Before Treatment	After Treatment	After Treatment

Ever since I have been involved with parrots, the issue of plucking and feather mutilation, among other serious behavioral problems and my inability to help has bothered me.

While I do understand that frequently behavioral problems, plucking among them, are caused by medical reasons, I also know that in many cases emotional traumata are the cause. There is absolutely no question that the "thinking" and "feeling" processes of parrots with their evolved instinctive reactions to their surroundings are still largely beyond our comprehension. We do know that parrots bred in captivity are more likely to have problems than those who have been caught in the wild. We also have a pretty good idea that their baby experiences, weaning, fledging and socializing have a major influence on their "view of the world" later.

We are aware that they are basically wild animals and at the same time more like children than any other pet we are ever likely to encounter. Bonnie Munro in her excellent book "My Parrot, my Friend" extensively quotes children’s psychologists in her advice for raising parrots. There is a good reason for that.

With this in mind, I have always had the feeling that there must be a way to address their emotional distress and find a way to change behavior which was caused by that distress. If is possible with children, why not with parrots? The only difference is that we can’t take our charges to a shrink, we can’t ask questions. However, as already demonstrated by Sally Blanchard et al, by interviewing the care givers, (putting them on the couch, so to speak), there are ways to diagnose the cause(s) for a problem with reasonable certainty. The question that brings many of us up short is: "What now?", "What to do?" and our helplessness vis-à-vis the bird’s misery becomes our burden. I can’t count the times I have heard: "I don’t care if he or she plucks, I love him or her anyway" and I can’t count the times when that has been my advice when nothing else seemed to work.

About 2 years ago, I "rescued" Simon, a then 8 year old male Eclectus. Simon had been plucking for 4 plus years and by the time I found him he looked like a Tyson chicken — totally naked except his green feathered head, (where he could not reach) and a couple of bedraggled primaries. Extensive blood testing, not unexpectedly, yielded no causative results. From what I knew of his previous life, this was as classic an example of a severely emotionally disturbed bird as I have ever seen.

Chewing his feathers, pulling them out, breaking them off, he did it all. Beyond that, when I picked him up he continuously regurgitated for me and tried to mate with my hand. He would not play with his toys, he would not leave his perch. I tried MSN with absolutely no results. After watching this for about a year and a half, hoping that a high humidity environment, diversionary entertainment combined with a better diet, daily baths, aloe misting and the company of other birds may cause some changes, there was absolutely no improvement.

I refused to use hormones or a collar because I believe that it does not address the real cause(s). I knew that the reasons for this behavior where traumatic experiences in his youth. I saw it as my challenge to isolate the underlying reasons and find a way to deal with them.

During this time I heard of Bach Flower Essences. The more I learned, the more intrigued I became. They have been used in Europe for years and are widely recognized for their healing properties benefiting humans and a variety of pets, (predominantly cats, dogs and horses). I spoke to the Bach Flower people in the UK and a variety of veterinarians in Germany and the UK. I strongly suspect that the complicated emotional/instinctive profile of parrots, the fact that we rarely know their entire history, that many people have trouble recognizing their own mistakes and thus can’t diagnose the reason for their bird’s problems and just plain ignorance about their intrinsic nature, may be the major reason why this therapy is not widely used for parrots. Treating with Bach Flower Essences requires empathy, intuitiveness, knowledge of the patient, patience and consistency.

I became convinced that they could work with parrots, as well. The challenge in treating with Bach Flower Essences is that the reasons for the emotional disturbance(s) causing the negative behavior must be diagnosed. Each of the Essences has a relatively narrow focus and going to the root of the problem is very important. Without that, the therapy won’t work.

After watching Simon for a year and a half and since I knew some of his background, I started treating Simon with 6 essences 2 months ago. He has almost entirely stopped plucking, is growing some of his feathers back and is now sporting a tail and a full set of primaries. (He will almost certainly not re-grow all of his feathers, there was just too much follicle damage.) The rule of thumb is that 1 month of treatment is required for every year of trouble. Simon still has a few months left —.

Bach Flower Essences are not a wonder drug and won’t cure medical problems, although they will help in accelerating recuperation — but they do represent real hope for those of us committed to addressing some of the truly daunting challenges of helping afflicted parrots by restoring their mental health.

The link to the web site of the US affiliate of the Bach Flower Essence company which also carries a list of the 38 essences, their application as well as various forms of treatment: http://www.nelsonbach.com/index3.html.