| dc.description.abstract | Feather damaging behavior, the intentional removal of feathers without the biological need to do so (i.e. lining a nest, breeding display, preening), is a complex syndrome frequently seen in captive parrots. Feather damaging behavior may be caused by systemic health or psychological problems and can result in self-mutilation, infection, and death. Many cases of feather damaging behavior are never successfully resolved. Lithium has been used to treat depression in humans for over 100 years and may also be a needed dietary micronutrient for avian species. Birds showing damaging behaviors or self-mutilation could have a form of depression or a dietary deficiency. I investigated lithium for potential to reduce the presence of feather damaging behavior in 5 Quaker Parrots who had feather damage. I offered the birds free choice access to a Lithium Chloride solution while tracking lithium intake, feather damage prevalence, electrolytes, body weight, body condition score, and skin cytology. Results include that when bird’s intake lithium at an average of 0.054 mg/day when provided a low sodium diet, do not develop detectable plasma lithium levels but do have other plasma electrolyte changes. While lithium supplementation did not apparently affect feather regrowth based on this study, we found that supplementation also caused no apparent harm to avian health and some skin cytology parameters normalized after supplementation. | en |
