220



Some Hints on Parrot-Keeping.



FEATHER-PLUCKING. —Is generally due to improper feeding, but

may be also caused by lack of occupation, parasites, or,

more rarely, by anxiety to breed where no opportunity

is allowed of doing so. A feather-plucker should be

placed on a plain diet of canary, millet, wheat and oats

with dry bread and unlimited fruit and green food. It should

be freely supplied with soft, rotten wood, and small branches

to bite up and amuse itself with, and should be allowed as

much freedom and exercise as possible. Baths should be

freely supplied, and if the bird refuses to bathe it should be

sprayed daily with quassia solution,—a dessert spoonful of

essence of quassia to a tumbler of tepid water where the

presence of parasites is suspected. Liberty to roam at will

with a cut wing in a large grass enclosure will cure the most

inveterate feather-plucker that ever existed.


LOSS OF Feathers. —Apparently due to debility. The bird

becomes entirely destitute both of down and feathers, the head

being often the first part to become bare. The disease which

renders its unfortunate victim a most grotesque and unsightly

object, is generally very intractable. It is best to keep the

patient fairly warm, allow it plenty of exercise and occupation,

and feed it on a nourishing and varied diet. A few drops of

Parrish’s Chemical Food should be placed in the drinking

water.


FRENCH Moult. —A popular term denoting a chronic inability to

produce fully-developed feathers, particularly in the wings and

tail, the bird being usually unable to fly more than a few yards

owing to its primarus being very small and malformed. French

moult is most commonly seen in Budgerigars, which are the

offspring of nearly-related, immature, or weakly parents, but it

sometimes occurs among other species, and is often met with

among Hooded Parrakeets which have been caught too young

and received a severe check in their early youth. Treatment,

which is seldom efficacious, should be the same as that recom¬

mended for birds suffering from loss of feathers.


(To be continued .)



