7 puppies, 2 parrots die
7 puppies, 2 parrots die
By Cecily Asson Friday, May 17 2013
SEVEN puppies and two pet parrots were burnt alive when a fire gutted two homes yesterday morning in Tin Pan Alley, Barrackpore, leaving eight persons homeless.
One house was occupied by Seunarine Rampersad, 52, his wife, Rautie, a CEPEP employee and three of their six children Sasha, 20, Ramdhan, 24, and Angelina, 12, a First Form student of ASJA Girls College, Barrackpore.
The couple’s son Richard, 23, and his wife Devika, 20, lived in the other house which was built close by. The mid-morning fire which started in Seunarine’s kitchen spread quickly to Richard’s home which was located to the back.
No one was at Seunarine’s home when the fire started, however Devika, who was inside her home, observed smoke, ran out and called for help.
By the time she returned her house had already caught fire.
According to a police report, at about 9.50 am yesterday, residents observed smoke coming from Seunarine’s three-bedroom wooden home and raised an alarm. By the time a fire appliance from neighbouring Princes Town Fire Station arrived, the homes were already engulfed in flames. Firefighters were able to contain the fire from spreading and carried out cooling down operations.
Devika recalled hearing four loud explosions before she observed smoke coming from the kitchen area of her in-law’s home.
She told Newsday, “I was inside when I heard some loud explosions and I when looked outside and saw smoke coming from my mother-in-law’s house. I ran to a neighbour and called for help.”
Devika said the newborn pups were burnt but their mother escaped the fire. Pet parrots Sophia and James were not so lucky.
A distraught Rautie said she is baffled about the cause of the fire. She told Newsday she and her children lost thousands of dollars worth in furniture and other personal belongings. A total of $5,000 cash that was in her house was also burnt.
She recalled awaking at 4.30 am yesterday and preparing meals for her husband and children before leaving for work a short distance away.
She added, “I made sure and turn off the fire and unplugged the fridge and the fan. I don’t know what could have started the fire.”
Yesterday the family members went through the ruins hoping they could locate important documents.
The two families spent last night by a neighbour.
Rautie said they would like some assistance to help rebuild their homes.
A senior fire officer told Newsday the cause of the fire is yet to be determined and investigations are continuing.
Fun Facts About Parrots
Vivid, colorful and smart birds, parrots are native to countries in the Southern hemisphere. There are more than 300 species of parrots with a great diversity in color and size. They are a common household pet because of their bright plumage and musical abilities. Some parrots can even mimic human speech.
Macaws, Amazon parrots, cockatiels, parakeets, and cockatoos are the most popular pet parrots. Parrots range in length from 3.5 in (8.7cm) to 40 in (100 cm) and weigh anywhere from 2.25 oz to 3.5 pounds. They are omnivores and eat a variety of fruit, nuts, seeds as well as insects. Parrots can live up to 80 years in the wild.
All parrots are zygodactyls, meaning they have four toes on each foot, two pointing forward and two projecting backward. They also have a strong, curved beak which some use to search for grubs. Their sharp claws help them climb and perch on trees.
Other facts about parrots
Cockatoo species have a crest of feathers on the top of their heads that can be raised for display, and retracted.
Most parrots are social birds living in flocks. They communicate through a series of loud screeching and squawking sounds.
While some parrots build regular nests, most build their homes in holes in trees, rock cavities, ground tunnels and even in termite mounds.
Parrots have been kept as pets for decades. Famous historical figures, such as Winston Churchill and King Henry VIII were parrot owners.
Only pets will mimic people and noises they hear. The African gray parrots are the best imitators of human speech.
In studies, African Grey Parrots have also been known to count, identify objects and even string together short sentences to answer complex questions.
Illegal trapping and trading of parrots has greatly hurt their numbers because many pet parrots were once wild. Due to this, several parrot species are highly endangered.
