Fear Of All Things New

[Glam]

I am totally at my wits end with my little Holly. Don't get me wrong, I love her to bits, but she can be quite a handful.

She is sooooooooooooooooo frightened of anything new that you try and give her, wether it is a toy or a new food. I just made her that birdie bread, and tried to give her a small piece, and she bit my finger (HARD, blood and all)

She never bites. And she usually takes food from my hand without any squabble or problem. It's not even like the piece of bread looked totally different to her normal food, but she knew that it wasn't the same, perhaps by smell, and she went crazy.

I know if I put the bread in her food dish she still won't eat it, she would rather starve
herself than try it....


What can I do to get her to trust new things and foods? I just don't know what to do anymore

[linda040899]

I have the same issues with several of my birds, including Harley (TAG). What I find works is to put whatever new that I want to introduce about 2-3 feet away from the cage and just let it sit there for a day or so. Then, move it a bit closer. Give Holly time so see the new item and get used to its presence.

If Holly likes to eat with you, put the new food on your plate and it may help her view it as less evil.

This actually is not as uncommon as you might think. Many birds get used to the same things and view anything different as an intruder. Biting is the only method a captive bird has to try to make that evil thing go away. In the wild, birds just take flight. Pet birds don't have that luxury or at least they can't go very far.

Harley is a particularly tough nut to crack. With new toys, he's terrified if that toy is in his cage OR Ginger's or Sonny's. His cage is in the middle but his fear extends to the territory left and right of his own domain. Sometimes it can take weeks of effort for me to give Sonny a new toy to play with!!!!!