Jan Hooimeijer DVM CPBC

Clinic for Birds, Meppel The Netherlands

Roundtable discussion,  AAV-conference August 2011 Seattle

Abstract

The past 30-40 years, artificial incubating eggs and hand rearing baby parrots has become common practice within aviculture. Hand rearing started as an evil necessity because of management failures but has become a parrot unfriendly commercial endeavour. Because of many negative effects of hand rearing there is reason to support legislation that will prohibit hand rearing.

Key words; Hand rearing, artificial incubating, behaviour problems.

Introduction

About 30 – 40  years ago , breeding parrots in captivity became more and more popular.

At that time artificial incubation and hand rearing baby parrots was often necessary  because of different reasons. Main reasons were that  parents abandoned the eggs or the youngsters , mutilated and not raised their own offspring. It was even stated that it would be possible, through artificial incubation, to raise the almost perfectly behaved bird. Because it was suggested that  youngsters learn self mutilation, obnoxious screaming, mate harassment and poor eating habits  from the parents (Jordon 1989 ).  There are different  reasons to consider  the necessity for hand rearing baby parrots as the result of management failures concerning housing, nutrition and care complemented with a lack of knowledge about natural behaviour of parrots.  Most common is still that parents do not want to raise their own youngster when the youngster are not healthy or not viable because of  nutritional deficiencies and other stress factors. Improving the general management and becoming more knowledgeable about the needs of parrots diminishes the need for hand rearing. The past 30 years there  has been a growing demand for parrots as companion birds. Aviculturists and pet shops started to advertise with tame and unweaned hand reared baby parrots suggesting that it was beneficial to buy an unweaned baby parrot as young as possible to ensure that the parrot will become the perfect  tame companion bird.  At the same time knowing that hand rearing is labour intensive there is an economic advantage to sell unweaned birds shifting the hand rearing burden to the purchaser.

 Aviculturists started to experience that artificial incubation or separating the baby’s from the parents using hand feeding techniques created a situation in which the female started to lay eggs more and more often. Hand rearing became part of the practice within the aviculture because the outcome of artificial incubating eggs and hand feeding chicks was a profitable endeavour.

The reason that parent reared baby parrots are not considered tame  is because in general aviculturists consider it normal that breeding pairs are not tame. When the breeding birds are tame , the parent reared youngsters learn from the parents that there  is no need to consider the caretaker as a reason for fear.  (Hooimeijer J., J.M. Pericard 2009, Engebretson M. 2006)   

Negative effects of artificial incubation and hand rearing baby parrots.

The past 15 years more and more data has become available showing the negative consequences of separating baby parrots from their parents and selling of unweaned baby parrots.

 Incubating eggs and hand rearing baby parrots is an amazingly odd development knowing that, as described in other animals including humans, separating youngsters before or during the important first imprinting’s fase, might cause irreversible behavioural problems.

There are indications that some of the behavioural problems can occur after months or even after years especially when the birds become hormonally active.  A range of behavioural problems and welfare issues have been recognized in mice, primates, parrots and humans as consequences of separating youngsters from the parents. Social deprivation throughout infancy leads to long lasting behavioural  abnormalities and severe social and emotional deficits. Stereotypes, insecure behaviour, phobic behaviour, biting behaviour, feather picking and self mutilating are some of teh possible  serious consequences of precociously weaning and separating a baby parrot from the parents (Engebretson M. 2006, Garner J.P., Meehan C.L., Mench J.A.2003,).

The consequence of incubating eggs and separating youngsters at a young age is that females are laying eggs more often compared to the natural situation. In the experience of the author it can explain the negative effect on the life expectancy of the females.  Laying eggs more and more often is also having a negative effect on the quality of the eggs and the viability of the youngsters. (Hooimeijer J. 1999)

Risks of improper hand rearing are aspiration pneumonia, crop burn, puncture of esophagus or crop,  malnutrition and starvation. (Romagnano A 2003)

According to the experience of the author, the end weight of the babies can become 10-15 % lower than the weight of the parents. Studies have shown that hand reared chicks develop more skeletal deformities compared with parent reared chicks (Harcourt-Brown N. 2004 ).

