Please Help, Joanie

[The Outlaw]

Having issues with George, need help please

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I was hoping that maybe someone has an idea about why george has suddenly started acting so strange.

A few days ago he stepped up onto my hand with no problem, I never have a problem with him...then all of a sudden he tried to fly back to his cage, landed on the floor very UN-gracefully. Everytime I pick him up it's like he starts freaking out to get back to his cage, or away from me. He's not aggresive towards me at all, no growls, pinning, nippin...nothing! So, I've been putting my thumb over his feet and quickly taking him to another room...then all he does is sit on me and shake...his whole body just shivering! Then tonight I brought him to my room and laid next to him and could hear noises, kinda loud, like congestion almost the whole time we where in my room...plus the shaking again. So I took him back to his cage and there is no more shaking and no more "congestion". I kept checking and have not heard it again.

What do you suppose is going on with him? I just don't know what to think.
__________________
***VIKI***

[Joanie Doss]

You do not say what type of Amazon that George is. If it is a Double Yellow,
the congested sound is showing he is severely stressed. Some other Amazons do this as well but Double Yellows are the most common to do so.

Has he had a health check including bloodwork recently? If so and all is OK,
he then is showing classic phobic reaction. Being stressed out and afraid of
the main care giver is one of the first signs. It does not mean you have abused or did something to make this bird this way. I know because I had one of the most severely phobic birds I have ever encountered. It took 4 years to get him back to normal.

If you go to:

http://www.parrothouse.com/jdoss.html

under articles I have a long article on phobic and afraid birds and how to get them over their fears and phobia. My Book One "Can You Speak Parrot?" deals with fears and phobia and the body language of fearful and phobic birds as well. The on line article covers a lot of ground on curing phobia so I would go there first....since that is also free.

Phobia is very, very hard on the owner as the bird progresses and then has relapses. My BFA Kodiak was so bad that he got to the point where he could not take the sun rising in the morning, a telephone ringing three stories above him, any person, any animal.....he would go into one episode after another and was in such a state of continuous fear that I seriously considered putting him down. The method in the article works not only on birds but all animals. It was even done with an iguana and cured him as well.

The bad news is the emotional strain on the owner and the length it can take to bring a bird out of this. The good news is that the bird can be brought back to normal again. Kodiak not only got over his phobia but went on to become a performing bird as well.

Joanie Doss
The Amazing Amazons
http://www.parrothouse.com/bodylanguage.html

[Elizabethmom]

Thank you. George is a 12 yr old male(not DNA confirmed) BFA. You said they can have relapses, I brought George home after I found him abandoned in an attic after hurricane Katrina, he had been there for over a month. I wonder if he could have always had a phobia but this is my first time witnessing it. He doesn't show any signs of being afraid of me...he has his foot up even before I have my hand fully in front of him, it's only after he is completely out of the cage that he acts this way. He had a visit with the AV a few weeks ago when he was micro-chipped, but he hasn't had blood work done scince May. I am gonna read the article at parrothouse now. Thank you, I'll post if I have anymore questions.