Taco, Kamara and Kraz are all afraid of sticks, but Taco's fear has been getting worse and it's come to the point where anything even resembling a stick being in his line of sight is terrifying. Kraz and Kamara are only afraid when sticks are in their space or coming near them, but Taco will go into a panic now if he sees the broom innocently leaning against a wall as we walk past it.
Recently I had the idea to slowly demonstrate to Taco that sticks aren't dangerous, by interacting with them myself in harmless ways (walking past them, leaning toward them, etc.) and Taco seemed to react positively. I then figured I might try picking up sticks and moving them, and he wasn't a fan so I went back to the first step.
But last night a toy got stuck under Réy's cage, and without thinking I used an old spare perch to pull it out. Neither Kraz or Kamara cared, but Taco went ballistic. He started thrashing and screaming, pinning his eyes and striking the cage bars, and when I hurriedly dropped the perch and pushed it out of view, he ran and hid in a back corner of his cage.
I went over to comfort him, since he's normally a big weepy mama's bird, but he pressed his back against the cage and stared at me like I was a monster. I backed off until he calmed himself down, gave him his favourite mangoes, and then put everyone to bed.
Today, Taco is still afraid of me. He isn't terrified and hiding anymore, but he won't approach me and he's making his sad little "I'm scared" croak. He backs away when I open his door, and when he ventures out he won't come near me.
I scared the heck out of him, the poor guy. What can I do to help him? There are too many stick-shaped objects in the world to hide them all.
I'm also down with the flu this weekend and I'm not spending as much time in the bird room as usual, half because I don't want to spread my germs and half because I keep zonking out for hours. I doubt that's helping my poor baby to get over his traumatic experience.
Recently I had the idea to slowly demonstrate to Taco that sticks aren't dangerous, by interacting with them myself in harmless ways (walking past them, leaning toward them, etc.) and Taco seemed to react positively. I then figured I might try picking up sticks and moving them, and he wasn't a fan so I went back to the first step.
But last night a toy got stuck under Réy's cage, and without thinking I used an old spare perch to pull it out. Neither Kraz or Kamara cared, but Taco went ballistic. He started thrashing and screaming, pinning his eyes and striking the cage bars, and when I hurriedly dropped the perch and pushed it out of view, he ran and hid in a back corner of his cage.
I went over to comfort him, since he's normally a big weepy mama's bird, but he pressed his back against the cage and stared at me like I was a monster. I backed off until he calmed himself down, gave him his favourite mangoes, and then put everyone to bed.
Today, Taco is still afraid of me. He isn't terrified and hiding anymore, but he won't approach me and he's making his sad little "I'm scared" croak. He backs away when I open his door, and when he ventures out he won't come near me.
I scared the heck out of him, the poor guy. What can I do to help him? There are too many stick-shaped objects in the world to hide them all.
I'm also down with the flu this weekend and I'm not spending as much time in the bird room as usual, half because I don't want to spread my germs and half because I keep zonking out for hours. I doubt that's helping my poor baby to get over his traumatic experience.