There are data that show that baby parrots that are separated from the parents are more vulnerable to infectious diseases, because their immune systems are less well developed. One of the reasons described is that neonatal handling is stressful. (Phalen D.N., Wilson VG, Graham DL 1994)

Among other scientific work , part of the references is an Inaugural Dissertation , pHD-study ,  at the University of Bern in 2004 by Schmid about the influence of the breeding method on the behavior of adult African grey parrots showing the differences in behavioral problems between hand raised parrots and parent raised parrots.  This study showed that hand reared African Grey Parrots develop more aggressive and more selective behaviour towards humans compared with parent reared birds. It also showed that chicks that were separated from the parents at an age under 5 weeks developed more stereotypes compared to chicks that were parents raised for a longer time.

Research by Myers at all ( 1998)  , working with cockatiels ( Nymphicus hollandicus) showed that fledging only occurded in pairs where the males were parent reared. Hand reared females produced more infertile eggs and laid eggs outside the nest box more often.

Discussion

In the Netherlands there is legislation, within the Health and Welfare Act for Animals, that prohibits , in different species, separating young animals from their parents/mother during a specific period of time.  Young dogs may not be separated from the mother until the age of 7 weeks. For cats it is also 7 weeks, for rabbits it is 4 weeks and for chimpanzees it is 4 years. Because parrots are not mentioned within this act, incubating eggs and hand rearing baby parrots is not illegal in the Netherlands. This contrasts with data that show that  recent advancements in the field of neuroanatomy and cognitive ethology confirms that many avian species exhibit complex cognitive and learning abilities (Pepperberg I.M. 1999).                                                                                                 

Because of the known negative effects on the welfare of the animals , the Dutch Parrot Foundation is campaigning in the Netherlands to include parrots on the list of animals that may not be hand reared and separated from the parents.   Typical examples are Moluccan cockatoos that are mainly hand reared within aviculture showing screaming behaviour, fearful behaviour, biting behaviour , feather picking, feather destructive behaviour and self mutilating as common behaviour problems. When visiting parrot rescue facilities it is painful to see the many Moluccan cockatoos that are donated because of serious behavioural problems. It is even more sad when we realize that we are dealing with an endangered species in Indonesia.  There may be medical indications to justify hand rearing baby parrots. When hand rearing is a necessity it is important to take all the measures to prevent the negative consequences of hand rearing by creating circumstances that are as natural as possible. To prevent problems,  hand rearing in projects like the Californian Condor project or reintroduction projects of endangered cranes, hand rearing was developed in a way that there was no human-animal relationship during hand rearing, mimicking the natural situations as much as possible. Special condor feeding puppets are used as surrogate parental models the same way surrogate parental models are used in hand rearing cranes within reintroduction projects (Horwich R. H 1989) .

Conclusions

Parrots  belong to the most charismatic, intelligent and social animals which have a very high life expectancy. It is the responsibility of avian veterinarians and aviculturists to prevent problems and to enhance the welfare of parrots in captivity.

Considering the available data and based on the current experience there is every reason to conclude that hand rearing of baby parrots is not in the best interest of the health and welfare of parrots.  Baby parrots should have the legal right to be raised by their parents at least until they reach an age at which the birds are no longer dependant on their parents concerning their nutritional needs.

It is not in the best interest of the females to be manipulated and forced to have more clutches because of commercial interests of the breeder.

References, recommended reading

1         R.P. Balda, I.M. Pepperberg, A.C. Kamil - Animal Cognition in Nature: The Convergence of Psychology and Biology in Laboratory and Field. Academic Press, San Diego (1998)

2         I. Branchi - The mouse communal nest: Investigating the epigenetic influences of the early social environment on brain and behavior development. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 33 (2009) 4, p. 551-559

3         R.W. Burkhardt, Jr. - Patterns of Behavior: Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and the founding of ethology. University of Chicago Press (2005)

4         C. Caldji, J. Diorio, M.J. Meaney - Variations in maternal care in infancy regulate the development of stress reactivity. Biol. Psychiatry 48 (2000), p. 1164-1174

5          S.L. Clubb S.L., Club K.J.  Psittacine Pediatrics. 2^nd European Symposium on Avian Medicine and surgery. 1989. Utrecht. 283-299.

