WHO'S a pretty boy then? The owner of two balding birds is hoping alternative medicine may be the key to making them beautiful again.

Julie Piercy, who runs Pampered Parrots sanctuary in Slingsby, has enlisted the help of kinesiology expert Mark Northcote to cure Rebel the parrot and Wally the cockatoo.

"The two birds were both rescued and they have psychological problems which means they continually pull their feathers out," she explained.

"We have enlisted Mark to help cure them and they are currently undergoing sessions with him.

"The hope is that they will learn when to stop preening themselves and that'll stop them going bald."

Mark Northcote, a paramedic who has been practising kinesiology part-time for three years, said he was confident the treatment would work.

"I have tried it before on animals - it can work with a range of psychological problems," he said.

"The treatment involved manipulating certain muscles and lymph glands. The only way to describe it is that currently Wally and Rebel's internal off-switches, which stop them when they have sufficiently preened themselves, has been distorted somehow.

"This means they don't know when to stop preening themselves. My job is to re-align that off switch to where it should be."

Mark runs a kinesiology practice in Appleton-le-Moors, called Bodyenglish, where he normally practises on humans.

"If practised correctly, it can help address problems like asthma and arthritis," he said.

"It can take quite a few sessions but the results are often very positive."

Sadly, after their first session, Wally and Rebel were none the wiser.

"It's going to take a few more visits by Mark because after his first session Wally was being very naughty - pulling his feathers out again and hanging upside down in his cage," said Julie.

"We'll keep trying him out with these sessions, though, and I'm hopeful it'll work."

Updated: 10:11 Thursday, November 15, 2001