Ahhh! It's a Round Thing!!!!

[Nerien]

Got a petco order in today, which included two large round wicker balls.

I put one in each parrotlet cage, hanging it off a branch.

For a couple hours now, in each cage the pair of parrotlets is clinging to the bars on the farthest corner of the cage from That Thing. I've had talks with them, I've put treats in the cage, but the overwhelming Presence Of The Thing is still dominating.

Oh hey, just now each pair has come out of the corner bars and moved to a perchable place closest to the far corner, so they are now about three inches closer to That Thing than they have been so far. And they are calling to each other between cages, I think conferring on whether That Thing is going to suddenly rear up and eat them alive.

So Funny. Especially since both pairs are running on the exact same schedule within their own cage.

[chirpy]

Nerien Isn't it HYSTERICAL when they are freaked out over the simplest things. When I put in the millet spray (those huge ones) they were so scared like it was this giant cat tail and it was going to attack them if they moved. Its so funny.. I just talk to them saying "you do realize thats a snack that you all love."
any new perch - demon (or even if i move it to the other side of the cage - clinging for dear life.)
water dispenser - same deal.
i wish they would play with things..

George sometimes goes on the swing but the other are just scared...

[fhgwgads]

Nerien oh boy... I had a similar experience with those wire balls you can hang in the cages. I had stuffed one jam packed with timothy hay for Shadow and Kuri. It had a little bell hanging off the bottom too. Once I put it in they were terrified. Especially Shadow. I put it in one afternoon and they wouldn't budge for a while.. eventually would make their way around the cage always keeping away from it as far as they possibly could. The next morning I got up and apparently they had gotten over their fear because the thing was empty and all the grass was on the bottom of the cage. It's silly to watch them be so afraid of something. Hopefully they will get over it and realize it's not going to attack and kill them! it's always the strangest things with my birds. I remember once I had put a slice of apple in there.. it was like I had personally invited Satan into their cage. They would NOT move even a millimeter until I took the apple out. At first I didn't realize what they were afraid of. They would sit there.. wide-eyed looking around. Once I took the apple out they were bouncing around the cage in relief that the intruder had finally left and that they quietly held their ground.

[lovezebs]

LMAO (laughed my ass off) My guys seem to be more adventurous. When there is anything new in the cage, there is a momentary lull in the hub-bub, but then the zebras are always first to investigate, then Luciano and finallly the societies. The thing that makes me laugh every time, is Pauly (society) looking at himself in the little mirror at the bottom of the bathtub, turning his head from side to side and I swear, making faces at himself.

[dcompt]

Mine are usually fearful the first day, but the next morning they wake up in a whole new world and it's - "Oh, that old thing? It's been here forever. Why would we be afraid of it?"

[cindy]

Changing anything in some hookbills' cages can cause stress, when introducing new items like a toy to birds that are fearful of change it should be done gradually. (each bird is different) Some accept new things right away others can stress. Try introducing the toy slowly next to the cage, then in a few day move it closer, gradually moving it inside. If still fearful of it then best to remove it.

[fhgwgads]

cindy that's interesting because I have experienced this fear of new things with finches but never with hookbills. With my parakeets and my mothers boyfriends cockatiel.. I could have put a tiger in their cage and they would sit there like nothing even happened. I could poke them with a stick, burn the house down, pull out my own liver and scream in agony and they would just sit there having a grand old time. With the finches if so much as a baby cries on the tv.. they are all yelling like crazy. Anyone screaming on tv, yelling loud, laughing.. trumpets, flutes, guitars, bells, car horns, train horns, teapot, sneezes.. anything that goes "ding".. and then as far as objects.. papers moved within their view, paper plates, moving the plants by the window that have always been there, the vacuum, the broom, the mop being remotely close to their cage.. any new food bowl, new perch, an extra large millet, moving their cage more than a millimeter (they eventually get over new things for the most part). Some things they are scared of others they just do the alarm calls over. The only thing they seem to like and start singing over is the sound of running water. Unless it's at night time.. then they tell you to shut up because they want to sleep!

[Nerien]

The pair of girls decided it wasn't so scary after all, after a couple of days, and started chewing on it, until they broke it loose from its string and it fell with a crash down onto their bath jar. Both of them stayed right where they were, but kept looking down, first one side, then the other, over and over, as if to say, "Did we do that? And now they don't care about it at all, down on the bottom. Going to have to restring it and put it back up on the branches.

The other pair, m-f, STILL won't go near the Round Thing. So, finally, I dropped theirs to the bottom, where it is still sitting, and they are just ignoring it completely. Maybe I will start hanging it from the side of the cage, a little higher each day, until I hit the height between being ignored and being scary, and then maybe then they'll chew it up, instead of their rope bridge, which they seem determined to destroy, dang it.