Contrafreeloading Indicating the Behavioural Need to Forage in Healthy and Feather Damaging Grey Parrots.

ABSTRACT: Contrafreeloading (CFL) is a concept that describes the preference of an animal to work for food even when identical food is freely available, and reflects an intrinsic motivation to engage in foraging-related activities. However, altered brain neurochemistry, which can be induced by chronic exposure to a suboptimal living environment, may affect this intrinsic motivation in animals with abnormal repetitive behaviours (ARBs), including parrots with feather damaging behaviour. To determine whether this was the case, we evaluated CFL activity in healthy (n = 11) and feather damaging (n = 10) Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) by offering them a free choice to obtain identical food from a food bowl or from a foraging device. Differences in CFL activity were observed, with

SUBMITTER: van Zeeland YRA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10451555 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature