What is over preening in birds?
Over preening, also known as feather picking or feather damaging behavior, is when a bird excessively preens or plucks its own feathers. This can lead to bald spots, bleeding, and damage to the skin. It’s an abnormal behavior that indicates the bird is stressed, anxious, or bored. Some common causes include:
Medical causes
– Skin infections, parasites, fungal or bacterial infections can cause itching and discomfort that leads to over preening. Birds may obsessively preen trying to relieve irritation.
– Allergies to food, dust, or environment can also cause irritated skin.
– Pain from arthritis, muscle strain or trauma. Birds may pick feathers around sore areas.
Behavioral causes
– Stress, anxiety, fear, loneliness from lack of social interaction. Birds are highly social and need daily interaction and enrichment. Lack of these can cause neurotic picking habits.
– Boredom from lack of toys and activities. Birds are highly intelligent and need mental stimulation. An under-stimulated bird may pick feathers out of boredom or frustration.
– Compulsive disorders like OCD can cause repetitive feather damaging behaviors.
Environmental causes
– Unsuitable cage or living conditions. Small, dirty, or barren cages can stress birds and cause picking. Lack of bathing water can also irritate skin.
– Poor diet, nutritional deficiencies. Lack of vitamins, minerals, or nutrients can negatively impact feather health and cause irritation.
– Nesting instinct. Some birds, especially females, may pull out their feathers to prepare a nesting site. This is seasonal in springtime.
– Attention-seeking. Some birds learn that chewing feathers gets a reaction from their owners. The attention rewards the behavior.
How to stop feather picking
If your bird is over preening, first take it to an avian veterinarian to diagnose and treat any medical issues. Once physical causes are ruled out, try these tips to curb behavioral picking:
Reduce stress
Minimize any stressors or fears your bird may have:
– Ensure your bird gets 10-12 hours of quiet, uninterrupted sleep in a dark, enclosed space. Cover the cage at night.
– Move the cage away from noisy appliances, drafts, and high traffic areas.
– Introduce new foods, people, and experiences gradually so as not to overwhelm your bird.
– Keep household routines consistent. Birds like predictability.
– Give your bird solo out-of-cage time if living with other pets. Competition can be stressful.
– Use positive reinforcement and rewards to train, rather than punishment.
Increase enrichment
An enriched environment decreases boredom and destructive behaviors:
– Spend at least 1-2 hours per day interacting with your bird. Social species need companionship.
– Provide plenty of stimulating bird toys to play with and chew. Rotate new toys in regularly to keep it interesting.
– Offer puzzles, foraging activities to work for food. Make your bird “hunt” for seeds or nuts.
– Provide branches, wood, and substrates to dig and burrow in. Change materials for variety.
– Install perches of different sizes and textures to keep feet active.
– Allow supervised out-of-cage time for exercise and exploration daily.
Improve diet
A nutritious diet supports healthy feathers and skin:
– Feed a high quality, veterinarian recommended pellet diet.avoid seed mixes.
– Offer lots of leafy greens, vegetables, sprouts, fruits, beans and grains for variety.
– Top food with brewer’s yeast, spirulina, kelp, or wheat germ for nutrients.
– Give treats high in Omega-3s like walnuts, almonds, and flax seeds. These promote skin and feather health.
– Provide mineral blocks and cuttlebones for beak conditioning and mineral intake.
– Make sure filtered, fresh water is always available.
Discourage picking
You can discourage the behaviors that trigger feather picking:
– Redirect your bird’s chewing urges towards acceptable objects like toys.
– Avoid stroking birds in places they can reach to over preen. Pet the head only.
– Limit daylight hours to 8-10 hours to reduce hormonal picking.
– Don’t react emotionally when your bird picks. Remain calm and distract with a toy or activity.
– Block access to already picked areas with an Elizabethan collar until they heal. Supervise use.
Medical and medication solutions
If environmental and diet changes don’t work, talk to your vet about:
– Medications or supplements that can reduce anxiety, OCD tendencies, or skin irritation.
– Testing for hormonal issues and recommending hormone therapy if appropriate.
– Ruling out pain that might come from hidden illness or arthritis. Pain relievers may help.
– Treating any parasitic infections on the skin that may be hard for an owner to find. Antibacterial and antifungal medication if underlying infection is the cause.
– Recommending a partial trim or feather implants to affected picked areas while retraining occurs.
Prevention of feather picking
The best way to deal with picking is try to prevent it in the first place:
– Choose physically healthy birds from reputable breeders. Avoid supporting irresponsible breeders.
– Screen for stable temperament and behaviors when selecting a bird. Nervous birds stress more easily.
– Begin training and socializing as soon as you bring bird home. Set rules and bond from the start.
– Gradually introduce any changes to minimize stress. Birds flourish on predictability.
– Feed a high quality diet right from the weaning stage. Proper nutrition prevents many issues.
– Offer lots of enrichment and supervised time out of cage from a young age.
– Schedule annual well bird exams with an avian vet to catch any medical issues early.
– Be vigilant at first signs of picking. Address promptly before it becomes habit.
When to seek help
See your vet promptly if:
– Picking causes open sores, bleeding or infections. These require medication.
– Your bird rapidly loses feathers, is missing large patches.
– Picking lasts more than a few weeks without improvement from changes made.
– Behavior starts suddenly and persists constantly.
– You notice other signs illness like appetite or weight loss.
Feather damaging behavior can be difficult to treat if it becomes obsessive-compulsive. Seek help as soon as you notice the first signs. While birds may occasionally over preen, plucking balding areas, blood, scabs, and chewing feathers constantly are not normal and signal a stressed bird needs help. With patience, environmental changes and medical care, the disorder can often be corrected before it becomes severe or chronic.
Conclusion
Birds are complex animals that can develop abnormal feather picking habits for many reasons. Medical problems, stress, boredom, and compulsions can all trigger over preening. While prevention is ideal, owners who notice the behavior early can take steps reduce stress, enrich their bird’s environment, improve diet, and discourage the behavior until it lessens or stops. In difficult cases medications or medical treatments may be needed. With consistent monitoring and care, birds can overcome their urge to chew their feathers and live happy, enriched lives alongside their owners. Remember to always involve an avian vet for proper diagnosis and rule out underlying medical factors. A bird’s mental and physical health are closely linked, so approach the problem holistically for the best chance of successfully resolving it.