Pacing :(

[Sunnybirb]

Sunny has had some anxiety when I leave since I got her, but recently it's gotten a little worse. There's been a lot of change at the house in the last week or two, which I'm sure is part of it. She switched to her new cage on top of all of that. She's been talking basically nonstop every time I leave the room. She gets absolutely frantic and her voice gets higher and higher pitched, and it's absolutely terrible to hear. She sounds desperate, and I feel bad, but I have been completely ignoring her anyway, with one blow from a whistle if she actually flock calls (which is basically never). She doesn't scream either, she "talks". A lot of muttering, and then "Hello?" over and over, until it gets panicked and goes from once every few seconds, to "hellohellohellohello!!!?!" It takes her about 10-15 minutes to calm down. I stay out of the room until she goes quiet.

I finally decided to record her one night when I took a 15 minute trip to the store. She paced the bottom of the cage over and over and whimpered and made other sounds. She never goes below the perches, so I hadn't realized she'd been doing this. After about 10 minutes she finally climbed back to the perches and went quiet.

I'm honestly not sure how else I can help her, other than just continuing to ignore it I've even been spending more time away from her by being in the other room for a few hours a day (I am usually in the bedroom, so she's with me the entire day, every day, both in and out of her cage). It doesn't seem to make any difference. I'm hoping she'll adjust to the changes and it will get better, but I'm concerned that it's becoming a normal routine for her and I really don't want her to be constantly stressed and thinking I left forever just because I got up to go to the bathroom.

I'm not mad or upset with her, because it's not her fault. I've been paying too much attention to her and coddling her too much, i'm sure. Mostly it just makes me really sad because I can tell how much it bothers her and I feel like the worst person when I have to keep pretending not to hear her. She gets frantic like a person and I can hear the change in pitch to where it makes me crushingly sad. There's a bunch of rustling from her cage and I can hear her walking or climbing the bars, looking to see if she can see me through the gap in the door. It's like she's afraid I've left her and gone forever I know it's best for her if we work on this now before it gets worse, which is why I have been steadfastly ignoring her and not encouraging any of the behavior. I adore this parrot and I don't want her to start plucking or something because she's upset all the time.

She's still having trouble eating when I'm not in the room, but I found some pellets she likes and she's gotten slightly better. I've also been feeding her by hand on days when I have been gone for more than a few hours and I know she hasn't eaten, just to make sure she's getting enough. I feel like that's enabling her though, so I don't know if I'll continue with it.

 

[SailBoat]

Regardless of whether she returns your contact calls or not, you should always be using them. Also, when you are going to leave the room or house for any period of time, consider telling her that you are going 'bye, bye' or use a complete sentence that includes your leave and the time you will be back. I do the later and find it works.

The processes require that you are consistent and use the same language each time with the exception of when you will be back. Also, make your return a big deal! So, happy to see you, etc...

When changes need to be made, work to include your Parrot as a participant in the change. Work at it not being a total change as some Parrots are really bothered by moderate to extensive change. When change happens, and at least once a Week (in your case) take your girl on a "Real Estate Broker" tour of your room and the entire house. This process allows for introduction of the things that have not changed and those that have. It is also a great time to teach flight paths and introduce the hard surfaces of the house including windows and mirrors.

With time, this practice will comfort your MAC and also it turns into interesting time spent together.

It is very important to change your vantage point in all of this, consider her a 3 year old Human child and all the interactions that are part of that experience. You will be surprised as to what difference that vantage point will make.

 

[Sunnybirb]

Regardless of whether she returns your contact calls or not, you should always be using them. Also, when you are going to leave the room or house for any period of time, consider telling her that you are going 'bye, bye' or use a complete sentence that includes your leave and the time you will be back. I do the later and find it works.

The processes require that you are consistent and use the same language each time with the exception of when you will be back. Also, make your return a big deal! So, happy to see you, etc...

When changes need to be made, work to include your Parrot as a participant in the change. Work at it not being a total change as some Parrots are really bothered by moderate to extensive change. When change happens, and at least once a Week (in your case) take your girl on a "Real Estate Broker" tour of your room and the entire house. This process allows for introduction of the things that have not changed and those that have. It is also a great time to teach flight paths and introduce the hard surfaces of the house including windows and mirrors.

With time, this practice will comfort your MAC and also it turns into interesting time spent together.

It is very important to change your vantage point in all of this, consider her a 3 year old Human child and all the interactions that are part of that experience. You will be surprised as to what difference that vantage point will make.

I can definitely work on all of this. She does seem to understand what "bye" or "goodbye" means, so I can use that to my advantage and start telling her, and letting her know when I'll be back. I'll also make sure i contact call her even when she doesn't do it first.

I'm hoping there won't be a big change again like recently. We had a black mold problem (that no amount of cleaning remedied, unfortunately), so basically half the furniture had to go, all the walls had to be repainted with a different type of paint, so she had to sleep in a different room than me (which she hated). We've done this with the other rooms and it has been very effective, so hopefully this is the end of that problem, since black mold isn't good for any of us, and I imagine it's even worse for a parrot. I didn't want to risk her health, so I had it all done as soon as I was able. But I'm sure it was all pretty traumatizing to her, since the entire layout of the room changed with all the missing furniture, and she had to sleep away from me in a sealed off room so that none of the fumes would get to her. I'm going to try to make sure all the changes from this point forward are very slow and gradual.