My grey is now afraid of big toys.

[daggerblade]

Hello all i seek your wisdom again.

 

My grey bless his heart, has now for whatever reason developed a fear of toys his size or larger.

 

I dont know how this has happened, one day I get him a toy and he is scared as all hell of it.

 

What can I do?

 

Here is what I have tried.

 

I tried playing with the toy myself and chewing on it.

 

I have moved the toy from further from his cage and every day moving it closer towards him.

 

I have tried taking pieces from the toy infront of him and giving it to him, then trying to give him the rest of the toy.

 

And in frustration I destroyed a toy infront of him trying to show him that theres nothing to be afraid of and giving him a similar toy to play with.

[birdhouse]

It can be very frustrating, but they do things like that. You may never know what happened to set them off but keep trying. To their mind, there was something real. One of my favorite(?) toy problems w/Phenix turned out to be a fear of clear, fluorescent parts. It took me forever to find that out!!

 

My first suggestion is to keep trying to find out what it is that he's afraid of. My second is, don't get frustrated. And third, don't push. For now, just stop trying to make him accept large toys & stick to whatever size he's comfortable with.

 

Just let the dust settle for a couple of months or so. Then you can try experimenting w/bigger toys. again. Just remember not to push or make it seem like any kind of big deal. Put the new toy somewhere that's not w/in his personal comfy zone & see how he reacts.

[Greywings]

I suggest just leaving it where he can see the toy & just ignore for now. The more you try to encourage him the deep his aversion may get.

[daggerblade]

I guess ill keep on keeping on. Thank you

[Capo]

We have a same problem with big toys, even little one can be a big problem. Some of them Capo accept in no time, some after days of inducements and some of them never. Stubbornness and strange character of Grays must appear somewhere

[Barbara2]

I take new toys and hang them outside the cage until I see my bird(s) investigating through the bars. Then I move it inside the cage in the same spot where it was hanging outside.

[Dave007]

Why don't you simply remove the toy and get another one? You're scaring the bird and that's not good. The bird is simply telling you that the toy is bothering him or making him afraid or just not having any interest in it. Parrots don't like every single toy simply because it says *made for parrots*

[judygram]

Dave is right, just because it is a parrots toy doesn't mean every parrot will like it, if your bird is fearful of it then just remove it, birds are individuals and as such some like certain kind of toys while others like something entirely different, maybe your bird just prefers toys smaller than he is.

[Talon]

Good grief! If your bird is scared of it, why are you trying to force him to like it? You wouldn't keep something in your child's room if they were scared of it would you? Commen sense should tell you that. My CAG is scared of anything I put next to her, so I don't, why make her live in a frightened environment. My tag HATES all large toys, so I buy her very small ones. I know this and reect her by not forcing others on her. Sorry, but my opinion.

[danmcq]

Everyone has given great advice.

 

Greys for the most part are fearful of new things like toys regardless of size. If I bring home a toy that is dissimilar to say a wood block toy or rope toy, it will sometime times take 3 to 4 weeks of him just looking at it across the room before he will touch it. There is one small toy ( A tiny furry mouse) that will generate a scream every time he see's it within two feet. I just through it away after a year. There are toys they may not be afraid of, but just do not like the texture of, for example Dayo HATES the texture of sisal rope and will have nothing to do with it even if it has his favorite blocks and bells attached. No big whoop, I just discard what he does not like.

 

The most important thing, as others said, is to introduce new items at a distance so they can get used to the look of it, then slowly move it closer to the cage or even closer to a play area until they decide to reach out on there own and explore it.