At a stand still...Rose, the cage bound Galah

[PrincessSarah]

So, we're at a stand still. She's come out a few times, but she's always so scared. She still won't step up to come out. She is terrified of human food or treats of any kind. I give her tons of verbal praise when she lets me touch her feet or when she comes out. She seeks my attention and cries whenever I'm gone. She will even let me rub under her wings. However, she simply will not come out or step up. She is in desperate need of her nails being trimmed and maybe a check up with the vet. But I don't want to traumatize her by forcing her out of the cage for a vet visit. Help!!

 

[OOwl]

It's been my experience with the few birds I've fostered that were fearful like that is handle it in a no-games, no-nonsense manner: just explain what's about to happen (and not apologize for it), go in with confidence, towel them securely, and put in a carrier you can take apart easily, transport to the vet because that's important. What you'd think would be a traumatizing experience actually ends up being a breakthrough. They are, of course, afraid, but they come out of it learning that change doesn't kill them and you are the one that "rescues" them and brings them back home to their known and familiar, which becomes even more precious to them compared to what's "out there" (e.g., the vet).

That said, my Galah is a supersensitive type, too. He's definitely pretty careful about things. In his case, I can usually tempt him into anything I need him to do with food (most Galahs are pure food-hounds). He will do ANYTHING for most nuts (or a sunflower seed). I know you said your girl won't take treats but you might show it to her and drop into her bowl so she knows you put it there. Once she gets a taste for it, you might have her attention. Sounds like you're going to make good progress with her if she's letting you touch her.

Good luck on that transport to the vet.

 

[Scott]

Sorry you are at an impasse with Rose. I've never had a similar situation and am at a loss for advice. Assume you have left the cage door open and left the room to see if she becomes curious and exits?

Good luck, with time and finding the right stimulus you should have better success!

 

[MonicaMc]

I adopted a 3 year old red throated conure who was terrified of being handled, but so desperately desired attention. She didn't require vet care, since she was seen by an a-vet and cleared as healthy before coming to me, but still.

If I walked over to her, she would run as far away from me as possible. When I walked away from her, she'd try to follow me without leaving her cage. Since I had very little reason to physically remove her from her cage, I let her be! Instead, I moved the cage around the house with me so that she could be near me, but still have the safety and comfort of her cage. She often enjoyed traveling down the side of the cage to get closer to me, but still didn't want to be touched. At that point, I put a perch on the outside of the cage so she could sit near me but again, not be on me.


After a couple of weeks of doing this, she finally got brave enough to climb onto my shoulder. Once we got to that point, it was a matter of staying near her cage because whenever she felt uncomfortable, she wanted back to her cage, and I would take her back! At first, she wanted to spend a few minutes at her cage to settle down before coming back to me. Then it was enough to touch her cage, stand on it, then climb back to me! Now? Instead of going to her cage to seek comfort, she comes to me!


I also allowed her wings to grow out, so she has the choice to be with me or be on her cage, and she prefers being on me!

 

[PrincessSarah]

Update: Now what the heck am i supposed to do about this. So, I ran a bunch of errands yesterday, and was gone most of the day. When I got home, her food bowl was empty. However, she has climbed out of her cage. We jabs the cage doors open during the day. Much to my gcc's disliking, Rose has taken residence in his cage! She refuses to come out. I even moved the food bowls to the past area on top of the cage. Nope, not moving. Gonzo retired to get her out, and eventually gave up and is now sharing his cage with her. This cage is just right for one conure. It's way to small for one Galah, much less a Galah and a conure. Help!!!

 

[Flboy]

A fight could go horribly wrong for your babies!

 

[PrincessSarah]

I know! Should I just go ahead and force her out? I'm scared that's going to set us back so much! Or maybe I should take Gonzo's pouch and out it in her cage. He'd have a ton of room in there.

 

[Taw5106]

I have two fids, Venus my Ekkie whose cage door is opened most of the time, Buddy my GCA whose cage is closed most of the time. OK, Venus is good about staying in or on her cag but recently she's been very "nesty" wanting to breed so I've been forced to lock her in her cage when we leave and recently at bed time. I don't like it but it's not a bad thing. When we get home or wake up, lots of happy hellos to each other. Don't hesitate to establish a "lock" time for your new fid. That will actually help in your training with your new Fid.

