Unexpected reaction

davisn456

Member
May 3, 2013
109
0
Saint Albans, WV
Parrots
1 B&G Macaw - Frankie
I think Frankie is a bit hormonal right now. She's been somewhat agitated in the evenings, and I've definitely noticed some mating behavior towards me, and what I would consider to be somewhat excessive regurgitation. I try to distract her when that happens, and that stops it for a little while. I'm just hoping it will work itself out of her system pretty soon.

Anyway...Frankie likes to grab sale papers and junk mail from my desk when I'm not looking sometimes. Last night I gave her one of the sale papers while she was sitting on her cage. She couldn't seem to get a good grip on it to hold it while shredding, so I thought I'd roll it up for her and let her hold it that way.

Wow...as soon as I approached her with that rolled up newspaper, she ruffled her head feathers, dropped her head, took a very aggressive stance and then lunged at the paper. I was in shock. She's never done anything that extreme before. I had the paper well below her feet when I walked up to her, and offered it to her like I would anything else, so I can't believe that my stance was aggressive. It wasn't like I had the paper above my head like I was going to swing it at her or anything. I'm starting to wonder now if a previous owner has possibly used rolled up newspapers as a punishment and it brought back bad memories. I felt terrible after I realized what she probably thought about the paper. I sat it down and she immediately calmed down. She wasn't shaking or anything though, and luckily didn't seem to be afraid of me. She let me pet her and I spoke very calmly to her. The crazy thing, is that after picking her up later, she wanted the newspaper again. I guess as long as it isn't rolled up, she loves it.

She's done the lunging thing before when we're playing, especially when I have a toy. She loves to play with a towel or a piece of clothing that way, and grabs and pulls at it, but the ruffled feathers never happen, so I can tell that she's not doing it in an angry way. The newspaper was very different.

She constantly reminds me how intelligent she is, and I'm always amazed. I'm just glad that she shows body language and I can tell that something's not right. Otherwise I could have ended up with an injury very quickly.
 

JerseyWendy

New member
Jul 20, 2012
20,995
24
Oh my!!! I can't even imagine ever punishing my birds with an object such as a rolled newspaper. :( Yes, Frankie may have had some very unpleasant flashbacks there. :eek: Good think she was so quick to forgive. :)

Have you ever tried handing her an empty roll of paper towels to see how she feels about that? It somewhat resembles rolled paper (the shape of it anyway). If she lunges at that, maybe she's just not fond of that particular shape, and finds it threatening? Just thinking out loud here. ;)

I'm sure glad that she's giving you ample body language, so there's no guesswork involved how she feels about certain things. :)
 
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davisn456

Member
May 3, 2013
109
0
Saint Albans, WV
Parrots
1 B&G Macaw - Frankie
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I'll give the paper towel roll a try and see if she reacts the same way. I'm really hoping she was just in a bad mood. I think her "season" was delayed a bit because I brought her home in April and she was still adapting to her surroundings. She seems to be a little moody right now, which may have caused her to react a little stronger than she would have normally.
 

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