By Carla Thornton
Barbering
Leaving the lower portion of a feather behind by breaking the feather’s shaft, often close to the skin. The resulting look resembles stubble.
Brood patch
Bare skin, usually on the breast, that some nesting birds create by plucking in order to better incubate eggs.
E-collar
Elizabethan collar, named after the wide, frilled 17th-century collar. Usually made of plastic and placed around a bird’s neck to prevent it from plucking feathers or picking at wounds.
GSE
Grapefruit seed extract, thought by some to eradicate fungal or bacterial skin infections, which can cause feather picking.
MSM
Methyl sulfonyl methane. Dietary supplement for healthy connective tissues used by some to treat feather plucking.
Pruritic
Itchy.
QMS
Quaker mutilation syndrome, describing the frequent tendency of Quaker (monk) parakeets to progress from feather picking to self mutilation.
Self mutilation
Breaking the skin, sometimes causing serious wounds that must be surgically closed.
ParrotChronicles.com
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