Frights?

[ellieelectrons]

Hi All

Something completely spooked Janey this morning. Not sure what it was. The first time it happened, Janey and Charlie were in the lounge room, I was in the kitchen. Next thing I hear a bird flapping near me and I feel it land on my head (which they never do). It happened so quickly that I didn't even see which one it was. Anyway, I got Janey off my head and put her on a perch.

About 3 minutes later I was sitting in the lounge and they were in the lounge and suddenly Janey starts flying wildly. Charlie follows suit. Janey hits the sliding door (she has only ever done that once or twice before when she was really scared)... they both do a couple of frantic laps around the house and eventually end up on their cage. Janey wouldn't be lured off with treats. She sat right up the back so that it would be hard for me to get to her.

What do you think happened? Is it something I should generally worry about? What should I do about it? Do your birds exhibit similar tendencies?

Ellie.

[mattcoffs]

Sammy sometimes gets really freaked out by random things. I guess it's in their nature to flee at the slightest hint of their perceived "danger..."

Could she see outside or was the TV on or something?

Sammy is crazy, she'll happily try wander all over my guitars while i am playing them, steal the pick out of my mand and run off with it etc etc - i bought a concrete perch to help with claw and beak dulling and she would not go near it for the life of her, i had it sitting by the cage in full sight for weeks and she still wanted no part of it... Peoples logic would suggest that a big guitar would be more scary than a little perch - but not parrots!

Probly something just spooked her. This book i'm reading says that sometimes even shadows can cast something that will scare them. I wouldn't worry unless it starts happening regularly

[ellieelectrons]

Thanks for your reply.

Could she see outside or was the TV on or something?

Nope, no tv... and she was inside.

Thinking back, I think she may have been trying to get into the laundry - which is the area I've cordoned off with streamers to keep her out of there because she wants to nest in the dryer or washing machine. I'm guessing her flapping caused the streamers to move and that probably freaked her out.

Poor Janey! If she starts banging into the glass regularly I'm going to have to get her wings clipped.

Now that she can't get into the laundry she is trying to nest in the gap between our microwave and the surrounding cupboard. I put tissue boxes on the ledge in front of the microwave but she is now really good at tossing them on the floor... so I'm not sure what to do about limiting her access to that area as it's really close to where I keep their cage and the cage is so big there's really nowhere else in the house to put it.

Ellie.

[Sweetedge]

awww Ellie, I hope Janey is ok?

Sul will sometimes just go bonkers flying around the room and eventually land as thin as a rake as if something has really scared him- last time he did this I was in his room and it was one of his own feathers that had floated around the room and had freaked him out lol

Hope she's ok and it doesn't happen again

Trace & Sullie xxx

[mattcoffs]

Hmmm this nesting business sounds tricky...

[ellieelectrons]

Thanks Trace. Lol re the feather. Janey is fine, thanks for asking.

Matt - yes, the nesting instinct is so strong with her, I feel really sorry for her. If I can talk my husband into it we may succumb and let her nest - perhaps next year. She's still my little girl though. When she's in the mood she loves perching on my finger and begging for head scratches! Charlie's behavior at these times is really interesting. He likes to get as close as possible when I'm patting Janey. You would think he wants pats too. But he doesn't. He just wants to watch Janey's reaction. I suspect he's trying to figure out how he can elicit the same response from her... But I'm not really sure. They're so lovely!

Matt, has the biting settled down yet?

Ellie.