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Published in the Ithaca Journal on Friday, May 2, 2003
Cause of cockatiel's plucking may be mental, physical
Spotlight on Pet Behavior
By MICHELLE BAMBERGER
Special to the Journal
Question: I have a five-year-old lutino cockatiel named Fred. Since January, he has been plucking the feathers on his chest for no apparent reason. Now, the plucked area is so raw, it bleeds. He is eating, drinking and healthy otherwise. My husband says the problem is ³in his head² but I think there might be something physically wrong. Who is right?Answer:As owners of a lutino (white) cockatiel, either of you may be right. Grey is the ³normal² color of cockatiels and the inbreeding required to produce the white color is likely responsible for the nervous disposition of the lutino. In addition, it is known that the lutino is prone to feather plucking and to night frights.
Having said that, it is also important to remember that physical causes may be responsible for all or part of Fredıs feather plucking. Infectious agents, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi should be considered as possible causes even if Fred has never been outside. It is especially important for your veterinarian to run a bacterial culture because cockatiels have a species predilection for developing bacterial dermatitis (infection of the skin caused by bacteria) that may be the root of the plucking. In addition to searching for infectious agents, your veterinarian will also recommend blood work as noninfectious causes may also be responsible for feather plucking. This includes checking a complete blood count as well as liver enzyme values, heavy metal levels (lead and zinc) and examination of the feces for parasites. Giardia, an internal parasite, is frequently associated with feather plucking in cockatiels.
If the cause of Fredıs behavior is truly psychological, the next step would be to determine what triggered Fredıs plucking in the first place. Stress is often the culprit and may be due to changes in the home environment, relationships, schedules or lifestyles. For example, there might be a certain time of day that is more stressful for Fred (more feathers plucked). To determine if this is so, examine the floor of Fredıs cage as soon as you awaken in the morning, then again before leaving for work, when you arrive back home and before retiring. If you find, for instance, that Fredıs plucking occurs mainly at night, you might try moving his cage to a different location before you retire and check the floor of the cage in the morning to see if the move made a difference.
You might find that even after you have identified and removed the cause of Fredıs stress, he may continue to pluck. This is because repetitive behaviors, such as feather plucking, often persist after the conflict is gone, especially if the behavior has been occurring for some time. So what to do? First, try to make your own schedule and lifestyle as stable as possible: the more Fred can predict your behavior, the calmer he will be. You might also purchase some new and stimulating toys for Fred and rotate his toys every week, so it appears he always has something different. Along these lines, offer him something fun to do, like ripping up a phone book, paperback books, paper bags and cardboard boxes. Finally, you might try to train Fred in simple obedience commands, since birds that have obedience training are less likely to develop repetitive behaviors. Even though feather plucking cases may be difficult to diagnose accurately and solve, they can be quite manageable with appropriate treatment. I would encourage you to first rule out medical causes by scheduling an appointment with your veterinarian as soon as possible.
Michelle Bamberger is a veterinarian and owner of Vet Behavior Consults (www.vetbehaviorconsults.com), a practice based in Ithaca and devoted exclusively to solving behavioral problems in small, large and exotic animals. Send questions for her column to mjb57@cornell.edu, mail them Care of Jessica Keltz to The Ithaca Journal, 123 West State St., Ithaca, NY, 14850, or fax them to 277-6845.