Approaching parrot behavior cases: From behavioral history to treatment

Bird behavior problems—screaming, fear responses, destructive chewing—can be worked through with a framework Valli Parthasarathy, DVM, PhD, DACVB, calls the "3 M's": management, behavior modification, and medication. In this interview with dvm360 following her American Veterinary Medical Association Convention session on psittacine behavior problems, Parthasarathy, of Synergy Veterinary Behavior in Portland, Oregon, walks through each M, explaining how management reduces a bird's exposure to triggers, how behavior modification shifts its emotional response through techniques like desensitization and counterconditioning, and why medication should often come last given the limited research across bird species.

She also covers how to trace a behavior to its cause, when a general practitioner should raise these concerns to the owner, and when to refer a case.

Below is a partial transcript, lightly edited for clarity.

Parthasarathy: I think the thing that can be challenging from a general practitioner standpoint is that, while it's not always the case, a lot of times there's not as much time that can be given to discuss these cases in a lot of detail. So the first thing I would say is that getting a good behavioral history is going to be important to try to figure that out.

What could be helpful is a question that is there whenever a client comes in and asks: "Is your parrot performing any behaviors or exhibiting behaviors that you wish they didn't?"

And if they say, "Oh, yeah, my parrot is screaming all the time," then say, "Hey, this is really important. Let's figure out a time that we can dedicate to discussing this and figuring out what's going on. In the meantime, can you fill out this history form so that we can get more information about why this is happening?"

From there, it depends a bit on the practitioner's comfort level. Do they feel that they can identify whether something is related to social isolation or contact calling situations? Do they feel like they can distinguish that from separation-related distress or other reasons why this bird is screaming, and have appropriate treatment plans for them? If not, then referral to a veterinary behaviorist could be a great next step to help them with that…