Behavioural disorders in psittacines .1. Signs and causes

Psittacines embody in an ideal fashion the child-like characteristics that humans adore. Animal lovers are unable to resist their expressive eyes, brightly coloured plumage, tameness and mimicry of human speech. The desire of pet-owners to have a tame, speaking bird with a very strong bond to its owner is achieved through hand-rearing, but this results in psychoreactive behavioural abnormalities in these highly social birds due to abnormal fixation. The signs and causes of these behavioural abnormalities, also called cage neuroses, are explained. The complex of feather-plucking, feather-ingestion and self-mutilation is considered in depth, and there are numerous illustrations.