Topics in Medicine and Surgery

Topics in Medicine and Surgery

Psittacine Behavior in the Examination Room:
Practical Applications, Handling, and Restraint
Liz Wilson, CVT, Certied Parrot Behavior Consultant
Abstract
As in dog and cat medicine, parrot behavior issues are critical because parrots lose
their homes every day because of behaviors considered unacceptable by humans.
Through careful observation and assessment, veterinary personnel can help parrot
owners avoid or deal with behavioral issues before they lead to displacement of
birds to new homes. Copyright 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Key words: behavior; behavioral disease; parrot; psittacine; body language; stress;
fear
B
ehavior problems are the number one cause of
death among dogs and cats in this country.
1
According to veterinary ethologists, unaccept-
able behaviors result in the dumping of thousands of
these animals into shelters every year for euthanasia.
Although euthanasia for unacceptable behaviors is not
as common with parrots as it is with dogs and cats,
errant behaviors and behavioral disease frequently lead
to donation of psittacine birds to rescue organizations
or to abandonment of these birds in pet stores.
In the last few years, more attention has been given
to behavior issues among psittacine birds. However,
further research is needed. Attention to parrot behav-
ior problems should be offered in the veterinary exam-
ination room. More specically, the category, behav-
ior, should be listed in the body systems approach on
a physical examination sheet and should be evaluated
in the same manner as other body systems (B. Speer,
personal communication, 2004). Acceptable behavior
is, after all, as important to a parrots health and long-
term happiness in captivity as is its musculoskeletal
system or integument.
Behavioral Health: Evaluation from
Across the Room
On arrival at the veterinary hospital, avian patients
should be separated from predatory cats and barking
dogs in the waiting room to minimize unnecessary
stress. If there is no separate waiting room for exotic
pets, veterinary personnel should move birds into
examination rooms as quickly as possible to await
their appointment in quiet. When placed in the
examination rooms, clients should be instructed to
leave their parrots in their carriers because this will
facilitate veterinary personnels initial behavioral ob-
servations.
The rst steps of psittacine bird behavioral health
assessment can be performed in the same manner
as a physical health examinationfrom across the
room. Sitting at a distance from the bird, veterinary
personnel should evaluate a parrots body language
while collecting historical information from the cli-
ent. At this point, veterinary personnel will stress the
bird less by simply observing it from a distance.
Full-faced surveillance is likely to be interpreted by a
prey animal, such as a parrot, as a two-eyed preda-
From the International Association of Animal Behavior Con-
sultants, Parrot Division, Levittown, PA 19055 USA.
Address correspondence to: Ms. Liz Wilson, International As-
sociation of Animal Behavior Consultants, Parrot Division, 64
Jonquil Lane, Levittown, PA 19055. E-mail: lwilsoncvt@att.net
2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1557-5063/07/1601-$30.00
doi:10.1053/j.jepm.2006.11.006
24 Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine, Vol 16, No 1 ( January), 2007: pp 24-29
tors stare, encouraging defensive reactions in the
bird even before it is approached. Keeping their
movements slow and voices modulated, veterinary
personnel should also avoid dramatic gesticulations.
From a distance, the following behaviors can be
evaluated and briey recorded in the animals
record. Inclusion of a behavioral evaluation sheet in
the record will facilitate this process.
Stance
Is the bird shivering in the back of the carrier or
sitting placidly on its perch? While it is perfectly
reasonable for a parrot to be wary in strange sur-
roundings, there are signicant differences between
a cautious parrot and a terrorized one, especially
even before it has even been approached.
Feathers
Are the contour feathers held tightly to the body,
making the bird look skinny, suggesting fear, or are
the feathers relaxed and soft looking? Is the bird
trembling when the room is not cold? Such trem-
bling is also evidence of fear and/or stress. Crested
birds like cockatiels and cockatoos often raise their
crests and hiss when approached. This is a display
posture indicating either fear or territoriality. Fur-
ther observation should help clarify which behavior
is being displayed.
Fear Response
If the bird initially acted anxious when veterinary
personnel entered the room, does it relax again if it
is not approached?
Eye Expression
When veterinary personnel look at the parrot, does it
respond with friendly eye contact and curiosity, or
does it ail around the cage in a panic?
Reactions to Hands
If the veterinary personnel casually move their hands
up to scratch their ears, does the bird instantly stiffen
into a hypervigilant posture, or does it watch the
hand with curiosity? If it goes into high alert, does it
relax again the instant the hand stops moving, or
does it remain in alert status?
Moving closer to the parrot, the veterinary staff
continues to observe the bird.
Stance
Does the bird thrash around as the veterinary per-
sonnel move closer to the cage? This behavior indi-
cates an extremely stressed individual that may be
acutely traumatized by handling.
