Troubles with Rosie, any advice?

[Featheredsamurai]

Rosie is a extremely hard bird to keep entertained, too often she just stares off into the distance, scratches her head on a perch, preens, or eats. She seems perfectly happy to not do anything. I learned recently that when I got her she showed symptoms of learned helplessness. In our early days she had showed no reaction to toys what so ever and either sat in one spot, preened, or scratched her head on stuff. She was also very unhealthy at the time, which made her even more unresponsive. It took a long time for her to actually play with a toys, and even today she shows little interest. At the same time she is vastly improved and happier than she's ever been, her plucking is even eliminated 99% of the time, every one or two months I find a single plucked blood feather. The average person would find Rosie extremely boring/dull, and probably sell her for a different bird(but I'm not your average person ). She hasn't even squawked/screamed in over two months, people always tell me how lucky I am to have a extremely quite parrot but I would be so happy if she squawked with her wings out while looking so happy every evening and even mornings One fun thing we do together is have"dance parties", I wave my arms around, jump around, and sing or make funky noises and she dances with me, but I can only dance non stop for 30 minutes tops before I need a break LOL

The toys I can get her to consistently play with are foraging toys with nuts/nutriberries in them, safe cardboard & paper, a grass like toy that she preens, some pieces of toys I put on her cage bars, and eucalyptus branches. But even these she plays with for for only 10-20 minutes a day. Her foraging toys keep her entertained a little longer, but I cannot be giving her nutriberries and nuts everyday, this will only make her unhealthy. Less than 2 years ago she was still recovering from organ failure, I need to be very careful to keep her from going down hill again.

When I have her out I keep her entertained fairly well, she loves trick training. She also has a T-stand, but I don't use this much as she tends to zone out on it, or throw her food to the dogs. I hang toys off her T-stand but she still barely plays with them. I also let her chew up small boxes on the floor. I lay out a towel, put a sand blasted grape wood branch out(only wood she likes to chew, she also perches on it), lots of toys, a plate of food, and let her eat/chew things while I watch a show or two that I recorded. I also often let her climb around on top of her cage. I even let her chew up some of my books a little since she goes through the trouble of climbing down to my bookshelf and looks so happy to do so.

My main problem is keeping her entertained while in her cage, which she loves to be in. If I'm in my room with her she begs to go back by leaning towards it and flipping her head back and forth, so when I'm editing photos, writing a essay, or doing research I can't have her out because she is unhappy, and I can only imagine that when I'm out of the house she just its there and stares off. Sometimes she likes sitting on my computer monitor and and watch whats going on outside.

Has anyone else had this problem before? if so what did you do? And any advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I've tried everything and I'm running out of ideas. I'm hoping to make her a awesome play stand in the next few months out of grape wood since she likes to chew her small branch a little bit.

*edit*
I forgot to add she has no major medical problems, I'm hoping that her next vet visit will finally declare her at 100% health

 

[Pugtato]

Honestly, Kippy is the same way. She has very little interest in toys, playing, or cuddling and much prefers to just sit and watch. She has a cage full of fun and interesting toys, but rarely plays with any of them. I figured it was just her way. I have no clue why she does it or what it means, sorry.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Honestly, Kippy is the same way. She has very little interest in toys, playing, or cuddling and much prefers to just sit and watch. She has a cage full of fun and interesting toys, but rarely plays with any of them. I figured it was just her way. I have no clue why she does it or what it means, sorry.

Was she a rescue too? Rosie got pretty much no attention for at least 5 years, and before that she had been abused


Here's a few videos if they help at all, I don't have one of her zoning out since she when I get my phone out she instantly changes the way she acts

Here's her the last time she squawked, this was on December 2nd
[ame="http://youtu.be/rHBlSvzHu7g"]Rosie's getting excited at night - YouTube[/ame]

Here she is scratching her head. When she lived with my friends they rarely pet her so she learned to scratch her own head. The moment she asked me to pet her the first time was so awesome.
[ame="http://youtu.be/OOWKoLOiNRs"]Rosie scratching her head - YouTube[/ame]

I try to give her a lot of attention while she's in her cage, but I'm not always available. When I notice her staring off I try to snap her out of it by distracting her with something of interest. In this video I used part of my car keys, something she didn't get to see again lol.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTPS4lC8TUA"]Rosie playing with car key - YouTube[/ame]

 

[OOwl]