Keep going, you're doing great!

 

[PrincessSarah]

We lock Gonzo in his cage at night. Usually, Rose won't leave her cage at all. We have left her cage door open, hoping she would come out. I was pretty surprised when I came home to find that not only had she left her cage, but had taken over another cage. I'm sure she was looking for food, since her bowl was empty. Now, I'm at a loss. I'm thinking of toweling her and putting her back in her cage with a full food bowl. Maybe she will see that when I take her out, that good things happen, like food.

 

[MonicaMc]

I would just take Gonzo out and leave Rose alone. Maybe she feels more comfortable in a smaller cage?

 

[Mallory]

Toweling her or otherwise forcing her to be out of the cage and "facing her fears" as one poster recommended is a very crude training technique called flooding. Unless you commit 100% to leaving her in the situation and riding out panic until she is calm, you risk increasing her anxiety instead of removing it. Honestly flooding CAN work with humans, dogs etc. but usually does NOT work for prey animals like our parrots. Right now you are in a pickle and I would suggest you turn out the lights in the room, remove your conure from the situation first if he is also afraid of towels, then as swiftly as possible towel Rose and get her back to her cage. Sometimes you have to manage the situation - if my dog is afraid of vets and a visit will set back training, we are still going to the vet for an emergency. If I'm working with an animal scared of people that escapes, I will risk increasing that fear to get that animal back safely to its enclosure.
Once you get Rose back to her cage, I would recommend not leaving it open unless you are deliberately working with her. Keep this a policy until you can reliably return her to the cage without scaring her, whether it is a trained command, putting a favorite treat in her bowl or even a step up when she gets that far.
Find something that motivates her (a treat, your attention if she is comfortable enough with you, a favorite toy) and provide it only when she is out of her cage. You could work to train targetting behavior. There are tons of good videos on target training with parrots and other animals so I will leave you to research it - or PM me if you want an explanation from me. From there you could start using the target to lure the behavior of coming out of the cage and over time she will associate being out of her cage with positive things. If nothing scary happens to reinforce her fear, then they will naturally subside. This is how we are teaching our previously unsocialized GCC and in a month Eva has gone from flinging herself away from hands in fear to letting us pet her head and back, lift wings and play with her, and she is now learning to step up and follows us further from her cage daily. Of course even when you are moving in the right direction it takes an extreme amount of patience!

 

[MyFlock]

Informative post Mallory! I have a Moustache parakeet terrified of everything but I haven't forced her to do anything that would frighten her even more. I'm trying to find treats she likes to motivate her. She won't leave her cage either. Thanks!

 

[MonicaMc]

MyFlock, have you seen Barbara Heidenreich's webinar on training rescue and rehomed birds yet? May come in handy.


Webinar Recording: Training Rescued and/or Re-Homed Parrots | InstantPresenter Web Conferencing, Video Conferencing and Webinar Service

 

[riddick07]

I wouldn't worry about the amount of progress your making from the sounds of it it hasn't been that long. I've had my cockatoo for almost two years now and we are still inching along about not being a freak about everything. The situations a little different since he was fine at first then went freak of nature but it's still the same fear of everything. My guys coping mechanism is mutilation and when I took that away he went full on panic mode. We are only just starting to come out of it a little. He has always come to me when I press for him to come....which is basically a persistent call of come here folgie or come here my little freak of nature....so that's a little different from you but his own shadow scares him and I can leave his cage open all day but no way is he coming out without me insisting on it. I would just continue to take it slow since you are making progress.

When I first got him he was in a big cage but once I put a collar on him he thought the dust in the air was going to eat him or a monster would spring into existence in the open air next to him. So I put him in a much smaller cage for awhile until he settled down. A little less than a year ago I moved him into a stacker that is 40x30. I think less height made him feel better since it was less likely something could sneak up from below. I've found him on the floor of the cage now and sitting in the front when he used to just huddle in the back. Little things that don't seem like progress can be like just hanging out in the front or moving out from the safe zone in the cage to the other side. Since yours came all the way out of the cage to invade another cage I really wouldn't be too worried

I agree on toweling to get her back in the right cage. I'm not sure on bar spacing but the other cage might not be safe for the conure though if it is it might not be that big of an issue to let her stay in the conure cage for now....