Feathers
Does the bird elevate every contour feather on its
body and visually double in size as the veterinary
personnel move closer? This is a passive-aggressive
posturebetter known as the Im too big to swal-
low response. This bird will likely bite if approached
too closely.
Reactions to Faces
If the veterinary personnel lean a little closer with
their hands out of sight, does the bird look up at
their faces with curiosity, or does it leap to the back
of its carrier? Parrots are rarely as anxious about
faces as they are about hands; thus, a fear of faces
would indicate extreme apprehension.
Fear Response, Eye Expression, and
Reactions to Hands
Same as previously stated.
Interactions Between Client and Parrot
Veterinary personnel should ask the client if the bird
is tame enough to handle, and, if so, have the owner
remove the bird from its carrier. While the owner is
handling the bird, the bird and owner should be
observed carefully because much can be learned
from this interaction about the owner-parrot rela-
tionship.
The owners lack of control may become obvious
if the parrot moves to the safety of the owners
shoulder and frustrates the owners attempts to dis-
lodge it. Such behavior also provides valuable infor-
mation about the degree of control the owner has
over the bird at home. However, care should be
taken in removing the bird from its owner because a
bird may grab onto the owners face or ears. Indeed,
unless veterinary personnel are extremely experi-
enced and competent at handling, they should avoid
trying to remove birds from owners shoulders. Over-
dependent psittacine birds are often compulsively
clingy to owners. The clients response to this depen-
dent behavior is quite telling because, unfortunately,
owners may feed into this behavior by becoming
overly dependent on their parrots as well.
Many experienced bird handlers prefer that the
owner leaves the parrot in the cage and allows the
veterinary personnel to bring the birds out when they
Psittacine Behavior in the Examination Room 25
are ready. This bypasses the owners frequently inept
bird handling at the beginning of the examination and
eliminates the stress of extricating the bird from its
owner. Allowing veterinary personnel to take the bird
out of its carrier also permits experienced personnel to
spend a little time with the patient, establishing a rap-
port before initiating restraint.
Veterinary personnel should question clients re-
garding the parrots reactions to strangers in the
home and to other family members, pets, and so
forth. Personnel should also question the client as to
how frequently the bird appears afraid, happy, and
so forth, as well as the circumstances under which
such behaviors are seen.
The clients body language also should be noted.
High-stressed type-A owners can negatively affect
psittacine birds, especially if the bird is a particularly
emotionally sensitive species such as an African grey
parrot (Psittacus erithacus). If owners are extremely
nervous about the veterinary visit, they may exacer-
bate the potential for psychological trauma to the
bird as a result of the examination.
Application of Information
Once these brief evaluations are noted in the record,
the veterinarian can ascertain whether problem be-
haviors are evolving and, if so, discuss with the owner
techniques to avoid their progression. This author
has found that many clients simply require a fresh
perspective to recognize how their behavior may be
unintentionally aggravating their birds behavior
problem. Once they are enlightened, most owners
try to make necessary changes to prevent the situa-
tion from deteriorating.
Separating Bird and Owner
Many psittacine birds are easier to manage in their
owners absence. As a result, some veterinarians au-
tomatically remove parrots from the examination
room without explanation; such unexplained behav-
ior is not acceptable. Although frightened owners
may intensify their birds fears if they are allowed to
be present during handling, disallowing clients from
participation in this decision may damage the client-
doctor relationship.
2
Instead, the veterinary staff
Figure 1. Parrot is asked to step onto the hand, and the handler
greets bird in a friendly manner. Reprinted with permission from
Luescher A (ed): Manual of Parrot Behavior, Ames, IA, Blackwell
Publishing, 2006.
Figure 2. Parrots foot is pinned with the thumb, while handler
continues to talk softly and smile. Reprinted with permission from
Luescher A (ed): Manual of Parrot Behavior, Ames, IA, Blackwell
Publishing, 2006.
26 Wilson
needs to explain to the owner the possible repercus-
sions of exacerbating the birds fear. Once this is
explained, anxious owners rarely insist on remaining
in the examination room.
Gentle, Non-Predatory Capture
When it is time to restrain the parrot, the client
should put the bird on the examination table and
move away or exit the room. The veterinary person-
nel should then step the bird onto the hand from the
table. As previously mentioned, they should avoid try-
ing to take the bird directly from the owner because
someone is likely to get bitten.
In this authors opinion, the old technique of
cornering and capturing a parrot on the oor is
absolutely unacceptable because of the unnecessary
panic it causes the bird. In addition, despite rigorous
disinfection, oors are often a source of pathogen
contamination to which birds should not be ex-
posed.
The vast majority of parrots in the United States
are domestically raised, and, therefore, they do
not perceive humans as predators. Accordingly, the
harpy eagle catchthe swoop-and-grab technique
evolved for the quick and safe capture of wild
psittacine birdsterrorizes tame parrots in a totally
unacceptable manner.
