Foraging and Enrichment Webinar

Introduction

Enrichment has become a common term when describing proper care of captive animals.  This presentation explores the importance of enrichment and how its proper implementation can be highly variable between and within species.  Multiple animal (avian and otherwise) video examples are used to highlight concepts of enrichment.  Basic principles are highlighted with the end goal to get people to start thinking about ways to enrich the lives of captive animals, especially birds.

Outline

• Foraging as a natural behavior
  • Definition:
    • Foraging is the act of searching for and finding food.
    • Occupies a significant portion of a bird’s daily activity
      • Many wild birds spend more than 50% of their day foraging and feeding, particularly in the morning and evening
      • Likely has social and behavioral importance.

• Lack of foraging can influence behavior
  • Basic categories of bird behavior
    • Foraging
    • Socialization
    • Grooming
    • Self-preening
    • Sleeping or resting
  • Free-ranging parrots like the Puerto Rican Amazon parrot (Amazona vittata) forages for 4-6 hours daily
  • Captive orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica) monitored remotely using video camera
    • Demonstrated grooming behaviors primarily in the morning and evening
    • Complete diet nearby and ingested food 3-4 minutes per hour for a total of 30-72 minutes daily
    • Birds were inactive for a significant amount of time
  • Captivity can disrupt normal behaviors
    • If the ability to forage is removed, that leaves socializing, grooming, and rest
    • If birds are isolated and have limited contact with humans, this may leave preening and sleep as the only natural behaviors conducted
  • When one behavior is altered or abolished, other behaviors may become emphasized
    • Behavior displacement
    • Can feather destructive behavior (FDB) be redirected foraging behavior?
      • Many species differences
      • Direct conclusions cannot be made
      • Perhaps lack of foraging can lead to overzealous feather grooming, feather destructive behavior, or inactivity,

• Enrichment
  • Foraging enrichment
    • Chew objects
    • Require sorting, manipulating, and/or opening objects to get foods
  • Environmental enrichment: increasing physical complexity
    • Alternate perching sites
    • Moveable, climbing, and swing objects
  • Recommended for all captive parrots
  • Prevented or reduced psychogenic feather picking in young orange-winged Amazon parrots
  • Improves feather scores

• Other avian species
  • FDB reported in chickens
    • Psittacine species are not the only birds reported with FDB
    • In chickens, inability to access substrates appropriate for dust bathing or foraging is highly correlated with feather picking
  • Studies in other avian species indicate birds prefer to work for food
    • Prefer to peck at a key to find grain rather than eat the same food free choice
      • Pigeons
      • Domestic fowl
        • Starlings chose to obtain mealworms by searching through covered holes rather than freely from a dish

• Stereotypic behavior
  • Definition: abnormal, repetitive, functionless behaviors
  • Most commonly develop in animals kept in barren environments
    • Cause is not completely understood
    • Develop in captive environments where…
      • Highly motivated behaviors are thwarted
      • Functional goals are unattainable
      • Behavioral competition is low
    • Development of stereotypies occurs in four distinct phases.
      • Ritualization: Behaviors become less variable over time
      • Emancipation: Behaviors are elicited by a greater variety of environmental stimuli
      • Establishment: The behavior becomes fixed in routine actions even when the environment is modified
      • Escalation: Stereotypies become more frequent and occupy a greater proportion of time
    • Oral stereotypies: repetition of identical oral movements, possibly within an identical location in the cage
      • Wire chewing
      • Chewing movements but with nothing in the mouth
      • Manipulating food items in the mouth over and over again
      • Dribbling (dropping and picking up an object repeatedly).
    • Locomotor stereotypic behaviors: repetition of an identical pattern of movement
      • Pacing (walking back and forth across the perch)
      • Perch circles (in which the parrot walks the length of the perch, climbs the side wall of the cage, climbs across the top of the cage, and down the opposite wall)
      • Corner flips (small circles in a top cage corner or repeating an identical route around the cage over and over again
    • Group of orange-winged Amazon parrots
      • 96% performed locomotor and/or oral stereotypies
      • Certain individuals spent up to 85% of their active time performing these abnormal behaviors
      • Birds introduced to enrichment performed significantly less stereotypy
        • Behaviors were primarily limited to locomotor stereotypies in enriched birds
        • Foraging enrichments were used more frequently than physical enrichments
        • Physical enrichments were often used to gain access to foraging enrichments
      • Declines in stereotypies are gradual with the introduction of enrichment
        • First there is a silent reversal phase
        • Precedes significant behavioral changes or attenuation

• Practical applications of foraging
  • FDB is common, but their causes are often complex
  • Management concerns that should be addressed include:
    • Socialization with “bird confident” people
    • Dietary modification as needed
    • Underlying disease
    • Environmental stressors
    • Increasing availability of toys and encouraging play activity
    • Keeping the bird below shoulder level
    • Making a conscious effort not to encourage feather picking
    • Incorporate foraging strategies
      • Gradually introduce until it is used as main food source
      • When away from home, instruct owners to provide a small amount, if any, food in the cage
      • When home…
        • “Foraging tree”
        • Foraging toys that require the bird do some action to retrieve food
          • Multiple levels of difficulty
          • Begin with simple toys and gradually increase complexity
        • Two brief video clips

• Resources and Further Reading
  • Captive Foraging DVD
  • Association of Avian Veterinarians Proceedings

Webinar recording

Webinar slide 4

Post-test

Take the brief post-test to earn 1 hour of continuing education credit. With a passing grade, you will receive a continuing education certificate in jurisdictions that recognize AAVSB RACE approval.

Test your knowledge

RACE approval

This program is approved by the American Association of Veterinary State Boards (AAVSB) Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE) for 1 hour of continuing education credit for veterinarians and veterinary technicians in jurisdictions that recognize AAVSB RACE approval.