Bird behavior researcher Cheryl Meehan visits with one of her subjects, an orange-wing Amazon.

MOST PEOPLE who own a pet bird are interested in taking the best care possible of it. We want our companion parrots to be healthy and happy.

Like any pet, however, a bird is a complex creature that looks, behaves and communicates very differently from the way we do. That can make it difficult to know whether we are meeting its needs.

Scientific research often can help expand our knowledge and understanding of the animals in our care. Unfortunately, little research has been dedicated to the welfare of parrots. In 1999, my colleagues at the University of California at Davis and I set out to fill this gap by conducting a series of experiments using a flock of orange-wing Amazon (Amazona amazonica) parrots. Our goal: to help people improve their pet birds' lives.

What worries parrot owners
I started my research by speaking with parrot owners about their concerns. What I found out would not surprise anyone who has lived with a parrot: people were perplexed and distressed by their birds' behavior. Their beloved companions sometimes feather picked. They were afraid or aggressive. Worst of all, the owners could not change the behavior.

One way we meet the needs of captive animals is by improving the quality of their environments, a practice called "environmental enrichment". By creating captive environments that are not only safe but also challenging and dynamic, we give animals the opportunity to flex important behavioral muscles.

Parrot owners have long suspected that environmental enrichment is a good thing for birds, too. When we play with our parrots, feed them different foods and keep them well supplied with toys, we satisfy inherent needs. A chew toy for the pet Amazon can be a surrogate for the tree branch he would have in the wild. A nut in a puzzle gives him the opportunity to call on some of the same foraging skills he might use trying to find food in a treetop.

However, little research has been devoted to scientifically proving the benefits of environmental enrichment for avian species, much less parrots specifically.

For our orange-wing experiment, we decided to prove whether enrichment could help improve a bird's life. We chose three forms of enrichment based on the apparent needs of wild parrots. Our question: if we gave the birds more opportunities to forage, move about and socialize, would the behaviors that owners find the most disturbing - feather plucking, fear and aggression – go away?

Stopping feather abuse
For our first experiment we tackled the issue of feather picking. As part of the study, we conducted regular veterinary exams including blood work to rule out medical causes for changes in feather condition. We also evaluated the parrot's feather quality on a regular basis so we could track any changes in plumage.

Wild parrots, like most wild birds, spend a lot of their time looking for food. For example, wild Puerto Rican Amazons (Amazona vittata) spend between four and six hours a day foraging. They eat the fruit, leaves, bark, vines or other portions of at least 58 species of plants. In a 1985 study by Magrath and Lill, young crimson rosellas followed in Australia over several seasons spent a mean 67 percent of their time foraging and eating. They spent only 7 percent of their time resting.

In some cases wild birds spend almost as much time processing the food as they do finding it. For example, the gang gang cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum), which eats the well-protected nut of the eucalyptus tree, spends a considerable amount of time just getting to the meat inside.

Most wild parrots are acrobats. In addition to flying, they use their bodies to the fullest to maneuver through their environment, whether it be the rainforest canopy or sheer cliffs. They grapple treetops and unstable fruit-bearing branches with their beaks and feet. They climb vertical surfaces and gracefully traverse the undersides of branches.

Most pet parrots, of course, lead starkly different lives. They do not travel between feeding sites, do not have to select different foods to balance their diet, and have little opportunity to manipulate objects to obtain food. For most, food arrives in the cage on a schedule pre-cut and presented in a bowl.

We may think we're doing our birds a favor by providing them with such a comfortable existence, but are we? Their foraging skills, so in demand in the wild, go unused. They do little more than move from one identical perch to another. In fact, we found that our orange-wings, fed a steady diet of pellets, were spending only between 30 and 72 minutes a day feeding.

Hunting for food and staying physically active are obviously a big part of a bird's life in the wild. If we encouraged a pet bird to do the same, could we stop it from feather picking?

How to enrich a bird's life
To find out, we split 16 four-month-old orange-wings into two groups of eight. The first group was fed a diet of pellets, fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables cut up and served in a dish every day in a cage whose interior never changed. In other words, they lived much like typical pet birds.

An orange-wing Amazon with ragged feathers shows the effect of being deprived of interesting things to do.

The second group was provided "foraging enrichments" - implements that would make the birds work to obtain their food.

They had to chew through barriers of inedible materials such as cardboard, shredded paper, rawhide or plastic. We made them extract food cut to fit the shapes of holes, open containers, and press levers. In addition, we equipped the cages with more places to climb, swing and balance.

Each week, we changed the feeding mechanism and perch setup for the enriched group. Each combination was set up so the birds had to balance or hang from the new rope or swing in order to reach a new food dispenser.

At first, the "enriched" parrots were wary of the changes and approached them slowly. However, within a few hours, they were actively investigating and spending a lot of time working to access their food.

The effect of our double-barrel enrichment approach toward feather picking was dramatic. By the end of one year, six of the eight parrots in the control group had begun to remove feathers from various parts of their bodies – chest, wings, back, legs and tail - and were looking somewhat ragged. By comparison, none of the birds in the second, "enriched" group showed signs of feather abuse. In fact, in some cases plumage actually improved.

It was clear that having to hunt for food and navigate a variety of perches had stopped the enriched group from beginning the type of feather picking behavior that develops without medical cause. This was excellent news for owners of young parrots because it meant they could prevent feather picking from developing in the first place. But could these same enrichments accomplish something much more difficult: reverse established feather picking?

Kicking the habit
For this second phase of the experiment, we rotated the same feeding stations and perches we had used with the enriched group through the cages of the birds that had been allowed to develop a feather picking habit. At first, like the enriched group, the birds were not sure what to do with these changes, but after a day or two they were all enthusiastically investigating their new surroundings.