The best boredom buster I've found is a large, parrot-made stainless skewer. I put whole magazines/catalogs on there for my birds, mixed with all kinds of stuff from the dollar store (chinese food boxes filled with shredded paper and then hide foot toys in there, those porky balls are his current favorite and all kinds of kids' party favors). I save every pasta and cereal box or safe anything and put it on the skewer, folded up construction paper, colored tissue paper, bright colored party cups with fresh veggies inside. I, too, have a Galah and I can't keep giving him treats so filling the skewer with new and different stuff each day really keeps him entertained between times I can get him out. I make them at night (and they watch me intently) but they don't get them until the next morning, right after breakfast dishes are moved out. It's cheap and easy and even my rescued older Amazon loves tearing paper and cardboard up. The skewer lasts longer than the foraging devices. I have a Grey, too, and he can open and empty all those (even dozens that are rotated) in mere minutes. The ever-changing skewer has saved my fanny more days than I can recall (I work from home and try to schedule phone calls during the hour after toy skewers go in the cages). Good luck.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

The best boredom buster I've found is a large, parrot-made stainless skewer. I put whole magazines/catalogs on there for my birds, mixed with all kinds of stuff from the dollar store (chinese food boxes filled with shredded paper and then hide foot toys in there, those porky balls are his current favorite and all kinds of kids' party favors). I save every pasta and cereal box or safe anything and put it on the skewer, folded up construction paper, colored tissue paper, bright colored party cups with fresh veggies inside. I, too, have a Galah and I can't keep giving him treats so filling the skewer with new and different stuff each day really keeps him entertained between times I can get him out. I make them at night (and they watch me intently) but they don't get them until the next morning, right after breakfast dishes are moved out. It's cheap and easy and even my rescued older Amazon loves tearing paper and cardboard up. The skewer lasts longer than the foraging devices. I have a Grey, too, and he can open and empty all those (even dozens that are rotated) in mere minutes. The ever-changing skewer has saved my fanny more days than I can recall (I work from home and try to schedule phone calls during the hour after toy skewers go in the cages). Good luck.

I'm really glad I'm not the only person who has this problem, or a similar problem.

I'll try that! I have a stainless steal skewer but mostly used it for different veggies, it tends to get ignored so changing it to random easily destroyed items might be great.
I just re-arranged her cage some for a nice eucalyptus branch I just cut off the tree, I'm hoping it can be a permanent perch. I put the extra part I cut off(the branch was about 7') on the top and Rosie's taking some of the bark off. She really does like the eucalyptus a lot compared to other toys.

 

[crimson]

No matter what you do, Rosie knows you love her and you care enough to keep her happy

I'm sure you'll come up with something

 

[BeakersBro]

Beaker is the same way in terms of playing. He never plays with toys. He does bite things, like plastic and wood toys that can be destroyed. That can keep him occupied for hours. But I'm not sure that's necessarily considered "playing".

In terms of squawking, Beaker is VERY quiet. I think he's too quiet and it almost makes me think he's too lethargic. But from how you described Rosie's quietness, she definitely wins at being quieter (which I completely understand is scarey).

Let me ask you: do you talk a lot around Rosie? Perhaps to other people or to friends over Skype? Maybe Rosie is not vocalizing because you are yourself so quiet? What about playing music? Is there any sign that Rpsie is content when some nice music is playing? Perhaps when you're not at home you can play some Books On Tape so she dosen't feel alone?

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Beaker is the same way in terms of playing. He never plays with toys. He does bite things, like plastic and wood toys that can be destroyed. That can keep him occupied for hours. But I'm not sure that's necessarily considered "playing".

In terms of squawking, Beaker is VERY quiet. I think he's too quiet and it almost makes me think he's too lethargic. But from how you described Rosie's quietness, she definitely wins at being quieter (which I completely understand is scarey).

Let me ask you: do you talk a lot around Rosie? Perhaps to other people or to friends over Skype? Maybe Rosie is not vocalizing because you are yourself so quiet? What about playing music? Is there any sign that Rpsie is content when some nice music is playing? Perhaps when you're not at home you can play some Books On Tape so she dosen't feel alone?

I have music playing all day, she has her own play list on my iTunes for when I'm out(I'm not gone everyday either, and only for like 5/6 hours tops). I have one audio book, I'll add a few segments to her list so while I'm gone she hears talking.

I don't have skype, but I do talk to Rosie a lot, and I yell across the house to my sister sometimes XD and I often make silly sounding loud noses to try to get Rosie excited. Plus I live with my siblings, and my two young niece, and my little dog barks at every dog walker, and all the service trucks(UPS, mailman, Fedex), I also talk on the phone. and I take Rosie downstairs everyday and sometimes out and about, where I'm often talking to my brother.

I think one of the reasons she might of been abused was because of how loud a Galah is capable of being, I've never known her to be loud. When she is loud I can't look at her either, if I look she stops. That's only a speculation though.