6         J.C. Collette, J.R. Millam, K.C. Klasing, P.S. Wakenell - Neonatal handling of Amazon parrots alters the stress response and immune function. Applied Animal Behavior Science 66 (2000), p. 335-349

7         B. Cramton - Handler Attitude and Chick Development, in: Luescher, Manual of Parrot Behavior (2006), p. 113-128

8         B. Donely. The Galah. Seminars in Avian and Exotic Pet Medicine, Vol 12, 2003. pp 185-194

9         M. Engebretson - The welfare and suitability of parrots as companion animals: a review. Animal Welfare 15 (2006), p. 263-276

10     R. Fox - Hand-Rearing: Behavioral impacts and implications for captive parrot welfare, in: Luescher, Manual of Parrot Behavior (2006), p. 83-91

11     R.A. Fox, J.R. Millam - The effect of early environment on neophobia in orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 89 (2004), p. 117-129

12     J.P. Garner, C.L. Meehan, J.A. Mench - Stereotypies in caged parrots, schizophrenia and autism: evidence for a common mechanism. Behavioral Brain Research 145 (2003), p. 125-134

13     Harcourt-Brown N. 2004 Development of the skeleton and feathers of dusky parrots (Pionus fuscus) in relation to their behaviour. The Veterinary Record 154: 42-48

14     J. Hooimeijer - Medical Problems Because of Management Failures in Aviculture. Proceedings Annual Conference Association Avian Veterinarians, New Orleans (1999)

15     Hooimeijer J. Behavioral Problems of Cockatoos in Captivity: Proceedings of the Annu Conf Assoc Avian Vet, New Orleans, 2004

16     J. Hooimeijer, J.M. Pericard - Behaviour and behavioural diseases in psittacine birds. Proceedings 15th FECAVA Eurocongress, Lille (2009)

17     R. Jordan Parrot: Incubation Procedures. Ontario, 1989. Silvio Mattacchione and Co.

18     W. Lantermann - Verhaltensstörungen bei Papageien: Enstehung – Diagnose – Therapie. Stuttgart (1998)

19     N.R. Latham, G.J. Mason - Maternal deprivation and the development of stereotypic behaviour. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 110 (2008), p. 84-108 including the early primate studies in this field, more recent examples from zoo and commercially reared animals, and human examples from studies of institutionalised children.

20     B.S. Levine - Common Disorders of Amazons, Australian Parakeets, and African grey parrots. Seminars in Avian and Exotic Pet Medicine, Vol. 12 (2003) No. 3, p. 125-130

21     A. U. Luescher (Ed.) - Manual of Parrot Behavior. Blackwell Publishing (2006)

22     C.L. Meehan, J.P. Garner, J.A. Mench - Isosexual pair housing improves the welfare of young Amazon parrots. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 81 (2002), p. 73-88

23     V. Munkes, S. Munkes – Massenvermehrung von Papageienvögeln durch Handaufzug: eine kritische Betrachtung. Gefiederte Welt, 6 (2003), p. 166-169

24     S. Munkes, V. Munkes - Durch menschliches Fehlverhalten provozierte Brut und Aufzuchtzwischenfälle mit der Folge sogenannter Not-Handaufzuchten. Gefierderte Welt 5 (2005), p. 134-137

25     H.J.J. van Oers, E.R. de Kloet, S. Levine - Early vs. late maternal deprivation differentially alters the endocrine and hypothalamic responses to stress. Developmental Brain Research 111 (1998), p. 245-252

26     S. O’Mahony, J.R. Marchesi (et al.) - Early life stress alters behavior, immunity, and microbiota in rats: Implications for irritable bowel syndrome and psychiatric illnesses. Biological Psychiatry 65 (2009), p. 263-267

27     I.M. Pepperberg - The Alex Studies, Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of African Grey Parrots. Harvard University Press (1999), (2002, first paperback edition)

28     J.M. Pericard. The importancve of early life of psittacines ( or which pet parrot do we want?) . In; Proceedings 11^th European AAV Conference, 2011. Madrid. pp 297-303

29      D.N. Phalen , Wilson VG, Graham DL: A practitioner’s guide to avian polyomavirus testing and disease. Proc. Association of Avian Vet, 1994 pp 252-258

