How I Treat... Automutilation in Birds

INTRODUCTION

Self-mutilatory behaviors in avian species can be a complex challenge for veterinarians. There often is a combination of physical pain, disease and behavioral factors, all of which must be concurrently balanced during the process of treatment. In the end, automutilation is a behavior, and regardless of precipitating stimuli which may be present, many components of good balanced behavioral medicine must accompany the traditional medical management of this problem. A most common précising definition for self-mutilation or automutilation is self-inflicted damage by the beak to the skin or its deeper structures. Although many birds that automutilate also damage their feathers, feather damaging behaviors are for the most part described as being separate from automutilation. On occasion, automutilation is used to stipulatively include self-inflicted feather damage including the rachis of the primary flight feathers (retrices and remiges). […]