Cage stress

[verov]

Hi,

We have an African grey 3 months old that we took from breeder at 2 weeks age and hand fed by ourselves.
The parrot is very friendly, playful and smart.
The only problem we have is a big fear from his cage. We only put him in the cage at night for sleeping. First, when he sees the cage, he screams and tries to escape. When in the cage, he goes to the floor and digging until he sleeps. In the morning, he will stay on the floor, not touching the food, not even sunseeds!
We tried putting him in the cage during the day to watch this behavior and he is sitting on the floor and screaming to get out. When we open the door, he jumps outside from the location he is.
Removed and replaced all toys, nothing helps.

Any suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[BertAllen]

Where is his cage? Can he see you all the time when in it?

 

[Lady Jane]

I am guessing he was not in a cage before you brought him home. Try removing most of toys and lower perches. You can line the cage bottom with something soft like towels and put newspaper over that. You dont want him to start night frights either. Use soft lighting at night. Please let me know if this help.

He is still a baby at 3 months.

 

[MauiWendy]

Oh wow sounds just like Keoki who I might add, hated his first cage. Sorry you are going through this stressful situation. Keoki's first cage was more tall than wide. I would sit for hours with the door open, encouraging him to stay inside. And even though I lowered the perches and placed his dishes and toys on the floor, he would climb then fall, making this horrible thud even though I lined the bottom with towels. He just never settled down in that cage. Do you have a picture of the cage and how it is set up. After about 2 almost 3 months later I finally bought him a different cage all together, even changed the color. He loves his cage now and actually took to it right away. Its more wide than tall. I was going to use the first cage as a secondary cage in my bedroom, but he wanted nothing to do with it so I just sold it. Keoki is only in his cage when he is unsupervised when we are not home. And he sleeps on a bungee in my bedroom. It works for us.

 

[verov]

The cage is A10, about 20" x 20" and quite tall. He has no problem climbing up to the perches, but also all perches are in mid height and up. He doesn't see any of us while in the cage as we put him there only when going to sleep. When we tried putting him in the cage during the day, when we stay with him, he will climb on the door and scream so we open it.
I did another test and brought another cage (from a living parrot) with a lot of toys and food inside. This is a smaller cage that opens from the top. He was sitting there playing with the toys and at some point of time, climbed into the cage. After that, I closed the cage. He immediately realized that, climbed all around to make sure it's locked, then went down the floor and started digging. He doesn't like to be locked.
P.S. we are still leaving him at night in the closed cage, against his will. Not sure if it's ok.

 

[BertAllen]

As a night cage for sleeping that is fine but I prefer a larger cage that Tinker can stretch out in and play when he has to go back in when we are not home. 36Wx39Dx40H at least.

Tinker does not like going back into his house either and I have to pick him up to do so. He gets at least 6 hours flight time in the house everyday and sometimes more. I have tried the treat thing and he will not fall for that more than twice. LOL

My schedule is erratic and he has gotten used to the varying times.

Oh we always leave cartoons on or a radio playing when we are not home.

 

[Arno]

Here is how i gave my little one time to adjust to her new surroundings. I covered the whole cage even at the top and only left the front open.

After 2 weeks i moved her to the big cage for a few hours but always back to the sleeping cage at night.

 

[BertAllen]

@verov Did you ever sort this out?