30     C.R. Pryce, J. Feldon - Long-term neurobehavioural impact of the postnatal environment in rats: manipulations, effects and mediating mechanisms. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 27 (2003), p. 57-71

31     A.B. Riber (et al.) - Effects of broody hens on perch use, ground pecking, feather pecking and cannibalism in domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 106 (2007) p. 39-51

32      B. Ritchie ;  Avian Viruses , Function and Control. 1995 Wingers Publishing, Inc.

33     Romagnano A 2003. Problems associated with improper hand feeding  Hartz. Exotic Health Newsletter 2 : 3

34     R. Schmid - The influence of the breeding method on the behaviour of adult African grey parrots. Inaugural dissertation, Universität Bern (2004)

35     W. Sutanto, P. Rosenfeld, E.R. de Kloet, S. Levine – Long-term effects of neontal maternal deprivation and ACTH on hippocampal mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors. Developmental Brain Research 92 (1996), p. 156-163

36     Tierärztliche Vereinigung für Tierschutz e.V. Arbeitskreis 8 (Zoofachhandel u. Heimtierhaltung) - Stellungnahme zur Handaufzucht bei Papageien (2006)

37     R. Wanker - Socialization in spectacled parrotlets (Forpus conspicillatus ): how juveniles compensate for the lack of siblings. Acta ethologica 2 (1999), p. 23-28

38     M. Wohr, R. K.W. Schwarting - Maternal care, isolation-induced infant ultrasonic calling, and their relations to adult anxiety-related behavior in the rat. Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 122 (2008), p. 310-330

39     P. Zucca - Mind of the Avian patient: cognition and welfare. Proceedings of the 9th European AAV Conference Zurich (2007), p. 357-365

Author:

Drs. Jan Hooimeijer DVM CPBC

Clinic for Birds, Meppel

Galgenkampsweg 4

7942 HD Meppel

The Netherlands

www.kliniekvoorvogels.nl

jan.birds@worldonline.nl

 There have been 40 participants who attended the discussion.

Sept. 2011

Concerning the roundtable discussion at the AAV-Seattle conference

Dear colleaques

At the AAV-Seattle conference part of the program has been the roundtable discussion;   ”Hot Topics in Avian Medicine”.

The main topic was about the issue of the negative effects of hand rearing baby parrots. There has been a 3 hour exchange of comments, statements, experiences and suggestions.

Several participants mentioned that it has become a learning experience because they felt that is has been  the first time that the welfare and health consequences of hand rearing parrots  have been seriously discussed as part of the program of the AAV conference.

The following is a summary of statements made by the participants during this discussion, in the approximate order they were made.

This overview may help to come up with answers, solutions and position statements that will be in the best interest of the health and welfare of the birds that we are dealing with as avian veterinarians.

·        Avian veterinarians share to focus on the health and welfare of birds.

·        It is questionable whether hand rearing is in the best interest of the birds.

·        Hand rearing can result in losing the ability to breed.

·        Because of hand rearing the continuity of learned behavior will get lost for the next generations. What is lost will be difficult to regain.

·        Parrots learn from the parents and other flock members how to deal with conflict situations and how to deal with fearful situations.

·        There has been done all kind of brain research in different species showing the negative effects of separating young from the parents.  One example is that parts of the brain that regulate social behavior are less well developed.

·        Imprinting on humans result also in other animals in behaviour problems.

·        The negative effects of imprinting on humans are also well known in other animal species. Some problems start to occur when the animal become sexually active. 

·        It is a common observation that phobic behavior seems to be very typical for hand reared parrots.

·        To understand the importance and role of parenting, it is important to study parenting in nature.

·        Parrots are wild animals; do we want parrots to become domesticated?

·        Domestication as we know in dogs, cats and other domesticated animals took thousands of years.  The current situation is that we are dealing with parrots as non domesticated animals, having a long life expectancy, in captivity

·        Domesticated animals have behavior characteristics to serve the interest of humans. Non domesticated animals have behavior to survive in nature.

·        There is no need for domestication dealing with parrots in captivity looking at the positive experiences all over the world when people, dealing with parrots, are knowledgeable.

·        Domestication can have negative health and welfare effects as we can see in dogbreeds.

·        Selective breeding may be helpful to decrease behavior problems. Breeding with parrots showing behavioral problems does not seem to make sense.

