A woman replying in a Facebook thread about her self-mutilating parrot “My vet said that it’s become a habit that’s it very hard to break”.

My response was “Ask your vet why these habits don’t develop in the wild”?

Another woman had spent $4000 between veterinarian bills and behaviorists. Her bird was still plucking. In the thread that evolved it turns out that her cages were filled primarily with eucalyptus perches.

Although eucalyptus can be safe it also has a great many toxins that can be lethal to a bird. She also related that her bird got about one hour of daylight – none of this came up in the conversation with her veterinarian or behaviorist.

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