Psittacine behavioural disorders

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Psittacine behavioural disorders

• Attention-demand behaviour
• Undesired displacement behaviour.
• Territoriality
• Biting
• Feather damage
• Screaming
• Reproductive issues
• Phobic type behavioural problems
• Psychotic issues ( compulsive obsessive disorders
  )

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Feather conditions in birds

• Can be caused by
• Allergies
• poor nutrition
• psychological problems
• viral infections

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• Allergies are a recently recognised problem in
  birds Often the allergy is related to something
  new in the bird's environment.
• Poor Nutrition is a common factor in birds with
  bad feathers and itchy skin
• Extruded diets greatly reduces the risk of
  allergies symptoms of a bad diet are a dry flaky
  skin and pink shiny patches on the soles of the
  feet

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• Internal disease may cause a
• bird to feather pick
• Intestinal parasites
• (worms and protozoa)
• and air sac infections may
• cause the bird to pick at its
• skin and feathers.

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• Psychogenic Feather Picking is the name given to
  a disease where an upset in the birds mental
  health causes it to feather pick. Just like
  people who compulsively scratch, or chew their
  nails, birds have similar conditions. The medical
  term is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and it can
  be quite devastating to both bird and owner

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• Galahs aged about 10 - 15 months of age are often
  very good talkers and have been great pets, but
  suddenly they become antisocial, aggressive and
  severe feather chewers.
• Have suddenly changed personality and began
  severe feather chewing (often to the point of
  self mutilation)- result of an abnormal
  upbringing Treatment - applying a collar,
  give them a large outdoor aviary with plenty of
  places to hide and try and introduce another
  older tame Galah to the cage

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•   To treat the underlying disease, give
  antibiotics or antifungals are indicated. Improve
  the diet. Remove the bird from exposure to
  cigarette smoke, organic phosphates, heavy
  metals or other toxins. Provide frequent
  exposure to fresh air and sunlight and mist with
  a water bottle daily if the bird enjoys it. Treat
  the blood for intestinal parasites. Treat the
  metabolic disease. Remove the contact allergen.
  Restrictive collars only suppress the clinical
  problem and if the bird is itchy, their use is
  torture for the bird. Therefore these are used in
  only certain cases to (keep the bird from
  severely injuring itself

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Duration of behavioural disorder

• The chronicity and severity tends to be
  associated with a much lower success rate for
  complete cure
• Early recognition, diagnosis and treatment is
  best

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To Investigate wild bird behaviour

• 1. Describe specific behaviour quantify the
  form and rate of performance
• 2. What and how environmental stimuli affect the
  behaviour
• 3. Experiments

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Functional categories of bird behaviour

• 1. self maintenance behaviours specific tasks
  to maintain physical condition
• 2. social behaviours - communication

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Behavioural activity patterns

• 1. daily patterns include self maintenance and
  social type behaviours
• 2. seasonal patterns certain activities or
  behaviours occur at specific times of the year
  such as territorial defenses, breeding and
  migration
• These require a circadian rhythm cycle of
  approx. 24hrs, this biological clock is partially
  controlled by the pineal gland and environment

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Daily maintenance behaviours

• Feeding, feather care, locomotion, concealment,
  communication and display
• Enrichment of these behaviours benefits captive
  psittacines
• Most common behavioural disorders in this category

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Feather care

• Essential for insulation, waterproofing,
  aerodynamic efficiency and effective social
  communication via plumage display
• Damaged by disease /wear/trauma/self mutilation
  and in captivity by incorrect grooming
  procedures, inadequate caging or environmental
  management/ incorrect nutrition
• Birds spend a lot time grooming
• Some birds engage in allopreening ( mutual
  grooming ) social and self maintenance value
• Owners and vets can provide allopreening
• Lengthy or consistently repeated allopreening
  activities between owner and bird can be
  consistent with a bonded mating pair ( can lead
  to undesirable reproductive behaviour)

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Communication behaviours

• Communication signal to benefit the sender
• Display ritualized signal intended to convey a
  specific message, key elements are movement and
  posture, usually innate and highly stereotyped,
  species specific
• Can signal status/potential mate/ dominance/
  territory ownership/danger/attention seeking

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Aggressive display

• Amazon parrot with erect body posture, pinned
  pupils, raised head and nape feathers, open beak,
  raised pectoral contour plumes and fanned tail
  feathers

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Conflict resolution displays

• Competing urges to flee or fight ,as cannot do
  both, it causes a state of high agitation
• As a result ,in the wild and captivity,get
  displacement behaviour
• Such as pecking the ground , wiping the bill
  obsessively against the feathers
• Eg parrot biting the ear of its owner when
  another human comes close
• Allows the bird to avoid selecting the two
  undesirable options

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Bird partners raising young

• Socially monogamous and/or
• Genetically monogamous
• None of the above

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Socially Monogamous

• Male and female partner for one or more breeding
  cycles
• Divorce may occur
• Companion birds can form this bond with human
  partners but is usually inappropriate for long
  term behavioural stability

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Parrots

• Altrical
• Typically form long lasting family groups and
  mentor the young into normal behaviours of flock
  interaction
• Properly structured flock interactive behavioural
  guidelines delivered to young companion parrots
  prepare the birds with appropriate behavioural
  repertoires to allow them to succeed as companion
  birds.

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COMPANION BIRDS

• Abnormal lessons taught or
• Absence of offered and demonstrated social
  structure b/w family and bird results in self
  generated rules
• Eg screams a lot gets a treat to be quite
• Learns to escape rewarded by social contact etc

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Wild parrot

• If increasing isolated from its flock is less
  likely to survive
• Companion birds and wild birds therefore try and
  return / stay with the flock/human

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Bird Basic behaviours needed

• Willingness to step up to the hand on request
• Step down to a training perch on request
• Stay where stepped down
• Willingness to accept towel restraint

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Step up

• Hand only
• If afraid of this unlikely to be a viable family
  member
• Communicate request body language, verbally or
  both

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Step down

• Request to leave hand to the perch
• Communicate as above

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Stay where placed

• Commonly overlooked
• Birds that do not stay roam and expect this
  freedom and have to be locked up more to be kept
  under control
• Need training perches that can move around the
  house
• Exchange limited mobility for increased social
  communication in multiple locations
• Structured format for social behaviours
• Opportunity for self maintenance behaviours
  shared between owner and bird

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Perches

• Simple T perches best
• Sofas, living room carpet and kitchen counters DO
  NOT provide adequate limitations to mobility

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Acceptance of physical restraint

• So when needed can be used
• That it is not always associated with pain/fear
• Toweling technique should be familiar to the
  birds, not evoke fear or a learned pattern of
  increased resistance in the future

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Behavioural problems

• More common than infectious diseases
• Common reason for surrendering of birds
• Positive reinforcement for desired behaviours is
  best
• Slow step by step process to correct