Acting a bit strange...

First time posting on this forum but it seems to be a good community so I thought I would give it a go...

I have a GCC that I have had for about 5 months now, which makes him about 9 months old.

He was doing great up until a few days ago. He had already bonded to me and always wanted to be out and nearby but for the last few days he doesn't want to come out of his cage at all...

He will still tolerate my hand reaching into the cage and being near him but when I ask him to step up he scoots away from my finger. No aggression at all out of the ordinary, just very unusual shyness...

If he does manage to wander out, when I pick him up he lunges toward his cage and bobs begging to go back into it. If I move away from it he will jump and climb down my shirt to be as close to his cage as possible.

It has been cold lately and I am wandering if he only returns to his cage because it is warmer because of the heating perch inside, or if it is a more concerning issue.

Any advice?

I'm not 100% sure on this. My Nanday sometimes gets like this with me. We absolutely love each other, but sometimes he's just NOT in the mood. After I first adopted him, I clipped his wings and he didn't want to go near me for 2 weeks. I cried I was so upset! But eventually, we were back to normal and I'll never clip them again.
I've also noticed that Pepper is only open to lots of scritches and petting during certain times of the day. I think they just go through phases or sometimes something scares them and we don't even realize it and they just need some time.

If I were you, I would give him the option to come out of the cage on his own. Try to interact with him, but if he's not having it, just let him be for a little while. Still talk to him and be around him, but don't pressure it. I know it's heartbreaking though! Hang in there!

It's kind of normal behavior, at least from what I hear. Sometimes, a behavior change like that can also mean a bird is sick.


You might want to go back to the basics and use treats to reward him for good behavior. See if that helps any.

redpants said:

If I were you, I would give him the option to come out of the cage on his own. Try to interact with him, but if he's not having it, just let him be for a little while. Still talk to him and be around him, but don't pressure it. I know it's heartbreaking though! Hang in there!

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That's good advice.