completely replicate
the exact diet a particular parrot would eat in the wild, although we
can make a good attempt at it. It may also be the result of too much of
a good thing. If a bird gets too much of a particular vitamin or
mineral, it can be just as bad as not enough of that same vitamin or
mineral. It
may also be a result of something in the environment – or not in the
environment. That
may seem like a contradiction, but it is not. Something
in the bird’s environment may be causing stress, resulting in the
plucking. It could be a certain object near its cage, another animal
that lives in the home and bothers it, or some kind of other visual or
aural stimulus that affects the bird negatively. |
An example of an African grey parrot that has been chewing its feathers. Note the ragged look of the feathers. (John Geary photo) |
|
It
may also be the result of a lack
of stimulation.
These creatures are extremely intelligent, and given nothing to do all
day but sit in a cage, they may start plucking out of boredom. They
may also feel lonely, if left alone all day. Remember, these are flock
animals, very social and used to being around others of their kind
constantly. Another
theory I’ve heard, an interesting one that seems to make sense,
although it has not really been proved or disproved, is one involving
genetics. While
we’re not 100 per cent certain why you don’t see plucked parrots in
the wild, we can certainly hazard a reasonable guess. A plucker will
usually be driven out of the flock so as to not attract predators to the
flock, therefore, it would not survive long enough to pass on its genes
(and it probably couldn’t attract a mate easily, anyway.) However,
in captivity, we breed birds that do survive, birds that probably would
not survive in the wild. Thus, there are more “plucking” genes left
in the captive parrot gene pool. That means that in the future, there
will probably be still more pluckers, as they’re not selectively
thinned out, as in nature. We love our birds, so when one is sick, we do
everything we can to keep it alive. We’re actually weakening the gene
pool, which is one reason why breeders (some do, not all) try to
(legally) acquire new wild stock from time to time in order to maintain
a healthy flock. That’s
the theory, anyway. In some ways, our own two greys mirror that: Nikki,
our 25-year-old CAG (who may be even older, we’re his third home and
know nothing of the first five years of his live) may have been wild
caught back in the early eighties. He is extremely healthy, even though
he apparently went through some tough times early in his life. Despite
all that, he has never given the slightest indication that he might even
be thinking about abusing his feathers. However,
I
have my own theory that some birds are actually allergic to some things
we feed them - perhaps even in the man-made pellets we supply them with
- and as with humans, it can be difficult (or perhaps even more so) to
determine a bird’s allergies, (especially food allergies), other than
to change the food and see if there is a change in the plucking
behaviour. (Good luck with that, especially with greys!) I’ve got a
suspicion that my young grey may be slightly allergic to the pelleted
food we give him, but repeated attempts to get him to try other pellets
have failed miserably. To
make things even more complicated, a bird’s feather picking or
plucking may also be a combination of these factors. If
we could isolate the cause, it might be easier to eliminate the
behaviour. However, as anyone who has lived with a plucker can tell you,
sometimes nothing seems to help. So
what can we do? We
can make sure we stay on top of all the cutting edge information about
parrots. We are learning more about them every year; we know so much
more about them than we did 10 or 20 years ago. It’s our
responsibility to stay abreast of any new educational material about
companion parrots. There are many ways to do this:
And
most of all, we just have to love them, unconditionally, as they are,
fully-feathered or plucked bald, just as we would a human child that has
a health condition. It’s the least we can do – they are totally
dependant on us. I’ve used this quote from Antoine de Saint Exupery
more than once on this website, and I’ll use it again: “ … remember ... if you tame me ... You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed ...”
|
||||||
|
|
|
General Information About African Grey Parrots
|