You are right, I was harsh. By the way in my other post I did not say grit was good for them, just that it does not hurt them. I have never ever heard of any parakeet dying from the consumption of grit, so if you have, let me know I always do and always have told people not to use it. And I stand by the fact that holding a parakeet in a way that it does not hurt it, but it cannot fly away is no more cruel than picking up a kitten. Especially if you have had the bird for years.

Yep, gravel and grit in fact can be harmful. It can cause crop impaction.

Well, yes, it's a possibility, because I have a lot of junk in my room. But, harsh as it may seem, it's my stuff, and it's going to stay. I've covered the mirror to prevent accidents, but that's it for now.

My hope was that familiarity would breed... well, not contempt, but comfort.

Lane

Usually animals that are afraid of something will get so used to it in their environment that it just becomes part of the scenery.

I had a horse once that was terrified of my chickens. He would run around like an idiot whenever he saw one so I put a chicken is a covered cage in his pasture and within 1 day he couldn't care less about the chicken. In fact he rather liked them later on and would check them out when they came close enough.

If Billie has been in the same area, that area should be okay for her or she would be freaking out all the time, I would think.

Give her time. she probably knows how much you want her to come out and she is holding out for when your not looking!

Not saying you have to get rid of your junk. Just a little rearranging to make Billie more comfortable. With kids or animals, we as parents sometimes have to make sacrifices. It's all a part of parenthood.

Tess is right, some do just get used to things and so be it. But not ALL of them adjust so easily. If I remember right there was another member here, Preciousbaby with Blossom maybe? that couldn't figure out why her bird would not come out. Turns out it was as simple as moving a big stuffed animal that was too close for comfort. Once she moved it out came the bird.

So all in all, yeah I do think it sounds harsh. And even a bit selfish not wanting to make a little change in your environment to make a little bird feel safe enough to enjoy some freedom.

Sure I could be wrong and it's NOT something scaring her, but if it is....it's worth looking in to and not hard to do.

thats only if they eat way too much. If you eat too much of ANYTHING it can be harmful....you can eat or drink yourself to death with anything. The only way grit impaction would happen is if the owner provided unlimited amounts and not enough food or if the bird had a psychological problem. But they even said they only give their bird a little grit and that cannot be harmful. Thats like saying oh well you said its safe to drink water but people can die from water. You read too much into things.

Isn't that like saying chocolate is poisonous to dogs, but if you only give a little its okay?

sixbirds,
Why so argumentative all the time?
No I don't read too much in to things. If it has obviously found that gravel n grit can cause crop impaction, and it is now known they do not need it in their diet, WHY take a chance at all????

Whatever, I don't come here to argue.
To each their own

I agree with kksuns - birds that eat whole seeds like chickens do need some grit but birds that hull theirs seeds do not need grit or gravel at all and it can be very harmful so why give them any?
Also sometimes a bird just feels very safe in their cage and dont want to venture out. Mac and Kiwi love to fly and I keep the door to the flight open a lot when I am home. They fly around but Greengirl (RIP) and Sunshine just dont come out. The door is open, their cage mates are flying around but they never seem to want to go out.

Finally, some progress. Billie has shown no interest in finger-perching, but she is strongly attracted to my face (who wouldn't be?).

With the "drawbridge" arrangement, my Hagen cage has two "porches" when the doors are open. I put my face close to the lower porch, and Billie came out on it. She bumped my nose a few times with her beak, and then climbed out on the outside of the cage, finally finding her way to the top porch and back inside.

She'll be flying around yet!

Lane