Other resources:
National Wildlife Federation – African Gray Parrot
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Couple’s parrots die from fumes created by self-cleaning oven
A Gun Barrel City couple say fumes created by a chemical released when heated during the cleaning of their new Frigidaire oven is responsible for the death of two dear pet parrots.
“It was just a very traumatic thing,” said Linda Rigo.
Tuesday morning on New Year’s day, both Rigo’s blue and gold macaws died. Her husband, John, noticed an odor. He says there were fumes coming from the oven.
“I noticed too that my eyes started burning. In fact right now they are,” said John.
The smell still lingers. We’ve learned that when their teflon-coated oven heated up, it produced a fume that is deadly to birds. The Rigos have had Mickey and Minnie for 24 and 17 years respectively.
“You make sure there are no animals nearby and no children nearby because what you may be doing is killing your loved one liked our loved ones got taken away yesterday,” said John.
There is a manufacturer’s warning for the Frigidaire oven that reads “the health of some birds is extremely sensitive to the fumes.” John wishes that warning was louder than the small fine print.
“They did just enough to think they can get by legally,” said John.
Alan Garrison is the owner at Pet Warehouse in Mabank. He’s heard this happen before.
“They have very delicate respiratory systems. Most people just aren’t aware of it,” said Garrison.
There are two perches sitting empty in the Rigo home. But they’re coming out to warn everyone of the risk, not just for animals but for young ones and the elderly.
The experts at the North Texas Poison Center say “….people with asthma and respiratory issues should leave the house during the cleaning. Although Teflon is safe under ordinary circumstances, when it is heated to 600 degrees F, breathing the fumes can cause chills, fever, profuse sweating, cough, flu-like symptoms and chest tightness.”
“I just hope nobody has to go through this tragedy because it is a tragedy for us,” said Linda.
The Rigos have no plans to get any other birds.
Couple’s 2 beloved parrots die from fumes created by self-cleaning oven
A Gun Barrel City couple say fumes created by a chemical released when heated during the cleaning of their new Frigidaire oven is responsible for the death of two dear pet parrots.
“It was just a very traumatic thing,” said Linda Rigo.
Tuesday morning on New Year’s day, both Rigo’s blue and gold macaws died. Her husband, John, noticed an odor. He says there were fumes coming from the oven.
“I noticed too that my eyes started burning. In fact right now they are,” said John.
The smell still lingers. We’ve learned that when their teflon-coated oven heated up, it produced a fume that is deadly to birds. The Rigos have had Mickey and Minnie for 24 and 17 years respectively.
“You make sure there are no animals nearby and no children nearby because what you may be doing is killing your loved one liked our loved ones got taken away yesterday,” said John.
There is a manufacturer’s warning for the Frigidaire oven that reads “the health of some birds is extremely sensitive to the fumes.” John wishes that warning was louder than the small fine print.
“They did just enough to think they can get by legally,” said John.
Alan Garrison is the owner at Pet Warehouse in Mabank. He’s heard this happen before.
“They have very delicate respiratory systems. Most people just aren’t aware of it,” said Garrison.
There are two perches sitting empty in the Rigo home. But they’re coming out to warn everyone of the risk, not just for animals but for young ones and the elderly.
The experts at the North Texas Poison Center say “….people with asthma and respiratory issues should leave the house during the cleaning. Although Teflon is safe under ordinary circumstances, when it is heated to 600 degrees F, breathing the fumes can cause chills, fever, profuse sweating, cough, flu-like symptoms and chest tightness.”
“I just hope nobody has to go through this tragedy because it is a tragedy for us,” said Linda.
The Rigos have no plans to get any other birds.
Parrots stolen from pet shop
TWO parrots worth £4,000 have been stolen from a pet shop.
The birds, known as Rosie, right, and Henry, below, were taken in a late-night raid on The Pet Shop in Station Road, Shirehampton.
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Owners Tim Florey, 53, and his 33-year-old son Jonathan raised the birds by hand.
