Feather pecking and chronic fear in groups of red junglefowl: their relationships to dustbathing, rearing environment and social status* (1993)

Vestergaard, K. S., Kruijt, J. P., Hogan, J. A.

Abstract

We feel that is useful to see feather pecking as an abnormal development of the perceptual mechanism responsible for the detection of dust for dustbathing and the exposure to salient stimuli at an early stage may be crucial. .. If a salient stimulus [appropriate litter] is not present [e.g., battery cage], as in our poor birds, the chicks are more likely to come to accept feathers as dust.