Plumage disorders in psittacine birds - part 2: feather damaging behaviour

Abstract

Plumage disorders in parrots represent one of the more common, but also one of the more challenging and frustrating problems that veterinarians dealing with parrots in their daily practice face on a day-to-day basis. This second part of the review will deal with diseases causing lack of feather growth and/or feather loss, including feather damaging behaviour. The latter certainly is one of the more difficult problems to address, as causes are numerous and may include (a combination of) medical, environmental as well as behavioural causes. In most cases, an extensive diagnostic work-up, including a thorough history, full physical examination and additional diagnostic tests, is therefore needed to identify the underlying disease or, in case of feather damaging behaviour, rule out the presence of a medical cause prior to being able to diagnose that the disorder is the resultant of a behavioural disorder.