Rosie, a three-year-old pink Gala parrot, often repeats the phrases “give us a kiss” and “kiss, kiss, kiss”.
Henry, a four-year-old white Triton Cockatoo, says “hello Charlie” and “good morning”.
Mr Florey said: “The birds were a bit like the shop’s pets because we never expected to sell them.”
The break-in was at 11.40pm on November 26 and involved two white men who arrived in a white van, which appeared to be a Vauxhall Vivaro and had stolen number plates, which have since been found.
‘Parrot man’ searching for lost bird
Upper Norwood ‘Parrot man’ CJ Harwood searching for lost bird
10:50am Thursday 6th December 2012 in News
By Andrew Bloss
CJ Harwood, with his other parrot Jack, is hoping to find Annie.
A popular parrot owner is hoping he can find one of his beloved birds after it went missing.
CJ Harwood, a familiar sight around Crystal Palace and known affectionately as “the Parrot Man”, has looked after his two pet parrots Jack and Annie for 30 years.
But Annie went missing after Mr Harwood took the pair out for one of their regular walks towards Gipsy Hill Station on Wednesday, November 7.
The disappearance has left both Mr Harwood and his companion of 30 years, Jack, devastated.
He has put posters up in the area and has looked around all the gardens which would have been on her flight path home.
Mr Harwood, 70, of Alexandra Drive, Upper Norwood, has said he is sure someone would return Annie if they found her because she is so well known in the area.
The parrot owner, who is originally from Tennessee, said both parrots have flown away before but have always come back or been returned.
Both parrots are blue and yellow macaws and Mr Harwood believes they are both at least in their fifties. They can live until they are 80.
Residents have readily come to Mr Harwood’s aid, with many taking to internet forums with potential sightings of Annie.
There is also a reward for anyone who finds Annie.
Mr Harwood said: “It’s a mystery. I’m willing to pay more than anyone could sell her for.
“I am hoping somebody has her, and slowly gets irritated with her. They are very messy, chew the woodwork, throw their food about, and squawk loud several times a day.
“I am sure she didn’t fly away knowing her as I do, she wants to be with Jack, above all else in life.
“We are heartbroken, Jack and me, we’ve all lived together, for 30 years.”
One resident, Valerie, from Central Hill, said she is determined to help reunite Annie with her owner.
She said: “I have known of CJ since the late 1980s as he used to walk around Crystal Palace with the parrots on a very long pole.
“Friends that I know who live near him loved the birds flying up and down the street and sometimes sitting in their garden trees. They said it brightened their day up.”
Cageless Survivors
By Salvatore Angius
Throughout California, I have filmed thirteen parrot species in over thirty cities to date. Of the current thirteen species of California naturalized parrot flocks filmed, the largest in both flock member population and species diversity occurs in various cities throughout California’s San Gabriel Valley. Pictured here are the endangered Red Crowned Amazon parrot, originally from Central Mexico, they have made their homes in our numerous San Gabriel Valley cities such as Pasadena, Monrovia, Temple City, Arcadia, Rosemead, Duarte,Pomona, Laverne, Covina, West Covina, Azusa and El Monte.
The success that these naturally tropical birds have to survive many decades in California is astonishing. Originally from tropical American countries and India, This success stems mainly finding the right amount of edible, imported landscaping trees and shrubs which are consumed year round.
Another contributing factor to their success is their history. These parrots were descendants of wild caught birds imported during the seventies/eighties while parrot importation was legal and occurred heavily. In other words, these parrots are a far cry from today’s pet parrots which have been humanly dependent and literally hand raised , thus further dulling these wild survival instincts. Parrots are also noted to learn from other flock members while in their flock, making survival easier for them as well.
It is still unclear how these birds first arrived in California, many stories have emerged which include but not limited to: Pet store fires, aviary and circus releases by employees, closing of a popular theme park in Van Nuys, a truck accident overturning numerous wooden cages full of parrots, even reports of parrots flying out of moving airplanes during transportation. Although it seems that these stories are varied and likely to change in the future, one thing that is unlikely to change is the consistent and future presence of these remarkable birds.
