From friendly to fearful

We have had an African Gray "Trixe" for about 9 years. I will refer to Trixe as a "she" from here on although we have no idea of her actual sex. I believe she was still quite young when we purchased her from a pet store here in Sarasota. She was friendly and happy to be handled for the first few years.

Then she became extremely fearful and very aggressive whenever we came near her cage. Just calmly walking up to the cage causes her to shake violently. Occasionally, we have her wings and nails clipped by a traveling bird vet that comes to our house. That's a sad event. It is a real disaster trying to get her out of the cage so I can clean it. Her cage is about 3' wide x 3' deep by 5' high. We have three dogs, two of which have been added in the past few years. Trixe had become fearful long before we added the other two dogs. One of the dogs is a Jack Russell "Zoie" which jumps at the cage from time to time. Trixe holds her own with the dog however by climbing down to the bottom of the cage and actually taunting Zoie.

With all that said, Trixe still seems very happy and content as long as we are not near her cage. She does not pluck her feathers. She has lots of toys in her cage that she plays with. She will take food from our hand as long as it is passed through the bars and not open the door. She talks constantly.

I have tried to keep this explanation short but packed with enough info for you to answer this question. Do you think this behavior is reversible or, after 7 years, is it ingrained into her? I have tried working with her but it is such a slow process by the time I make even the slightest progress, its time to clean the cage, we go through that traumatic event and any progress is lost.

Any ideas you may have would be greatly appreciated

Welcome I am sure you will find information here that will assist you with the issue.

I am no way an expert. I can not say why her behavior has changed, may hormonal I do not know.

I know that if you are working with her you need to move her to a quiet area with just some one on one time. I would make sure the dogs are outside of her vision and hearing. You want her to be as calm as she can be.
I would sit and talk to her as much as possible.
Remember that you are trying to gain her trust again.
It will take time but I think you can get her back to being a part of the family.

I hope this helps.

to the forum, hopefully we will be able to assist you.
You mentioned Zoie jumps at the cage from time to time.
Poor Trixie, it sounds like she has had a fear for dogs for years. She must be absolutely petrified of Zoie. I guess that's the reason why she does not want to come out of her cage.
As cowtown suggested, let the dogs be out of sight and hearing, when you spend time with Trixie. Give her your undivided attention.
Leave the cage door open, leave a treat near the open door, let Trixie come take it in her own time. This could take days, weeks or even months. You are going to have to gain her trust all over again.
A bird can change, it is never to late, with a lot of patience and perseverance things can improve.
When attempting to clean her cage, have the dogs been nearby?
Before when handling Trixie, when taking her out the cage, did you use your hands or a stick, for her to step onto? I reckon start out using a stick, taking it very very slowly.
Hope this was helpful
Keep us updated
Good luck

So sorry for your struggle. I adopted and ekkie that was quite fearful and hard to get out of her cage. But I just kept trying. I used treats to get her out. She went to being a full on biter to relaxing on my arm with her eyes closed while I scratched her. Sadly, she has passed away ):

Hi, and first let me say welcome to the forum, well I believe I know who your vet may be (Dr Don?), Im very sorry your having such problems with Trixie, there are so many things that may have been the cause of her emotinal dilema 7 years ago, but since it continues still today it could very well be the dogs, especially since she won't even come out of the cage on her own and the way she interacts with them from inside her cage, in my experiences with birds over the past 30+ years I never believe its to late to turn a bird around, either emotionally or behaviorally, it will however take a great deal of work on your part, being able to remove the bird from the influence of the dogs would have to be the start, I don't know if thats possible, but with that distraction I'm not sure you could accomplish your goal otherwise, your going to have to basically start over again, just as though Trixie is a brand new bird you just brought home, re-building the trust and bond, it's something that may take quite some time, and definately a great deal of patience, love and understanding, if I can help in any way let me know

Thank you all for your kind words. It sounds like there is a consensus that the dogs are the problem. I can isolate the dogs from Trixe during the 1 on 1 time but not 24/7. I will start there.