It wasn't long before we had our answer. After just four months, all six parrots that had feather picked started to show signs of stopping. They all started to grow back feathers and their plumage began to look much better.

None of these birds had been picking for more than a few months, so we can't say for sure that the same technique would work for parrots who have had a feather plucking habit for years.

However, at least in the short term, enrichments – environmental changes that gave them the chance to use their bodies and brains – once again had a positive impact on our orange-wings' behavior.

Fear and aggression
In another series of studies we tackled fear and aggression, two personality traits almost all owners have seen in their pet birds at one time or another. Either can ruin a bird’s relationship with people and other birds, even leading to escape or injury. Would improving a bird's environment ease his belligerence or nervousness?

The study's "enriched" parrots - those provided with toys and a variety of perches - did not pick their feathers.

We knew that from other animal studies that the more barren the environment, the more fearful and aggressive the animal.

For example, several studies have shown that rats reared in Plexiglas cages with nothing but wood shavings were more afraid of new situations and more hostile toward new people than rats that lived in cages equipped with tunnels, ladders and other things they could explore.

Chickens raised in bare pens were more skittish about new objects and new places than those given the opportunity to investigate a variety of objects and surroundings.

Parrots, too, seem cowed by novelty. New people, new surroundings, new toys or new types of food, no matter how innocent, prompt many a nervous bird to cower, shake, run, bite or even scream. We wondered if introducing new enrichments on a regular basis would help our birds become more confident and less fearful when they were faced by novelty.

For this study, we used the same two groups of birds tested earlier and continued the same routine as before: the control group got its food in bowls and the cages never changed, while the enriched group faced a constantly changing environment in which food and perches moved. Then, to see whether the difference in environments had any effect on the birds' ability to accept change, we introduced to both groups a series of harmless objects they had never seen before, including a set of measuring spoons and a child's action figure.

The two groups responded very differently. Parrots in the control group showed fear when the new object was placed in their cage. They retreated and took much longer than the "enriched" parrots to approach and investigate.

Overall, the enriched parrots showed little fear and were much more inquisitive. Their ever-changing environments obviously had made them more confident birds.

Parrots and people
In our second experiment on fear and aggression, we looked at whether an enriched environment could improve a parrot's behavior toward people.

Parrots that fear or attack humans can have a hard time in captivity. No one, especially a pet owner, wants a bird that cowers or bites. There may be many reasons for these reactions, including past rough handling or hormonal changes. But you might be surprised to know that there is another major theory as to why birds are afraid: isolation from other birds.

Many parrot owners think that giving their bird an avian buddy will hurt their relationship with their pet. The bird won't need them as much, or cling to the feathered friend and become aggressive toward the human.

While this is certainly a possible outcome, nature argues that it's emotionally healthier for a bird to have a same-species companion. Most species of parrots are social throughout their lives. For example, when they aren't breeding, wild Amazons are highly gregarious and live in large flocks. Even parrot chicks, their early relationships limited to family, have their clutchmates as companions.

So this time, we did a different kind of enrichment experiment. In addition to giving our birds the physical and foraging enrichments described in the earlier experiment, we also provided a same-sex friend.

For this test we used a different set of four-month-old Amazons, 21 birds in all. All had been raised by their parents and had limited handling experience before fledging. We put seven of them, the control group, alone in separate cages. The remaining birds were housed in seven pairs. The question: which would be friendlier to humans, the single birds or the paired ones?

Every day, a familiar handler took each bird out of its cage and played with it. The birds were taught basic commands such as stepping up, given spray baths, and rewarded with small treats. The handlers worked slowly and tailored each session to the progress of the individual youngster. Over a year the birds became increasingly tame and comfortable working with their humans.

Fear of strangers
After a year of daily handling, we measured each bird's reaction to two different people: its usual handler and a stranger. When a person tried to touch the bird on the back or head, we noted the reaction. Did the bird accept the petting or did it try to bite or flee? When the human offered a treat, did the parrot take it, ignore it, or try to attack? Finally, we measured flight distance - how far away did the bird move when placed next to someone?

Our results? Both paired and single birds reacted the same to their familar handlers. They weren't afraid of them. But when strangers entered the picture, everything changed. The single birds, housed alone, tended to be afraid or aggressive when a human they did not know approached. The paired birds, on the other hand, were confident and inquisitive. This is encouraging news for owners who have wanted to get a same-sex pal for their bird but were afraid they would lose its affection.

There were bonuses. The paired parrots spent less time screaming and more time playing than singly housed parrots. We know from studies done with mammals that social interaction and play result in more flexible behavior and enhanced learning ability. So having a friend could help your bird learn new tasks faster, too (although we did not test this).

Beyond the basics
We may not yet know everything about parrot care, but our orange-wing studies, published in 2002 and 2003, prove one thing: handing everything to our birds on a platter, literally, is not in their best interest.

Sure, we have only the best intentions when we serve up nicely prepared meals in a bowl. And certainly, rotating toys and finding a suitable feathered companion is a big investment of time and money. But when we make things too easy for our birds and don't challenge them to use their natural skills, we are robbing them of the opportunity to solve problems and reach goals. When we prevent them from interacting physically with other parrots, we limit their opportunities to socialize, play and increase their confidence.

Our goal should be to go beyond meeting our birds' basic husbandry needs and provide the combination of foraging, physical and social enrichments they need to live their lives to the fullest. Even if your bird currently does not bite, pluck or scream, improving his environment now could save him from an unhappy future.

Cheryl Meehan has a Ph.D in animal behavior from the University of California at Davis, where she is associate director of the Center for Animal Welfare. She co-owns a consulting company, OrangeWing Consulting, that helps develop strategies for improving the welfare of captive parrots and other animals.