Treatment of psychogenic leather picking in psittacine birds with a dopamine antagonist

ABSTRACT It is suggested that neuropeptides, particularly dopamine, play a role in many self‐mutilating disorders of both man and animals. Two grey parrots (Psittacus erythacus) were treated for obsessive feather picking with the dopamine antagonist, haloperidol. Refeathering was induced and normal behaviour maintained by administering haloperidol at approximately 0·4 mg/kg bodyweight/day for approximately seven months in both birds.