Yes Bobby34231, our vet was Dr. Don. I say was as we recently moved to Bradenton and Dr. Don doesn't service that far north. We need to find a replacement vet!

As I said in my original posting, cage cleaning is always such a traumatic event for Trixe that any progress is quickly wiped out. The cage we have is a self standing 3" x 3' x 5'. When its time for a good cleaning (every 4 to 6 weeks) we remove Trixe from the cage, I take it out in the driveway & scrub it. The "remove Trixe" is the traumatic part.

One suggestion I received from Maggie Wright was to clean the cage with Trixe in it. She said she wipes down the cage every day. Is it realistic to do this with a cage this size or should I get a smaller cage? If smaller, what size?

Thanks again for your support.

Hello and welcome. I have a suggestion of perhaps moving your birds cage. If she is close to a window it could be somethng outside that continues to frighten her. cages are best located against a wall. Also put a perch on the inside of your cage door. When your are ready to clean the cage open the door and walk away for a while. When she is up on the perch outside of the cage get her to step up and clean cage. This is what I do with my TAG as she is cage agressive.

I would not go with a smaller cage. Grays need a lot of space to stretch their wings and play.
I know you can not keep the pups away 24/7. I am the same way. I have 2 pups and cat that are fascinated by Abby. I am lucky none of them have jumped at her, but I can tell when Lucy get close to the cage Abby climbs to the top.

Remember that Birds are prey and dogs hunt prey.. it is natural for Trixie to use caution when the pups are around.

Her behavior did not change over night and it will take time and patience to get her back to being the loving bird she is. She just needs a lot of TLC..

Mike

This may seem silly, but have you ever tried removing her from the cage in the dark? It may be slightly less traumatic for the poor dear if you can somehow keep her in the dark (or twilighty conditions) while you remove her and leave her on the perch. Definitely NO pups in that situation. I know my little Conure is calmer whenever I turn out the lights.

ETA: Also, does she get 12 hours of full dark/sleep every night? It may be necessary to wheel her into a dark room the dogs can't get into, away from the hubbub, and let her get some real shuteye. Just another thought.

Good luck. I hope she feels better soon.

Dherdy,

Bob is like the bird whisperer, honestly, he's awesome with birds. Sorry Bob, not trying to offer your services, as I know you've got your hands full with Joe and Ashley at the moment. However, I bet if you let Bob help you with Trixe, he may actually be able to help some. It's possible, although very difficult, to get her to the point that she becomes trusting of you again, however, that being said, it will be very hard for her to trust the pups ever if they continue to jump at her cage. Trixe see's this as an immediate threat to her life and there's really now correcting that, as it is instinctual. If there is a way to correct the pups behaviour of jumping at the cage, you may have some better luck with her trusting the pups. I know we keep talking about correcting the birds behaviour, but perhaps we should start with correcting the pups behaviour first, since it's important to you to keep ALL your beloved pets under one roof. We can all certainly understand this, alot of us have furry pets along with our feathered ones.
I hope you can get everything worked out with her, it sure sounds as if you love her dearly. If you ever need anything, Bob and myself are right in your neighborhood, I'm in Bradenton and Bob's right down south in Sarasota, but comes to Bradenton sometimes to see Maui and I or to take the birds to the Vet. An excellent recommendation for an Avian Spe******t is Dr. Bonda, he's located right off of SR 70 about a 1/2-1 mile west of the interstate. If you'd like more information on him, please let myself or Bob know and we will get the address and phone number for you to schedule a visit with him for Trixe.

Geeeez, I'm about 10 shades of red right now.....lol, I was briefly in touch with him Lisa, if I remember I did suggest Dr Bonda to him, I would be more than happy to help him in any way I can, but I don't think he's been back on for about a week and a half now, I was thinking at the time what a small world it really was, I very well could have been the one that sold him Trixe 9 years ago as I was working in the store that he purchased her from at that time.