I'll keep this short.. If I had feathers i'd probably be pulling them out. I have a Conure, took her in from a not so good home. Lulu is 2 years old, possibly 3. I love her, but its been a pain lately because she is scared of EVERYTHING. I sneeze, couch, laugh, sigh, turn on water, type, blow my nose, open a door, drop something, or basically do anything else, and she will take off. Id hate to clip her wings because the blue feathers are beautiful. The flying isn't so much the issue though. Its the fear of everything. Sometimes, if I open my blinds and the suns visible, she will get scared. Its just so frustrating. I cant seem to do anything to help it. This is also recent behavior by the way. I've had her for a little over one year now and this just started within the last few months. Also, she never bites me, ever. Which is good obviously but im lost here. What can I do??

-King

Sorry if this is in the wrong designated area within the forum.

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* Saepius Exertus. Semper Fidelis. Frater Infinitas.*


United States Marine Corp
Operation Iraqi Freedom
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.

Hi,

My husband is a former Marine and I think our birds gave him many many stress bars too

Have you read Birdman's posts on startle training? They were really helpful for us (our birds went off at everything in the beginning too, the door, sneezing, coughing, sight of a broom, squeaky doors etc etc)

What also helped was "announcing things" I would say "squeaky door" before opening the door, or say things like "it's okay, it's me"

With objects that they are afraid of, I take them away and introduce them another time slowly, step by step.

I agree with the above... take it slow and start working on exposing your GCC to new things. Too soon or quick startles them because they're prey animals. They're hard wired to be cautious of quick movement, loud threatening sounds, or anything that sounds like parrot screams to notify the flock of a nearby predator. You're not dealing with an animal that likes to hunt like a cat or dog, you're dealing with a small bird that's accustomed to being lunch to several predators.

Currently my conure is afraid of my steam cleaner, any bright/new objects, my boyfriend's golf clubs, and loud sounds.

She's not afraid of me moving quickly, of my hands moving quickly near her, or me making loud sudden sounds other than sneezing. In fact, her favourite sounds are video game gunfire and the screams of dying or terrified characters in the Walking Dead TV show (!).

It takes time. When I bought a cat play box for my rabbit, she freaked out because it was big and green. Now that she's been near it enough and realized it won't hurt her, she's so totally okay with it that she even crawls all over it. She used to also be terrified of the hand broom I use to clean under the cages, and now she whistles happily when she sees it.

It basically just comes down to conditioning your bird to realize that the things you use or bring in won't be causing them harm. It will take time, and that's perfectly fine. Go at a snail's pace if you need to. Introduce brightly coloured small blocks, new textures, and new sounds slowly. Eventually you'll have a bird that grows accustomed to new things.

Also, if the environment you live in is always quiet, then they expect that. If they aren't accustomed to quick movements, loud sounds, bright colours - you name it - then they'll just think "potential threat". So it's a combination of things.

Good luck! Conures are really the best. And I agree about their beautiful blue feathers. I'm always stunned by how pretty my birds are

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- Chantal