Only answering for one parrot and one very consistant fear
1. What is your parrot afraid of?
Laundry
2. Can you think of any reasons (genetic/biological, negative associations, etc) for your parrot's fears?
Perhaps being grabbed with a towel? Or maybe ghosts do walk around with sheets.
3. Have you done anything to help your parrot overcome his or her fears? If so, what? If not, why not?
No, because it just isn't a big enough issue for me.
4. Is there anything you expected your parrot to be afraid of that he or she is not?
Tons, like hats.
5. If your parrot was a famous monster, which one would he or she be? Godzilla - because she can be so sweet and gentle to her loved one or so nasty for the silliest things.
The blue things? No idea. Perhaps there is some evolutionary thing there because I am pretty sure there has been no traumatic event involving a bright blue anything.
You know, my birds are also terrified of blue things. I wonder what the evolutionary trigger for that is.
"Color not found in nature, therefore a threat" maybe? At least not in large swathes, anyway. Although that could be true of a lot of other colors, too, which don't inspire the same kind of fear (mine have freaked out at large red or orange things, too).
The only blue things I can think of they might encounter in the wild are butterflies, poison arrow frogs (but they are tiny! and not going to attack a parrot) and flowers. But there just aren't any large, bright blue predators that aren't sea creatures.
Bright colors in nature are meant to be attention-getting; some are positive (e.g. flowers which are colorful to attract pollinators), some negative (e.g. poison dart frogs).
Perhaps that really bright blue is more often found in nature as a warning, not a temptation, and therefore triggers an automatic fear response.
I've never noticed my caiques having a particular like or dislike for any specific color. I'm always fascinated and curious that other people's birds have these "preferences," be they genetic, learned, or just personality-based.
Balloons, kites, wind socks, and anything else that flaps around erratically overhead.
Also, vacuum cleaners and yoga balls.
2. Can you think of any reasons (genetic/biological, negative associations, etc) for your parrot's fears?
The "things moving overhead" is clearly a hard-wired flying-predator response; my birds' reaction to it is to let out an instantaneous warning scream and fly as quickly as possible AWAY.
3. Have you done anything to help your parrot overcome his or her fears? If so, what? If not, why not?I've done some desensitization training (both classical and operant, i.e. pairing the presence of the scary thing with delicious food and clicking/treating for approaching and touching the scary thing), which has helped somewhat but has been slow going. Normally shaping them to target to a scary object results in their quickly overcoming the fear, but it hasn't worked as well or quickly for balloons and other such things. I am guessing that it's due to the genetic basis of the fear
( ... )
For the longest time Kappa would let out warning yells when I was carrying the Roomba from room to room, but would immediately stop when I put it down. Probably some of the flying predator fear I'm guessing. With time she's gotten more used to it, so that now she only yells if I'm carrying the Roomba and she hasn't yet realized it's ME carrying it into the room, as opposed to it flying into the room on its own apparently.
Sunshine does her warning peeps when I mess with the Roomba because she knows I'm going to turn it on. She peeps the whole time he's running, and especially if he's near her cage! (My Roomba's name is EriK.)
1. The Roomba 2. Maybe because it moves on its own, but clearly isn't alive. 3. No, 'cause it's not that severe, so it's more funny than traumatic. 4. Electric toothbrush, hair dryer, other noise-making things. 5. I'm having trouble thinking of any famous monsters besides Godzilla, the Blob and King Kong, and none of those fit.
Oh, and she reallyreallyreally is uncomfortable when she can see the sky overhead. I'm putting that down to having been lost outdoors for an unknown amount of time before she landed on me.
OH also I expected him to flip out during fire alarms in the apartment building,
We had a fire scare a few weeks ago, fire alarms went off in our building at 3am. Turned out it was due to someone burning a pizza, but before I knew that I threw Kappa in her sturdier carrier and I was nearly out the door with her when a neighbor came and told us about the pizza. For the next few weeks Kappa was terrified of that carrier. She got over it though when I left it under her cage for a while and she went down to explore it, and she now thinks it's a playgym. :-P
I have to do a bit of 'throwing' Loki into the carrier too - I have real thing about fire, so I freak out when the alarm goes off even more than he does, and he tends to get a bit manhandled in the name of speed. He knows what the carrier means (usually PEDICURE AT THE **VET** DUN DUN DUN OOOOH SCARY) so he's not happy when it comes out, but he's not actually *scared* of it, which I guess is lucky.
TV remote reminds me: one of my birds gets REALLY cranky if I pick up my cellphone in her presence. I've gotten a few hard bits because she was on one shoulder when I put the phone to the other ear :( Don't know if that's a fear thing or a possessive/jealous thing, but she and the phone are about the same size.
Comments 19
1. What is your parrot afraid of?
Laundry
2. Can you think of any reasons (genetic/biological, negative associations, etc) for your parrot's fears?
Perhaps being grabbed with a towel? Or maybe ghosts do walk around with sheets.
3. Have you done anything to help your parrot overcome his or her fears? If so, what? If not, why not?
No, because it just isn't a big enough issue for me.
4. Is there anything you expected your parrot to be afraid of that he or she is not?
Tons, like hats.
5. If your parrot was a famous monster, which one would he or she be?
Godzilla - because she can be so sweet and gentle to her loved one or so nasty for the silliest things.
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You know, my birds are also terrified of blue things. I wonder what the evolutionary trigger for that is.
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The only blue things I can think of they might encounter in the wild are butterflies, poison arrow frogs (but they are tiny! and not going to attack a parrot) and flowers. But there just aren't any large, bright blue predators that aren't sea creatures.
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Perhaps that really bright blue is more often found in nature as a warning, not a temptation, and therefore triggers an automatic fear response.
I've never noticed my caiques having a particular like or dislike for any specific color. I'm always fascinated and curious that other people's birds have these "preferences," be they genetic, learned, or just personality-based.
Reply
Balloons, kites, wind socks, and anything else that flaps around erratically overhead.
Also, vacuum cleaners and yoga balls.
2. Can you think of any reasons (genetic/biological, negative associations, etc) for your parrot's fears?
The "things moving overhead" is clearly a hard-wired flying-predator response; my birds' reaction to it is to let out an instantaneous warning scream and fly as quickly as possible AWAY.
3. Have you done anything to help your parrot overcome his or her fears? If so, what? If not, why not?I've done some desensitization training (both classical and operant, i.e. pairing the presence of the scary thing with delicious food and clicking/treating for approaching and touching the scary thing), which has helped somewhat but has been slow going. Normally shaping them to target to a scary object results in their quickly overcoming the fear, but it hasn't worked as well or quickly for balloons and other such things. I am guessing that it's due to the genetic basis of the fear ( ... )
Reply
For the longest time Kappa would let out warning yells when I was carrying the Roomba from room to room, but would immediately stop when I put it down. Probably some of the flying predator fear I'm guessing. With time she's gotten more used to it, so that now she only yells if I'm carrying the Roomba and she hasn't yet realized it's ME carrying it into the room, as opposed to it flying into the room on its own apparently.
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2. Maybe because it moves on its own, but clearly isn't alive.
3. No, 'cause it's not that severe, so it's more funny than traumatic.
4. Electric toothbrush, hair dryer, other noise-making things.
5. I'm having trouble thinking of any famous monsters besides Godzilla, the Blob and King Kong, and none of those fit.
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We had a fire scare a few weeks ago, fire alarms went off in our building at 3am. Turned out it was due to someone burning a pizza, but before I knew that I threw Kappa in her sturdier carrier and I was nearly out the door with her when a neighbor came and told us about the pizza. For the next few weeks Kappa was terrified of that carrier. She got over it though when I left it under her cage for a while and she went down to explore it, and she now thinks it's a playgym. :-P
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