Dear Parrots magazine,
Patience with new items
Over the years I have read a lot about how parrots can react adversely to new items being put into their cages, and thinking about how my Grey reacted recently with a new perch. My African Grey, Buddy, is now 12 years old and gets into everything. He comes out a lot and has pretty well the freedom of the house and doesn’t seem to be afraid to get into anything, good or bad! He is with me most of the days as my husband works full time, so we spend a lot of time together and understand each other.
Recently my neighbour dropped in for a coffee and Buddy is never far away. My neighbour loves him. He is a very friendly parrot and will go to anybody and seems to really enjoy himself with me, and of course, with my husband at weekends, so he he’s never on his own. But true to form he spotted my neighbour’s basket on our kitchen table containing some runner beans, which she had brought to me. We didn’t see him straight away as we were chatting, but did hear a crunching sound that attracted our attention. Buddy was starting to demolish my neighbour’s basket and there were beans all over the floor. I thought that Greys were quote nervous of new items, and this basket had never been in my house before, so I was a little puzzled.
It was during this time that my neighbour made a comment about Buddy’s main perch in his cage, which was almost chewed through, although he seemed quite happy sitting on it. Replacing this perch had gone through my mind before and because of my neighbour’s comment, I thought I should now do it.
She was very understanding and suggested she would let me have a piece from one of her apple trees for a new perch, which I quickly said yes to. She wasn’t bothered about her basket, as he hadn’t done too much damage, and thought it was funny to which I was somewhat relieved. My neighbour came back later that day with a lovely piece of apple branch and we soon managed to fix it in Buddy’s cage – I am quite good with DIY unlike my husband!
I have heard African Greys can be very suspicious and nervous of new items and in this case with Buddy, that seemed to be very true. After we put new perch in his cage it looked great, but he wouldn’t go anywhere near it and just sat on top of the cage. We both thought that perhaps we’ve made a mistake by changing it although I don’t think the old one would’ve lasted much longer. However, my neighbour had to get back to her house which left me with Buddy who refused to go anywhere near this lovely new apple perch.
By the time my husband came home from work he was still sitting on top of his cage and so we thought what’s going to happen now when we turn in for bed? Despite every effort to persuade him to go in, nothing seemed to work. After much thought we both agreed to let him stay there during the night with the door open, as we do get some Street light in with curtains slightly open. So that’s what we did. Apprehensively, we came down in the morning to see if Buddy had gone into his cage. Unfortunately, he was still sitting on the top, so it appeared we were faced with another problem. My husband had to go to work, which left me with Buddy, so all I could do was to wait and see.
To my relief and after several hours, he started looking down at the new perch, and although it took most of the day for him to pluck up courage, he did eventually go in when he spent quite some time hanging onto the inside of the cage, but avoiding the perch. In time, he precariously stepped onto the new perch and seemed to gain confidence. It wasn’t long before he started chewing off the bark, and so this situation had turned right around with Buddy seemingly now quite happy with this new acquisition.
What puzzles me is that while I understand Greys can be very wary of new or unfamiliar items, Buddy did not hesitate to get into my neighbours wicker basket, which he had never seen before, but not at all happy initially with his new perch.
I am sending in this letter for other readers to see that patience is required when offering new items as parrots become very attached and used to what they have. All that’s needed is some patience and understanding and all will work out just okay.
Marjorie Ackland, by email