This has been an ongoing problem for a year now, and I've been try to resolve this using different methods suggested to me but there seems to be little signs of improvement.
I've had my (single kept) lovebird, Mango, for just over a year now, and at the beginning things were amazing. We were best friends. I almost immediately gained her trust, despite her not being trained or raised by humans, and she was very comfortable around me. She used to fly to me, sit on my shoulders for ages, fall asleep on me, and preen me. I had trained her to come on command, and fly back to her perch. Wherever I set her down, she would patiently sit there until I came back to that spot and would be happily dancing to my music. However this all changed last New Year's Eve (2017/2018).
What happened was I invited some friends over to celebrate on the condition that there was absolutely no smoking allowed (of any kind) in my house or even near the property. No one was to go upstairs unless they needed the bathroom and most importantly they couldn't go into my room (where my bird was). I made this rule clear to all my guests and they had agreed. However there was one person who I used to be friends with (at this point in time we stopped being friends but I didn't want to single her out) who didn't care and decided to smoke weed in my back garden, right underneath the my bedroom window (where Mango was kept). She then accumulated a few other people to smoke with her. I was unaware of this until at least 5-10 minutes had passed (I was dealing with something else and they shut the garden door behind them so I couldn't smell it). A friend of mine told me what they were doing and I ran outside to stop them because my bedroom window was open because my room can get stuffy. This girl gave me attitude and was refusing until another of my friend's stepped in while I checked on Mango. I ran upstairs to see if she was okay. When I last saw her, she was peacefully sleeping, but now she was screaming, freaking out, and flying from each cage side, falling to the bottom of the cage and had a running nose. Mango has never acted like this before and was hurting herself by flying into the sides of the cage. She was hyperventilating and I thought she was going to die. My first instinct which, as stupid as it sounds, was to shower her so that she'd stay still and couldn't fly as quickly, and I was hoping it would get rid of the smell that was on her. The problem is at the time she HATED showers. So I took her to the bathroom and showered her. Eventually she calmed down and stopped flying into walls. I aired out my room and only put her back in it when she fully calmed down and the smell of weed left.
I shortly fell ill after this due to stress and couldn't physically move without being in immense pain, so I couldn't hand feed her like I usually would. I had to get someone else to feed her instead. I believe this is exacerbated the issue. Once I recovered I would notice that she didn't want to come out of the cage, and when she did, I noticed she has issues when flying. She would fall or would sometimes crash land, overshooting her target. Before this, she never had an issue flying and was actually quite good at it.
After that incident, she never trusted me. She stopped flying to me and even refused to leave her cage. She would bite me whenever I offered my finger and no longer cooperated when I took her downstairs to fly, and instead would destroy anything she could. She used to be such a sweet and gentle bird, being goofy and never screamed. But since then she is rarely goofy, and hates me. She rarely flies to me, (she only started flying to sit on my head/phone/laptop if I'm using them recently), she still bites me (no blood), and will only step up when I have a treat for her. But mostly, she now just flies away from me shrieking if I go ask her to step up (when she's already out) and is no longer affectionate to me- except for one time a couple months ago where she preened me. She was a natural shoulder bird, but now she refuses to go on my shoulder, often flying away shrieking when I ask her to where before I would just say "shoulder" and she would immediately fly to it.
Please, if you have any suggestions, please help me. I love this bird more than anything in the world and it breaks my heart to think she hates me. She is only friendly to me if I'm talking to her through her cage. We have our moments here and there, I most certainly don't want to give up on her, but she is very stubborn. Is there any way I can get her back to her trusting, goofy and affectionate old self? She was my best friend. I can post pictures of before and after the incident to show you all the difference. I just want my Mango back...
I've had my (single kept) lovebird, Mango, for just over a year now, and at the beginning things were amazing. We were best friends. I almost immediately gained her trust, despite her not being trained or raised by humans, and she was very comfortable around me. She used to fly to me, sit on my shoulders for ages, fall asleep on me, and preen me. I had trained her to come on command, and fly back to her perch. Wherever I set her down, she would patiently sit there until I came back to that spot and would be happily dancing to my music. However this all changed last New Year's Eve (2017/2018).
What happened was I invited some friends over to celebrate on the condition that there was absolutely no smoking allowed (of any kind) in my house or even near the property. No one was to go upstairs unless they needed the bathroom and most importantly they couldn't go into my room (where my bird was). I made this rule clear to all my guests and they had agreed. However there was one person who I used to be friends with (at this point in time we stopped being friends but I didn't want to single her out) who didn't care and decided to smoke weed in my back garden, right underneath the my bedroom window (where Mango was kept). She then accumulated a few other people to smoke with her. I was unaware of this until at least 5-10 minutes had passed (I was dealing with something else and they shut the garden door behind them so I couldn't smell it). A friend of mine told me what they were doing and I ran outside to stop them because my bedroom window was open because my room can get stuffy. This girl gave me attitude and was refusing until another of my friend's stepped in while I checked on Mango. I ran upstairs to see if she was okay. When I last saw her, she was peacefully sleeping, but now she was screaming, freaking out, and flying from each cage side, falling to the bottom of the cage and had a running nose. Mango has never acted like this before and was hurting herself by flying into the sides of the cage. She was hyperventilating and I thought she was going to die. My first instinct which, as stupid as it sounds, was to shower her so that she'd stay still and couldn't fly as quickly, and I was hoping it would get rid of the smell that was on her. The problem is at the time she HATED showers. So I took her to the bathroom and showered her. Eventually she calmed down and stopped flying into walls. I aired out my room and only put her back in it when she fully calmed down and the smell of weed left.
I shortly fell ill after this due to stress and couldn't physically move without being in immense pain, so I couldn't hand feed her like I usually would. I had to get someone else to feed her instead. I believe this is exacerbated the issue. Once I recovered I would notice that she didn't want to come out of the cage, and when she did, I noticed she has issues when flying. She would fall or would sometimes crash land, overshooting her target. Before this, she never had an issue flying and was actually quite good at it.
After that incident, she never trusted me. She stopped flying to me and even refused to leave her cage. She would bite me whenever I offered my finger and no longer cooperated when I took her downstairs to fly, and instead would destroy anything she could. She used to be such a sweet and gentle bird, being goofy and never screamed. But since then she is rarely goofy, and hates me. She rarely flies to me, (she only started flying to sit on my head/phone/laptop if I'm using them recently), she still bites me (no blood), and will only step up when I have a treat for her. But mostly, she now just flies away from me shrieking if I go ask her to step up (when she's already out) and is no longer affectionate to me- except for one time a couple months ago where she preened me. She was a natural shoulder bird, but now she refuses to go on my shoulder, often flying away shrieking when I ask her to where before I would just say "shoulder" and she would immediately fly to it.
Please, if you have any suggestions, please help me. I love this bird more than anything in the world and it breaks my heart to think she hates me. She is only friendly to me if I'm talking to her through her cage. We have our moments here and there, I most certainly don't want to give up on her, but she is very stubborn. Is there any way I can get her back to her trusting, goofy and affectionate old self? She was my best friend. I can post pictures of before and after the incident to show you all the difference. I just want my Mango back...