3
This predatory grab throws a
bird into a visceral ght-or-ight response, and, once
initiated, the resulting adrenaline surge causes the
bird to ght frantically for its life. Overly aggressive
handling, such as this, may lead to fear-based behav-
ioral responses such as aggression and neurotic fear
behaviors.
4
The author developed The Frontal Towel Ap-
proach
5
as an alternative to old capture techniques.
When preparing to restrain a tame medium-sized or
large species of parrot, the handler should do the
following: talk softly to the parrot (not to the owner),
step the patient up onto the hand (Fig 1), and rmly
but gently pin the birds feet with the handlers
thumb (Fig 2). The handler should then smile in a
genial manner and continue talking quietly and
calmly to the animal that is about to be restrained. At
the same time, the handler should catch one corner
of the towel in the ngers of the hand on which the
bird is sitting (Fig 3). Using the other hand on the
other end of the towel, the handler brings the towel
up (Fig 4) and covers the head (Fig 5). Full restraint
can now commence.
Figure 3. While pinning the toe, the handler catches one corner of the end of the towel between the ngers of the hand on which the bird
is sitting. Smiling and friendly talk continues. Reprinted with permission from Luescher A (ed): Manual of Parrot Behavior, Ames, IA, Blackwell
Publishing, 2006.
Psittacine Behavior in the Examination Room 27
Psittacine birds that have been taught by experi-
ence to be petried of towels can also be captured in
this manner. As a rule, a terried parrot will ip
backwards as the towel advances, but once the feet
are pinned, escape is not possible. The towel is then
wrapped around the upside-down bird, it is lowered
to the table, and restraint is commenced, as usual.
From the authors experience, this technique does
not elicit a full autonomic nervous system response,
so the patient relaxes quickly.
However, this toweling method can lead to iatro-
genic injury with small species, budgerigars (Melop-
sittacus undulatus) and cockatiels, (Nymphicus hollan-
dicus) if they ip backwards and twist under the
handlers thumb. Welle
6
describes a better small bird
toweling technique as follows: After the bird has
stepped onto the handlers hand, the bird is brought
close to the body, the towel brought up behind it,
and the head grasped. The towel is then wrapped
around the body for restraint of the wings and feet.
6
In an attempt to reduce the stress of the veteri-
nary visit, many educated parrot owners have taught
their psittacine birds not to fear towels. These clients
often prefer to towel their birds and then hand the
towel-wrapped parrot to the veterinarian. They will
be justiably displeased if the veterinarian decides to
undo this training with the unnecessary horrors of a
predatory capture.
Restraint
No matter how expertly it is done, restraint is ex-
tremely stressful to birds. Thus, it is vital to note
stress reactions in avian patients. By carefully observ-
ing physiologic parameters, as respiratory rate, vet-
Figure 4. Continuing to talk calmly with a friendly facial expression,
the handler then uses the other hand to slowly and smoothly bring
the other end of the towel up. Reprinted with permission from
Luescher A (ed): Manual of Parrot Behavior, Ames, IA, Blackwell
Publishing, 2006.
Figure 5. The parrots head is gently covered. Full restraint can now
commence. Reprinted with permission from Luescher A (ed): Manual
of Parrot Behavior, Ames, IA, Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
28 Wilson
erinary staff can judge when it might be necessary to
cease handling and allow the patient to have a break.
Sometimes a break may be as simple as stopping and
stroking the restrained bird briey while talking
softly to it.
7
When the birds respiration slows, work
can resume. If the patient becomes extremely
stressed, it should be released from restraint to re-
cover before continuing with the procedure.
Once testing is accomplished, the parrot should
be gently unwrapped on the examination room table
and stepped onto the handlers hand for comfort
and praise, then stepped back down to the table. The
owner can then pick up the bird from a standing
position.
8
If handling seriously traumatizes a parrot, the
bird should be released back into its carrier, not
directly to the owner. Clients can quietly reassure the
bird without touching it. By not forcing themselves
on the animal immediately after trauma, owners de-
crease the likelihood of the birds establishing a con-
nection between them and the terrors of the veteri-
nary examination. In so doing, there is no damage
incurred to the trust between parrot and caretaker.
Conclusion
Veterinary personnel can gather invaluable informa-
tion about the health of the bond between parrot
and client through careful observation in the exam-
ination room. By trying to prevent or to resolve
behavioral issues between parrots and their owners,
veterinary staff will reinforce their value in preserv-
ing the long-term relationship between human and
psittacine bird. Establishing this value will ensure a
long-term association between parrot owners and
their veterinarians that is more durable than a rela-
tionship based solely on the birds physical health.
9
Such a bond results in client loyalty that can potentially
last for the many decades of a psittacine birds life.
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Psittacine Behavior in the Examination Room 29