I continue to search for these flocks and I have publicly uploaded many of my videos which can be seen on a Youtube channel known as Californiaflocks. My channel’s mission is to raise human awareness and appreciation for the parrots that share our state, while giving viewers insight into the lives of these exotic beauties which fly over our heads.
This fundraiser is for the birds!
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I know there are a million good causes out there, and people
are trying to “save” everything from whales to laying hens, but if you have a
soft spot in your heart for birds at all, fork over a few bucks to help the
parrots.
I know, parrots! What do parrots have to do with agriculture
or even life in Western Canada. Well believe it or not
there are thousands of pet parrots in Canada and millions in North America. Many have great homes,
great care and great lives, but unfortunately there are also thousands of the
little beggars that end up neglected, abused, and living one hell of a life. (Photo caption, at right, these girls paid a visit to the Fantin house for a close up visit with some parrots, but also learned about proper care.)
But long time friend Gloria Fantin has been nuts about parrots
for about 15 years. She may look like a normal livestock advertising sales
person during the day, but after hours she becomes this whacko bird lady, doing
all she can to improve the life of parrots.
She bought her first parrot from a pet store about 15 years
ago and then soon realized that is about the worst thing you can do for the
species. The more she loved caring for a parrot, the more she learned about the
tragic and worsening state of the pet-parrot world.
Some wild birds are still smuggled into the country, but
most are produced by breeders. And breeder intentions are perhaps good, but the
reality is that more and more of these pet store birds end up unwanted,
neglected, abused and the lucky ones end up surrendered to parrot rescue
centres — individuals, groups and private agencies that do their best to
provide proper care for parrots. It is a good cause, but also expensive. Let’s
dispel the myth — these things don’t just live on crackers.
Parrots are complex. First of all they live forever – like
30 or 40 years or more. And they are bright, intelligent and very interactive
animals. But they are also very noisy and messy, and because they are so bright
they need a lot of attention and stimulation.
People buy them because they think it is neat to own a
parrot, but a few weeks or months later they begin to realize the commitment.
Parrots aren’t like a cat that might sleep all day. And all too often they end
up locked away in a cage in a spare bedroom, or basement and really they go
nuts. They can remain noisy and messy, but they may also become aggressive –
biters – and they develop self-mutilating habits. They pluck out all their
feathers and begin to eat holes in their skin.
Noisy, misbehavers get shuttled around from home to home.
Sometimes they end up with idiots who think it is fun to hose them down, or
burn them with cigarettes, under feed them, and keep them locked away in
isolation. And the horror stories are endless.
Gloria, along with a few other like-minded birdbrains in
Calgary, earlier this year launched the Canadian Parrot Resource Centre (PRC).
Its main purpose is to educate people about parrots and the pros and cons of
owning a parrot as a pet. The PRC (www.parrotresourcecenter.ca)
works with parrot rescue centres, and foster homes looking after unwanted
birds.
In fact, if you have ever thought about owning a parrot do
not go to a pet shop and buy one for anywhere from a $200 to $1,000 depending
on the species. Contact the Parrot Resource Centre, or one of the rescue
centres. You may be suitable to provide foster care or a permanent home for a
surrendered bird.
This all boils down to the PRC has launched a fund raiser.
They need parrot seed and other supplies and have a number of people around
the country serving as drop off locations, but they can also use cash to buy
food for these birds in shelters or foster care. So visit the PRC website,
learn about parrots and help out if you can spare a few bucks for the birds.
Like a lot of “good causes” we can’t give to everything, but all we can do is help
out where we can. And here are some birds that need some help.