·        Foster parenting can prevent the common behavior problems and can be considered as a win-win situation.

·        It is amazing that within aviculture it is uncommon that parrots are having a name. In general aviculturists consider it normal that breeding birds are not tame.

·        Having a positive bond with the parrots and having the birds tame is a  win-win situation.  Very important that parrots within aviculture get a name and are tame.

·        When the parents are not tame, young birds learn from the parents at a very young age, and possibly even before hatching,  that caretakers are a reason to be insecure.

·        Many people consider parrots as surrogate children as people do with domesticated lapdogs.

·        Many problems develop when parrots are kept alone and are not part of a flock situation.

·        Besides showing that hand-rearing is creating a problem it is important to present solutions at the same time.

·        A proper bred parent reared baby by tame parents by a breeder having a positive bond with the parrots is of greater value than a baby parrot sold as hand reared by a breeder who is not having a positive bond with the parrots.

·        Money determine that people buy a parrot based on the price of the bird and not based on the background-quality.

·        It is important to educate the public that they need to see the parents and the breeding conditions to evaluate the background as part of the purchase.

·        It is important to educate the owner to have a purchase consultation with an avian veterinarian to evaluate the health and behavior of the parrot as part of the purchase.

·        In the Netherlands the Dutch Parrot Foundation is campaigning to accomplish that parrots will be added on the list of species, mentioned within the Animal Health and Welfare Act, in which hand rearing is prohibited.

·        There is no expectation that there will (ever) be legislation in the USA to prohibit hand rearing.

·        Avian veterinarians are having the power to make a difference in a one on one situation working with owners-breeders to educate and make a difference

·        The past decades the AAV and avian veterinarians have been supporting hand rearing without considering or asking questions about the negative consequences.

·        Parrot rescue became more and more a problem when breeding parrots and selling/buying hand rearing parrots became popular.

·         Parrot rescue is not the solution, it is showing that there is a huge problem. It is our responsibility to prevent that parrots end up in parrot rescue.

·        How to deal with hand reared parrots having behavior problems and their owners?

·        It is important to understand the reason and background of the behaviour.

·        Discussed is the difference between training parrots versus educating parrots based on their observational learning abilities and based on their intelligence.

·        Within the AAV, parrot behavior has been addressed in a one sided way excluding other views and science.  The past years, training parrots has been promoted as the only way to deal with behavior issues.

·        The work of scientists like Jane Goodall,  Niko Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz and others etiologists is not referred to.

·        In recent years, the worldwide renowned scientific work of  Irene Pepperberg has not been part of the information that has been presented at AAV conferences concerning parrot behaviour. 

·        The work of Chris Davies in the early days and the input of others have not been acknowledged.  

·        Thereby observational learning, the intelligence and cognitive abilities of parrots have not been acknowledged.

·        The fact and consequences that parrots are prey animals and humans  are predators are hardly addressed over the years that behavior has been part of the AAV conferences.

·        Dealing with parrots and their owners, it is important to consider that showing empathy is an important tool to create a positive response and compliance.

·        There are huge differences between the different 'worlds” that are involved in parrots. Aviculture as industry, the pet shop industry, the industry making cages, toys and food, Parrot rescue, pet owners and avian veterinarians.                            It is important to get representatives around the table and discuss the mutual interests. Avian veterinarians and the AAV can play a crucial role in putting the health and welfare of birds as the mutual goal.

·        The bird cage industry is still producing too small cages including top desk cages.

·        It is disturbing that despite the developments within avian medicine, the majority of the birds within aviculture and birds as companion birds are still eating seed mixtures sold in pet shops around the world.

·        Position statements concerning the welfare and health of parrots can be very powerful and can have an international impact.

·        Position statements can be helpful and support practitioners enabling them to refer to.

·        Position statements can be a signal showing the direction and aims within avian medicine.

·        Some examples:

à ' Hand rearing of parrots can have negative consequences for the health and welfare of the birds” 

 Acknowledgements:

Thanks for everybody who participated, shared and contributed at the roundtable discussion concerning the topic of hand rearing parrots and related welfare issues. 

Thanks to Steven Metz DVM for his critical comments and solving some linguistic errors.

Drs. Jan Hooimeijer  DVM CPBC