Reduced Screaming with German Chamomille

Written by Lainey Alexander

For the past few weeks, I have been using Creer Lab German Chamomile in a diffuser for my male Eclectus, Riley - twice a day for one hour - to help with his overall elevated stress level and feather plucking. I have noticed that his overall stress level is greatly improved.

He is no longer screaming his head off when he sees or hears something new or alarming, whereas before the GC he would scream repeatedly at just about every unexpected noise or event in his life. The only time I hear him scream now is when my African Grey screams, and I think that is more of a flock behavior rather than a stress issue.

As for the plucking, I would say there has been a subtle change but nothing dramatic. He does not pluck when the GC is running, so that's nice. And then the rest of the time I would say he is plucking about 20 percent less. I notice more plucking when I take days off of the GC. I think if I could run the diffuser 24 hours a day he would probably stop plucking, but that's not really feasible.

So I may need to consider adding more oils to the GC to see if I can get results that last when the diffuser is off.

With the screaming, the results carry over into the non-diffuser times, but with the plucking, it's controlled best during the diffusing.

I'm trying to contemplate what this all means...

Update 01.27.07

I have noticed that when Riley has had, for example, a candida infection, the alarm screaming quadruples. He is screaming everytime someone closes a door, drops a glass, etc. And, when he is really mellow, like on this German Chamomile, he hardly does it at all. So I don't know what this tells us, but intuitively, I think there is some underlying distress happening in him and this is why he does the "normal" amount he does. Therefore, I feel like he is improving with the German Chamomile rather than just being suppressed of his natural instincts.

As an example, John is Riley's "Dad", and John brings in wood from the woodpile every week or so while Riley watches him through the window. Well, I really don't think this is that alarming for Riley, but before the German Chamomile he would scream and scream while watching John carry in the wood, and now, on the German Chamomile, he does not.

I still think he would scream if he saw a dangerous person in our yard, even on the German Chamomile, for which I would be grateful.

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