Lee Hart is editor of Cattleman’s Corner based in
Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com
Parrots: Sleep & Day Cycles
Excerpt from BIRD TALK Magazine, June 2004 issue, with permission from its publisher, BowTie Magazines, a division of BowTie Inc. To purchase digital back issues of BIRD TALK Magazine, click here.
Obviously nobody wants to turn his or her bird into a sleep-deprived or cabin-fever suffering basket case. Fortunately, there are steps you can take modify the dark and light cycles for your pet birds to keep them healthy and happy. Avian veterinarians and bird behaviorists generally make the following recommendations:
1) Let your bird have 10 to 12 hours of sleep each night.
Most pet birds do best with between 10 and 12 hours of darkness a night. This is generality; some species do better with a little more than 12 hours of sleep, others like less than eight, but most need somewhere around the 10 to 12 hour mark.
By Gina Cioli/BowTie Inc.
Provide a sleep cage for your bird, so it can get a good night’s sleep.
The majority of parrots are tropical or subtropical, meaning they live near the equator where there are 12 hours of darkness every night,” noted Ken Welle, DVM, an avian veterinarian who practices in Illinois. In the wild, parrots are awake from sunrise to sunset, which amounts to about 12 hours on average, and sleep from sunset to sunrise the other 12 hours in the day.
Many pet parrots do well on a sunset-to-sunrise sleeping schedule; they get the amount of sleep they need, and they’re awake when nature designed them to be awake and asleep when nature designed them to be sleeping. Reality is a lot of bird owners are away at work all day and don’t get home until 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening, which during much of the year may be after it’s already gotten dark outside or just a short time before sunset. Obviously if these people “put their birds to bed” at sunset that doesn’t leave a lot of time for interacting.
You can let your birds stay up past sunset, “but then you’re going to need to allow them to sleep later in the morning,” said Julie Burge DVM, a veterinarian and bird breeder in Missouri. That means if you leave for work when it’s still dark in the morning, you shouldn’t turn on the lights in the room where you keep your parrots, nor should you disturb them in any way. Let them sleep as long as they can. Unless their cages are covered, birds usually awaken when the sun comes up. Keep in mind that your bird should have at least 10 hours of darkness, so if the sun rises at 6:30am, you should not keep your bird up past 8:30pm the night before.
But, you may ask, what if you work 2nd shift or you’re taking night classes and you don’t get home until late at night? Your parrot may have been sleeping for several hours before you get home. Is it okay to wake him up so that you can interact with him a while? “Yes,” said Larry Nemetz, DVM, an exotics-only veterinarian in southern California. “Your parrots do not have to have 10 straight hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. It’s okay to break up their sleep, especially if that’s the only way you can have time to play with them.”
But that doesn’t mean you should suddenly wake them up from a deep sleep and immediately put your hands in their cage. If you do, you’re bound to be bitten. “Just turn on the lights, let them wake up slowly so they don’t freak out, and give them a half hour or so to gear up for some play,” Nemetz suggested. “Don’t just go in the bird room and startle them awake and expect them to immediately be ready to start playing with you.”
Once the late-night play session is over with, most parrots have no problem going right back to sleep. Again, you should try to ensure your bird has 10 hours of darkness for sleeping, so if it has already been sleeping for five hours before you got home, make sure you don’t keep it up so late that it is not going to have five hours of darkness left for sleeping.
2) Use sleep cages, cage covers or room-darkening blinds to help your bird sleep.
You may also need to take some steps to create an environment for your parrot that is more conducive for sleeping. Kim Bear, a parrot behavior consultant in Florida, recommends bird owners provide their parrot with a “sleep cage.” This would be a smaller cage that’s just used for sleeping.
The sleep cage should be put in a room that’s completely dark and quiet, where the bird is not going to be disturbed — such as a spare bedroom, laundry room or even a large walk-in closet. During the daytime the bird would be housed in its regular, larger bird cage or bird stand in the family room, den or other highly trafficked part of the house. But when it’s time for the bird to go to sleep, it would be transferred to its sleep cage.
