by Sally Blanchard
A few consultations were really easy and it was almost a waste of time to travel to them. A couple called me about their Scarlet Macaw, because ‘suddenly’ he seemed to be terrified of just about everything and had been that way for almost a week. He sat in his cage in a straight, stretched posture and rarely moved, and was on total alert. They often fed him in the kitchen where they ate and when he was in there with them, he seemed fine. I drove about 60 minutes to get to their home, and the minute I walked in, I was pretty sure what was wrong with the Macaw.

Many parrots tend to be neo-phobic to some degree, but will eventually get used to something. Some just want nothing to do with a new toy or won’t eat food they haven’t tried before, while others become virtually terrified of a new object in their environment, whether it is a new painting or new piece of furniture near their cage. In this situation there was a painting near the cage. It was a modern abstract with red, white and black slashes of paint. I asked them how long it had been on the wall in that room. They had just been to a gallery that weekend and bought it and hung it near the Macaw’s cage the next day.

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