Call to participate - international study of feather plucking

[akki]

Researchers at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and the University of Guelph (Canada) have established a collaborative effort to study companion parrots and their environments. The response to our request for study participants has been overwhelming, and we would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to complete our questionnaire. The University of Guelph has recently ended their involvement in the data collection phase of the study and started to analyze the results submitted thus far. However, as Utrecht University is still seeking parrot owners or caretakers who are willing to participate in an online survey focusing on their parrot's behaviour and living environment, anyone who is interested in this project is still welcome to register.

We are interested in all psittacine species: from budgerigars, to cockatoos, to macaws – and all species in between. We would like to collect information on both healthy, problem-free birds and those with health or behaviour problems. We invite you, as the owner of a pet parrot or parakeet, to participate in this international research project! You can be assured that your important contribution will help to improve the welfare of captive parrots. And, who knows? Maybe you'll learn some new and interesting things about your own parrot in the process…

http://www.parrotsurvey.com/

I have registered with all three of my lovebirds :)

[Maxie]

Just registered :)

[michael]

Researchers at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and the University of Guelph (Canada) have established a collaborative effort to study companion parrots and their environments. The response to our request for study participants has been overwhelming, and we would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to complete our questionnaire. The University of Guelph has recently ended their involvement in the data collection phase of the study and started to analyze the results submitted thus far. However, as Utrecht University is still seeking parrot owners or caretakers who are willing to participate in an online survey focusing on their parrot's behaviour and living environment, anyone who is interested in this project is still welcome to register.

We are interested in all psittacine species: from budgerigars, to cockatoos, to macaws – and all species in between. We would like to collect information on both healthy, problem-free birds and those with health or behaviour problems. We invite you, as the owner of a pet parrot or parakeet, to participate in this international research project! You can be assured that your important contribution will help to improve the welfare of captive parrots. And, who knows? Maybe you'll learn some new and interesting things about your own parrot in the process…

http://www.parrotsurvey.com/

I have registered with all three of my lovebirds :)

Thank you for sharing akki. I too have registered about 9 hours ago. Other than the reasons why parrots only pluck their feathers in captivity, hopefully we can find reasons of why a good majority of them who are well cared for don't.

[linda040899]

I've registered for one parrot....so far. Time is my problem but this sure is worth it!

[akki]

Thank you for sharing akki. I too have registered about 9 hours ago. Other than the reasons why parrots only pluck their feathers in captivity, hopefully we can find reasons of why a good majority of them who are well cared for don't.

Yeah, I really hope that they will have a lead. Being a researcher myself, I can say that the biggest factor of success is the number of participants - the more owners with parrots will participate, the more conclusive and informative the research will be. So please share with all of your bird friends - this is really important. Both pluckers and nonpluckers are important, ideally the researchers would have equal groups of both, and equal groups of all the factors that they are suspecting to be the cause.

The only factor that I can pin down is that the birds that are separated from parents at a young age and handfed are at higher risk. Unfortunately Juju joined the featherpluckers club, and he is the only of the three that is handfed - I got him at 5 weeks, I still didn't know as much back then and the law banning handfeeding was not out there yet.

[linda040899]

The only factor that I can pin down is that the birds that are separated from parents at a young age and handfed are at higher risk.
This has definitely not been my own experience. I have many hand fed day 1 babies who always remain in my aviary and I don't have any pluckers in the group. My TAG, Harley, will occasionally pick his feathers but now that he has 2 grey companions, the incidents have decreased. He's very bonded to me but those 3 can get into more mischief if left to their own devices that I need to make sure I know where they are at all times! Harley is the one I'm using for the study.

Should be interesting.

[Dorothy]

akki, what law banning handfeeding? Dorothy

[akki]

akki, what law banning handfeeding? Dorothy

It's in the Netherlands, where we used to live, and my lovebirds are from, as from January 1st 2015, commercial handfeeding of parrots in absence of emergency situation is banned and equaled to animal abuse. Other EU countries most probably will follow soon.

[akki]

Linda, as feather plucking is a complex behavioral pattern, it is very unlikely that there is one sole factor that causes feather plucking. It is more likely that a combination of several factors contributes to that. Handfeeding is already associated with several behavioral issues (correlation, not causality), feather plucking is one of the issues. Because if it was a sole factor, it was identified looong time ago. And we all know that handfeeding is a practice that is there for quite some time.