Bear said, “A lot of people keep their parrot next to their television in the family room, but oftentimes the parrot can’t get to sleep even if the lights are dimmed because there might be a lot of noise coming from the TV, the family might be talking or laughing, maybe people are coming and going, and so it makes a lot of sense to move the parrot to another part of the house at night where he’s not going to hear all that racket.”
An additional step you might want to take is to place a cage cover over your bird’s cage when it’s time for it to go to sleep. This is especially a good idea if you have to keep your bird in a room where the lights are kept on late at night, but even birds that sleep in a nighttime cage in an isolated room can still benefit from a cage cover.
“The cage cover prevents pet birds from seeing a lot of things that might startle them, such as passing car headlights shining through a window and stray dogs or cats or wild animals that might be wandering outside,” said Ann Vann, longtime bird owner and co-owner of Vann’s of Louisiana. You can use a dark towel or blanket to cover the cage or a specially made cage cover. (Note: For some birds, such as cockatiels, complete darkness may cause problems with night frights, and it may be necessary to leave part of their cages uncovered and plug in a night light to allow them to see.)
For people who keep their birds up late and there’s no way the birds would get 10 hours of natural darkness before sunrise, Burge recommended installing room darkening drapes or blinds where the bird sleeps. That way if your birds were up until 11pm or midnight, you could keep the blinds shut and the room dark until 10 o’clock the next morning to allow your birds to still get 10 hours of darkness. If you leave for work earlier than that, you can put the room lights on a timer so that they will come on at the right time in the morning to awaken your birds.
3) Adjust light/dark cycles depending on species, season and behavioral challenges.
Some adjustment in your bird’s sleep schedule may be necessary now and then. If your bird is a species that comes from one of the more temperate regions of the world (for instance, you might have a Meyer’s parrot, which is native to southeastern Africa, or a Deryban parakeet that originates from Tibet), it may need a little more variation in its light/dark cycles during the year than the straight 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness that is ideal for a species native to equatorial regions (such as an orange-winged Amazon parrot whose home range is the Amazon rain forest).
“The further away their home range is from the equator, the more seasonal changes are going to be significant,” said Don Harris, DVM, an avian veterinarian in Florida. So, if you’ve got a bird from one of the more temperate regions, it may need 10 hours of light and 14 hours of darkness in the winter months, and 14 hours of light and 10 hours of dark in the summer months. Some people go so far as to try to mimic the light/dark cycles of their birds’ home range, so they will gradually start shortening the days for their birds when moving from mid-summer to winter and lengthening the days when moving from mid-winter to summer. This is something you might want to try if you’ve got a species from one of the temperate regions. But if your bird is from the tropics, where the hours of light and darkness are even and consistent year-round, it probably won’t need the seasonal variation.
You may also want to modify the light/dark cycles, depending on whether you want to encourage or discourage “breeding mode” in your birds. If you’ve got a pair of birds and you wish to stimulate reproductive activity, Welle suggested you gradually increase day length from 10 hours daily to about 16 hours daily.
On the other hand, if your bird is exhibiting behavior problems related to reproductive hormones (this could be anything from aggressive biting in a sexually mature cockatoo or Amazon, to chronic egg laying in a cockatiel), Welle recommended limiting the bird to eight to 10 hours of light daily to try shut down those reproductive hormones. You will probably need to use room darkening blinds and/or cage covers to artificially bring-on nighttime earlier for these birds. This is something you would do on a temporary basis. Once the hormonally-related behavior has stopped (it may take several weeks or more to curtail the behavior), then you can gradually start lengthening the days back to what is normal for the bird.
It’s worth noting that decreasing the photoperiod (light cycles) is not the solution for every hormonally-charged bird. “For birds from temperate to polar regions, photoperiod is the most important influence on reproduction. But the closer to the equator the bird is from, the less influence it may have,” Welle said.
4) Provide natural sunlight or UV lighting.
