Foster Burris talks about birds
The causes of birds pecking at feathers include both medical and non-medical factors. Major medical factors include changes in hormone levels, in vitro and in vivo parasites, malnutrition, in vivo diseases, and bacterial or fungal infections of the skin and/or feathers.
Non-medical factors
Interestingly, contrary to popular belief, ectoparasites (especially mites) are very rare in caged birds. Non-medical factors are often associated with psychological status and/or stress. Pecking feathers is a common problem in captive birds. Wild birds don't peck or damage their feathers because they're always preoccupied with their own survival problems and procreation. Keeping birds (pet birds, as well as those in zoos and poultry centers) is under a lot of stress that other wild animals can't appreciate. Being raised, malnourished, solitary, mateless, and courtship can cause great stress on birds, especially their mates, who perform courtship rituals to their significant other to meet their mating needs. In addition, being trapped in the home can also cause stress (noise, confusion, and the presence of other pets, such as dogs or cats, which for caged birds means potential predators).
Just like humans, birds have their own biological habits, and once their environment or fixed daily life changes (regardless of the size of the bird), usually each individual will be stressed. This stress usually causes obsessive-compulsive disorder and introverted behavior, manifested by pecking at feathers. The following are the behavioral reactions of feather care and maintenance to the corresponding birds, which helps us understand that the behavior of pecking feathers represents an extreme:
1 Lack of feather care and maintenance -—— birds do not comb and clean their feathers 2 Normal feather care and maintenance ——- birds normal combing and cleaning their feathers 3 Obsessive-compulsive disorder, feathers are excessively damaged-—— pecking, destroying their feathers
(2) It is normal feather care and maintenance and the corresponding birds are normally groomed and cleaned and groomed. (1) It is a phenomenon that there is no maintenance of feathers at all, which is a common phenomenon in birds that are raised at home and artificially large. These birds failed to learn from their parents how to properly groom their feathers (combing techniques and frequency). (3) It is too keen to comb their own feathers, thus causing excessive damage and even damage to the feathers, and its external performance is to peck and destroy their own feathers. Birds always behave in a fixed pattern with a tendency to be ritualized. Knowing this fact and the corresponding content of the feather care above, it is not difficult to understand why the birds have been pecking their feathers under the pressure of day after day. There is a slight difference between feather grooming and feather pecking: the former uses its beak to pull a feather and comb it from beginning to end; the latter also uses its beak to pull the feather, but bites off or uproots the feather when it is halfway through the combing.
Most caged birds seem to have a tendency to peck at feathers. Several species of birds are notorious for their bad temper, including the African Grey Parrot, Timna Parrot (a subspecies of Grey Parrot), Cockatoo, Macaw, Cone-tailed Parrot, Grey-cheeked Parrot and Cockatoo. Interestingly, we rarely see tiger parrots and Amazon parrots pecking at feathers.
However, we do see self-harm syndrome in Amazon parrots, which sometimes occur in other species (African grey parrot, macaw). This may represent the way these birds behave or deal with stress. It is also believed that this condition may be caused by an infectious disease, the pathogen may be some kind of virus. It is not uncommon for birds that have suffered pain and/or torture to destroy their skin (toes, wings, groin, and armpit areas). This persistent wound can eventually cause infection, which can cause the injured area to not heal. We should take measures to prevent the above-mentioned birds from having the opportunity to self-harm, and we can consider using collars (neck covers), bandages, etc. At the same time, they should be treated with a stronger systemic antibiotic approach (preferably by injection).
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