Need help figuring out Roxie's behavior

[Abbie]

All of a sudden Roxie has decided that she doesn't like ANYONE. She has always been the sweetest little thing. She loved to cuddle and would come right out of her cage for Jared. (She never has cared too much for me, but would tolerate me once out of the cage.) Now all of a sudden every time anyone walks into the room she starts growling and acts like she is absolutely TERRIFIED. She will literally jump off of her perch to get away from us and sometime gets scared and flaps her wings until she loses her balance and falls. Considering the problems we have been having with her flight feathers being damaged and not growing back I am very concerned about her damaging them worse. But most of all I am concerned about her. She will NOT come out of the cage for anything or anyone. She doesn't try and bite us, but just runs away when we try to get her out. I can leave the cage door open all day long and she will NEVER venture toward the door.
Please help! I have considered that the problem may be the placement of her cage which we moved a couple of months back to create more space, but I really have no where else that I can put it until we move to the new house. I have tried just spending time close by her cage without pressuring her to come out, but she growls and seems so stressed the entire time unless I am at least 6 ft away from the cage when talking to her. She has always been a bit cage territorial, which is something that we were working on, but was a total teddy bear the minute she came out of her cage. Now we just can't get her out. It has been a week since she has been out of her cage and I am just at my wits end. If any of you have any ideas or suggestions please let me know. I am willing to try anything to get my sweet little girl back at this point! I miss night time snuggles!

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

by any chance is she just in front of a window or by the door with no wall or other protection on a side or back

 

[Abbie]

I think that's the problem. She is right by a doorway. The back of the cage is against a wall, but there is nothing on either side. I am going to look into moving some things around this afternoon to see if I can't get her moved someplace else. It just seems strange to me that it took her a month or so to start acting different after we moved the cage. I am hoping that is the problem, but if not I don't know what to try next.

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

some birds become more fearful by an open doorway you may try covering a side and back so that she feels safer she may have built up the fear if it is a little used door

 

[birdlady]

Good suggestion Cynthia...Abbie, I hope it works!

 

[crzybrdldy]

I agree near a door is to much stuff to process. What's going on here now something over there.

I think Cynthia hit the nail on the head. Good luck with rearranging.

It might take a little while for her to become accustomed to the shift but don't give up.

Luck!

 

[Abbie]

I have covered half of her cage with a blanket to see if that will help her feel more secure until I can figure out a place to move her cage away from the door. We will see if that helps.

 

[birdlvr466]

I would agree. Grey's dont like being surprised. She should be placed so she can see what's coming and going and have a wall behind her. Let us know how it goes. She def. sounds afraid.

 

[Abbie]

She does have a wall behind her and was only put beside the door temporarily while we are working on the new house and had to store some extra things in this particular house until the new house is finished. We didn't expect to have to leave her cage where it is for longer than a couple of weeks, but renovations are taking longer than expected and she has been there for 2 months now. We are just waiting on carpet to be laid and have to paint 2 more rooms, but the carpet people at Lowe's are 3 weeks behind, so it will still be another month before we can move her. I am trying to re-work things in the room she is now to move her back where she was, but it's very crowded for the time being and there aren't many other options. If I could just get her to come out of the cage I could leave her out and the only time she would have to be in there would be bed time. I just can't get her to come out. I can't lure her with anything because she has never eaten anything but pellets (even though I fill her cage with an array of fresh foods daily just in case) and isn't tempted enough by them to come get them. She doesn't really have a favorite toy and will only play with toys when she is inside her cage. I have left the cage door open and left the room hoping she would venture out, but no luck. I don't want to stress her out by trying to force her to step up and when I do put my hand in to even change her food or water, or rotate toys, she freaks out and ends up falling off her perch.

 

[Abbie]

I am hoping after having the blanket over half the cage that her attitude will be a little different when I get home from work. Haven't talked to Jared yet to see if there has been any improvement. I'm not expecting to see an immediate transformation, but this has just come about in the last week so I am hoping it will not take too terribly long to make her feel secure again.