One of the more common and heart breaking conditions we see in our avian patients is feather destructive behaviour or FDB. While similar conditions can arise from skin infections and parasite burdens in many cases, particularly in the larger parrots, this condition can arise purely from behavioural disorders. What leads a bird to systematically destroy its own beautiful plumage? The answer will surprise you.

Wild parrots have busy and complex lives that require a lot of their remarkably powerful mental capacity. This high order intelligence allows them to locate and extract food from an annual progression of plant species, to communicate food, shelter and danger messages within the flock, and to monitor and care for their plumage. Typically, about a third of each day is dedicated to each of these three tasks. Sadly, the typical situation of a caged bird can result in the feeding third of the day (about 4 hours) being satisfied in about half an hour as a result of the high quality parrot foods we have. Communication with flock mates is often limited to just the short time owners can spend with their birds, so the next 4 hours is similarly compressed down to a much shorter period. This leaves preening of the bird’s feathers able to take up 8 – 11 hours every day!

From this perspective it is easy to see how some birds can start to develop OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) type mental disorders with regard to feather care. Over-preening becomes snipping, snipping becomes plucking, and soon a bird is causing massive destruction of everything except the feathers of the head – as seen in the sad case of the bird to the right hand side of the image above (All Wattle Grove patients).

How can this be prevented? Prevention is far more effective than treatment and should start from the day you begin to take care of a bird. There are several main areas that need to be attended to:

1. Feeding
2. Training
3. Environmental (cage) enrichment

Feeding – Most parrots simply get too much food, all in one place. Their simply isn’t any of the mental challenges that nature has equipped these birds to deal with. The ideal is to recreate natural foraging. Small amounts of different foods in different – preferably hard to access – places. Try a seed block hanging from the centre of the cage roof so the bird has to hang from the roof and work harder to pick the seeds from this wobbling source. Try a seed bowl placed very close to the roof of the cage so the bird needs to twist around to get into it. Experiment with drilling holes in thick perches and filling them with seed requiring careful extraction. There are also many commercial “food puzzles” available that you can use. Wattle Grove stocks a range of these.

Training – All parrot species benefit enormously from positive reinforcement training exercises. The more time you can spend training your bird to respond to simple commands, the more his head will be filled with fun and functional concepts, leaving less brain-space for OCD problems to emerge. Start with “Step up” and “Step down” as these are the easiest to teach and the most useful for all pet birds and progress from there. You will be amazed what your bird can learn. Try doing a YouTube search for “parrot tricks” to get some ideas.

Environment enrichment – Most bird owners put some toys in the bird’s cage, but this usually doesn’t go far enough. The first step is to ensure you have absolutely the largest cage you can both afford and fit in the area you have – no cage can ever be too large and as much as 2/3rds of all pet bird cages are recognised as being too small for healthy bird behaviour – Go large! The next step is to provide as much fresh leafy plant branches as you can – particularly any Australian plant species that are in bloom. Feel free to really crowd out the cage with branches that are thin enough to be able to be destroyed by your bird. Finally, try to ensure your bird gets safe time outside the cage as often as possible. If the wings are effectively clipped your bird can climb around in trees and bushes in the back yard. If the bird is flighted ensure a part of the house is bird safe and let him have time free flying inside the house.

Please don’t hesitate to call us on 9453 6655 to discuss creating a happier more fulfilled life for your bird.