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Post by hlupton on Mar 29, 2015 13:40:46 GMT -5
Recently Yogi has decided to be terrified of the color red. He will go to amazing lengths to avoid anything red, to the point where he comes close to hurting himself. I have had Yogi for about 3 months and this just started about 2 weeks ago. He is about 8 months old. I talked to the breeder I got him from and she said he never had this problem with her. I also talked to a vet (my reg. avian vet is out of town) and he said it was a behavioral problem but didn't have any advice. I never realized how much red appears in everyday items and bird toys. I don't know what to do. I have looked online and haven't found much. If anyone has ANY advice on how to deal with this I would be soooo thankful!
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Post by easttex on Mar 29, 2015 14:11:39 GMT -5
Quakers are not on the list of species most likely to develop phobias, but you'll see from many posts here that it isn't unusual for them to have an aversion to certain items. My African grey, a species most definitely on that list, can't abide a metal measuring tape. There was remodeling being done in her foster home, and she started plucking there, so it is probably all related. Two ways that I know of to approach it. One is to try to permanently remove all offending items. That's easy with a measuring tape, but not so with a common color. The thing you can try is to gradually desensitize Yogi. This link talks about the process. Much of it is geared to fear of a specific person, but the principle is going to be the same. www.stfrancisanimalandbird.com/ResourcesLibrary/?page_id=233 |
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puck
Hatchling
Posts: 27 
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Post by puck on Mar 29, 2015 21:53:35 GMT -5
Okay, I have to admit the idea made me laugh. Not that it's a funny problem at all, but I just got the image of a Quaker parrot driving a car happily along and then BAM, the traffic light turns red and he freaks out and the car swerves madly and all the macaws and cockatoos and budgies driving the other cars are screaming out the window at him.
Yes, that is what is happening in my mind.
I would definitely work with desensitization. I don't know much about desensitizing birds, but I have worked with horses since I was six years old (there are only two things in the world that scare horses: things that move and things that don't) and being afraid of a certain color was a common problem--a very bad problem when you expect the horse to do stadium jumping where the fences are all bright colors and weirdo designs meant to be freaky to the horses. Slow and steady usually wins the race when it comes to desensitizing an animal. Introduce it slowly and associate it with positive things, like treats. With horses it didn't usually take more than a few sessions before they were willing to trot by the color without spooking. Traffic cone orange was one a lot of my horses hated. Many times I would have to get off and lead them over and let them sniff it and they would STILL spook, so I would have to take them into a round pen later and slowly introduce the color along with treats (since all horses are pigs in disguise). I hope you have luck with Yogi!
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Post by biteybird on Mar 30, 2015 6:16:56 GMT -5
I seem to remember reading other threads and posts in this forum that mention quakers not liking red or orange items/clothes...jump in, guys!
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Post by Jan and Shah on Mar 30, 2015 15:46:36 GMT -5
Yep, there are a few quakers on this forum who cant abide red and orange. Shah doesnt seem to like the colour yellow. It is quite bizarre. Others will be along shortly to give you some advice.
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Post by cnyguy on Mar 30, 2015 20:23:11 GMT -5
Ralph dislikes most things that are orange, and the brighter it is the stronger his reaction will be. Except for orange pellets, he'll rarely eat any foods that are orange. We may have made progress though-- he's adopted an orange soup bowl in the dishwasher, and always checks to see if it's in there. It's a very old bowl and is faded, but still obviously orange. He'll tap it with his beak and it makes a nice ringing sound.  Maybe that's a sort of desensitization. |
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Post by julianna on Mar 31, 2015 12:32:11 GMT -5
Yup... Oscar is the same with bright colors. No reds, oranges, and yellows. And for some reason... no hats allowed. It is very difficult to get them to stop being frightened of the color but what I do try is to softly tell Oscar that it is okay.... not to worry... it is okay. I just say it over and over but still.... 4 years later if he sees bright colors... he will try to run and hide. (usually behind my head). All that I can really do is to reassure him that Mommy will take care of it.
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Post by hlupton on Mar 31, 2015 15:09:07 GMT -5
In my online research I have found out that several bird species are scared of certain colors...also depends on individual birds. For example Indian ring neck they are very scared of red something to do with the color variations on the male and female. It makes me feel better to know that it wasn't something I did. I was scared I had done something wrong. I appreciate all the responses and look forward to reading more. I hung a red wind chime as far from yogis cage as possible and plan to move it closer in about 2 weeks to a month. Yogi growls and barks at it (learned it from my dogs outside). Hope he settles down soon. He is the most upset if I sit anywhere near it. Anyway thanks again everyone
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Post by siobhan on Apr 1, 2015 10:18:47 GMT -5
Clyde dislikes red intensely, but not to the same degree you describe. He becomes grouchy and bitey and noisy if I show up wearing a red top. In fact, my husband stopped wearing a favorite shirt because Clyde objected to it, and I now have very little red in my wardrobe, which I only wear to work and not around Clyde. The other birds, even the other Quaker, Jade, don't seem to have the same problem with red (though Jade doesn't like red much, either; just not to the same degree that Clyde dislikes it). You could try to find a red food that he likes, which might make him less fearful of red. Or very, very small decorative red things in the room. A plastic apple, perhaps. Once he gets used to seeing it, get something a little bigger and casually put it somewhere. I don't know. Quakers take notions. LOL
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Post by aaron on Apr 6, 2015 13:23:18 GMT -5
Cupcake has always had issues with red objects... and we used this against her for a while but placing red objects in places that we did not want her to go... but eventually she seemed to get over the fear because she wanted to go to those places so badly... So at least to some degree she has been desensitized.
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Post by hlupton on Apr 25, 2015 14:13:03 GMT -5
just wanted to give a quick update on yogi. It's been almost a month since I hung the red wind chime and even though yogi wont go near it he doesn't freak out anymore...with it. I had also added a mirror behind his cage because he loves looking into my full lentgh mirror. It had a white frame but every I have put very small red marks with a marker it didn't seem to bother him so about 2 weeks later I made them bigger and thats when he seemed to notice it. he acted a little skitish at first but seemed ok. BTW i pretty sure I know what might have caused this...but just a guess...the vets trimmers and tools are red and he wasn't freaking out before the visit when they trimmed his beak...
Thank you everyone!!!
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Post by easttex on Apr 26, 2015 6:02:02 GMT -5
That sounds like good progress! |
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Post by julianna on Apr 27, 2015 15:05:15 GMT -5
Has anyone else had their birds beaks trimmed? I never had and am not sure why I would. And I agree very much about the red toys. I tried to buy some new ones today... the kind with little bells on them... but unfortunately I couldn't buy them as they were all red or orange or bright yellow. Not too much out their in toys for quakers. Guess I will continue to build more myself.
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Post by biteybird on Apr 28, 2015 3:37:31 GMT -5
We've never had Bonnie's beak trimmed (her 1st 'Gotcha' day was in January). It just seems to stay honed from the calcium perches we have in her cage. I never thought of having it professionally trimmed and in a way I can understand why a vet beak trimming session might be scary for Yogi. Maybe that's the reason he freaked out and the red is coincidental (?).
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Post by hlupton on Apr 28, 2015 6:28:39 GMT -5
maybe..I only had it done because he wouldn't and the rough edges kept getting caught on his toys and i was scared he would get hurt. How do you get your quaker to work on their beak?
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Maybe that's a sort of desensitization. 
