Stop the crying!

nichole123 · Post by **nichole123** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:15 am

My little man "Master Chief" as he is known to the family is TERRIFIED of storms. He runs around in his cage and cries (just like he did when he was a baby and wanted me to feed him) and screams and throws food all over the place. I calm him as best as I can during the day but sometimes in the early AM it gets rather frustrating. How can I help my little chicken overcome the fear of storms? Have I made this behavior worse by babying him everytime? How do I resist the 'MOMMY' call?

nichole123 · Post by **nichole123** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:22 am

Right now I am holding him and calming him and he is shrieking and whining and fluffing up.... arg!

mattyboardman · Post by **mattyboardman** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 12:21 pm

sorry i cant help you out with this one my male and female wont even let me hold them so i dont have this problem im sure some one will be here to have a anser for you soon

Andreya · Post by **Andreya** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 2:09 pm

I can't hold mine yet either and so far he doesn't seem to be scared of anything. And I can't tell you on babying, because I baby all my other animals, probably too much.

Gemstone · Post by **Gemstone** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 2:15 pm

i baby Amazon a fair bit, but he doesnt seem to have a fear of storms, i guess its like if you have kids (i dont have any but im a teacher) if they are scared of something you want to hold them to help them with it,

Maybe if you are both brave sit next to a window or door and watch the storm together, i dont know if it will work but if mummy is there to watch the storm with him he might settle down and eventally be happy to deal with it himself.

Im not too sure if it will work but anything is a go right?

Donna · Post by **Donna** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:51 pm

Birds are not naturally fearful of storms. You have instilled this behavior all on your own. Best thing you can do now is put him in his cage and cover it and ignore him and his cries.

Donna

Post by **kyria** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:54 pm

I think a mix of gemstone and donna, take him out and sit by the window, show him you are not scared of the storm and then place him back, ignore his carry on and soon enough he will learn that, nothing happens to him when it storms and he will get sick of his own carry on, he will get use to the storms.

Post by **Lauren** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:59 pm

Don't birds always call their flock and fly away when they see or feel a storm coming?

Your right, babying him will make him think you will come to his aid whenever he does this behaviour. It can become a problem.

Jibby has gotten frights from thunder and lighting in the middle of the night before. This is rare for him though. I will get up to see if he hasn't hurt himself because I hear him fluttering around the cage. We used to have a tiel that had many night frights and hurt itself bashing around during the night and I wouldn't want to wake up again to see blood. But I won't cuddle him or baby him, I will just let him get back to his perch and settle. I will make sure he knows I'm there but no babying! He will also make the same sound he does when he hears a plane? Maybe the rumble? Its like a clucking sound. With Jibby, I think covering the cage did not help us. In my opinion, making him know your there and that there is no problem helps. Let him settle on his own.