One final important consideration relating to photoperiod is the type of light your bird is exposed to. Ideally, pet birds should have some exposure to natural light every day. That requires them to actually go outdoors. “Indoor birds do not receive the benefits of the UV light emitted by the sun,” noted Gregory Burkett, DVM, an avian veterinarian in Durham, North Carolina. Most window glass is treated to prevent ultraviolet (UV) rays from passing through and [rays]do not reach the bird.
Exactly how much exposure to natural light do birds need? Harris recommended that pet birds get between four and six hours of unobstructed skylight a day, but if that’s not reasonable even a couple of hours a day outside will help. “The sun doesn’t have to directly hit the bird, but they have to have unobstructed sky,” Harris said. “Being outside under a tree is okay as long as the sky is visible. Being under a patio is OK too, as long as there is no screen between the bird and the sky.”
Curb Panic & Anxiety In Parrots
Excerpt from BIRD TALK Magazine, July 2006 issue, with permission from its publisher, BowTie Magazines, a division of BowTie Inc. To purchase digital back issues of BIRD TALK Magazine, click here.
There are so many pet birds and parrots that need good homes. Those that generously open their hearts to these pet birds should be complimented. They might, however, encounter some unexpected behavior problems that the bird learned in its earlier home.
Although your re-homed parrot is not a child, it might help you understand your bird’s behavior if you visualize it as a foster child. Your new parrot does not understand why she is in a strange location or what happened to her previous owners. She is confused, and it is totally logical that she does not yet trust that she is safe in your environment. This can cause a bird to act frightened of its new owners or to exhibit fearful behavior. I know of an adopted Senegal parrot that panicked whenever anyone walked near the bird cage.
By Gina Cioli/BowTie Inc./Courtesy Amy Baggs.
If your parrot is nervous around you, work with it to make it more comfortable with you.
I suggested several things to make this Senegal parrot feel more comfortable in its new home. First, move your birds cage out of high-traffic areas and away from doors or other entryways. People shouldn’t have to pass by the bird’s cage to get to somewhere else in the house. For now, an ideal location would be in a corner on a wall opposite a doorway. If there is a window near the cage, make certain that her cage is only partially in front of it, allowing some solid wall behind her for security. This should curb her fearful behavior.
Give your parrot a hiding place so she can hide from you as well as the outside world. A sheet draped over part of the cage will provide such a haven or even a large toy that allows her to hide behind it.
When you need to service the cage, approach slowly, talking quietly to your parrot so she doesn’t think that you are sneaking up like a predator. Keep your head down a little and slightly averted. Don’t make direct eye contact for more than a second or two. A two-eyed predator’s stare can unnerve a prey animal like a parrot.
For reasons that we don’t fully understand, it often seems that a parrot startles more around its territory, such as the cage, than when the bird is elsewhere.
Parrot behavior consultant Sally Blanchard’s “chair exercise” is excellent for helping frightened birds become comfortable with people in close proximity to their cages. Gradually move a chair closer to your bird’s cage. Over several days, move the chair a few inches toward the cage, then walk away. Only move it enough so that she still appears relaxed. Eventually position the chair close to the open door of the cage. Sit down facing slightly away from her, so she sees your face from the side. Read aloud from a book or magazine in a calm and friendly voice. Show her the pretty pictures in BIRD TALK. Do this for five to 10 minutes every day.
As you are doing this, watch your bird’s behavior with your peripheral vision. Is her body language beginning to relax, or is she becoming tenser? If she tenses and acts more afraid, slowly back off. If you look up at her, look away after a couple of seconds. When she starts to relax with you close by, bring a favorite food treat the next time you visit the cage.
Patience is crucial to your success with overcoming fearful behavior in your parrot. The more you allow her choices in her interactions with you, the more likely she will be to seek your company. Take your time, and let her move at her own speed; this will make all the difference. You have years to enjoy each other; there is no rush.
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