Brown Headed behavior help

[likeaarbear]

Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well. As the title suggests, I am in need of some help with my little brown headed guy. I am sorry about the wall of text incoming...

To start, his hatch date is 4/28 of this year (6 months old in just three weeks). I got blood work done, everything came back negative, so all healthy there. His weight fluctuates, with me taking him home at 122 grams. I weigh him just about every morning after potty and every night, and his weight stays between 116-122. It has never gone below or above these numbers.

Our routine goes as follow. If I work a PM shift (2pm-11pm), he comes out of his cage for about 30 minutes every morning (between 7am-8am) after I see him eat a little from his bowl (I change his food and water here). I let him roam around my apartment, being supervised of course, and offering him fresh fruit or vegetables. Usually eats a little bit, but not much. After this roaming, he goes back in his cage for I would say about three hours or so? I let him out again, do clicker training, talk to him, even take him on a walk with a harness. So overall, I interact with him another hour here. I change his water again before I leave, and add something to his third bowl, either pellets separately or veggie/fruit.

If I work in the morning, I change his items, and he stays in his cage until 4:30pm (ouch here). I'll take him out right away for a few minutes, put him back so I can eat and shower, then after he eats, I'll take him back out and just do something mellow with him near by.

Cage setup: one food bowl mix of seeds, nuts, pellets, one bowl with rotating veggies or extra pellets, and one water bowl. Has three toys that are rotated with other toys suspended from the top of his cage, and two at the bottom of his cage. His cage measures 24x22.

SO NOW THE ISSUES.... he screeches none stop almost every single time I put him away. And this is new, which is why I am making the post. These screeches are very loud. The first few days, I walked over after about two minutes the screeching began, made sure everything was okay, no visible blood, I didn't pick him up and but I ran my finger around him to make sure no broken bones, and visibly, he seemed okay. Nothing out of the ordinary for the cage.

The screeches, from what my family tells me, continue all day too. I don't think they are non-stop, but my mom tells me that if I am working in the AM, he screams for a majority of the time I am gone (8 hours). Sometimes, she will roll the cage out to the living room (he sleeps in my room with me), but my boy won't stop screaming outside there too.

Sometimes when I take him out in the morning, he will just sit there and scream at the top of his longs for several minutes while I try to interact with him to quiet down a little.

TL;DR; I am having screaming birb issues that just came in the last two weeks that will not stop. Could it be related to age?

I really do not mind the screams at all, but my neighbors in apartments I am sure can hear them. I have not been talked to yet, but before I got the bird, I spoke with the leasing officer, and if I get a compliant, the bird is out.

Please feel free to ask me anything, I will be as transparent as possible about this. I was so excited to welcome him into my life, but I am worried I could lose him. I want to try to fix these issues before the worst case scenario comes.

Thank you for reading.

Edit: Forgot to include, he has a little calcium block that IS being chipped away, so I am sure he is consuming it.

He has three types of perches in his cage, total of six going in all directions.

Veggies include broccoli and carrot slaw, shelled snap peas, leafy greens (never touches these though), banana, raspberries, blueberries, and grapes.

 

[faislaq]

 

[iamwhoiam]

Have you looked at any of the bird behavior sites for info. These two are excellent sites and both animal behaviorists are very knowledgeable.
Training Parrots | Parrot Training DVDS & Books
Welcome to BehaviorWorks.org

Your brown headed parrot is just a baby and wants you to hang out with him as much as possible. You are his flock and when you leave the flock is gone, so to speak. Good that you took him to the vet for a health check and that all is well. Sometimes you have to just continue to ignore the screaming and then visit with him when he has quieted down. Are you gone more often than before this started? Are you taking him out of the cage and then putting him back in repeatedly more often? Has anything changed?

Pois can sometimes go through a weird stage when they are about 4-6 mos. old and this is generally a phobic stage when they suddenly start exhibiting what I would call overwhelming fear of things that they are familiar with. They generally grow out of this. I've experienced this with red-bellied parrots. However, doesn't sound like your guy is demonstrating fear behaviors towards objects and people but he seems to be very fearful that you are leaving him which is also a kind of phobia (fear of being abandoned kind of phobia).

You may want to consider leaving a radio or the TV on for him. Maybe this would be a good distraction for him. What kinds of toys does he have?

 

[likeaarbear]

Have you looked at any of the bird behavior sites for info. These two are excellent sites and both animal behaviorists are very knowledgeable.
Training Parrots | Parrot Training DVDS & Books
Welcome to BehaviorWorks.org

Your brown headed parrot is just a baby and wants you to hang out with him as much as possible. You are his flock and when you leave the flock is gone, so to speak. Good that you took him to the vet for a health check and that all is well. Sometimes you have to just continue to ignore the screaming and then visit with him when he has quieted down. Are you gone more often than before this started? Are you taking him out of the cage and then putting him back in repeatedly more often? Has anything changed?

Pois can sometimes go through a weird stage when they are about 4-6 mos. old and this is generally a phobic stage when they suddenly start exhibiting what I would call overwhelming fear of things that they are familiar with. They generally grow out of this. I've experienced this with red-bellied parrots. However, doesn't sound like your guy is demonstrating fear behaviors towards objects and people but he seems to be very fearful that you are leaving him which is also a kind of phobia (fear of being abandoned kind of phobia).

You may want to consider leaving a radio or the TV on for him. Maybe this would be a good distraction for him. What kinds of toys does he have?

I am not gone anymore than I started. That is why I made these posts. I figured he would have "adapted" to my work schedule, and he was doing fine until about 2-3 weeks ago where his noise levels escalated.

That "phobic stage" thing is right on. Usually where I take him out on my table, he walks around and is having fun. Lately, at least once a day, he focus's on something I cant figure yet and freaks out and jumps away. He does this with my work keys now too. Never an issue before.

I take him out much more than before now. He is out of his cage at least two hours a day.

He has mostly toys for destruction/chewing. Primarily wood, finger traps.

I want to get a foraging toy, but I havent looked well enough into it.

 

[iamwhoiam]

I am not gone anymore than I started. That is why I made these posts. I figured he would have "adapted" to my work schedule, and he was doing fine until about 2-3 weeks ago where his noise levels escalated.

That "phobic stage" thing is right on. Usually where I take him out on my table, he walks around and is having fun. Lately, at least once a day, he focus's on something I cant figure yet and freaks out and jumps away. He does this with my work keys now too. Never an issue before.

I take him out much more than before now. He is out of his cage at least two hours a day.

He has mostly toys for destruction/chewing. Primarily wood, finger traps.

I want to get a foraging toy, but I havent looked well enough into it.

If he's doing that stare and freaking out it is very possible he is going through the phobic stage. Is there anything different that could be scaring him? Just be very patient with him. I had 3 red-bellies who went through a very severe phobic stage so be glad that he still wants to be with you and interacts with you. All 3 did outgrow it but it took time. One of them is still a bit shy and skittish but he comes over to me to be petted and I can hold his foot. At one time, none of them would come out of their cages and they would either just sit frozen like statues when I tried to interact with them or run away and hide in the corner of their cages. It was heartbreaking since I raised them. A few others went through a mild phobic stage and others didn't even go through that at all. I have no explanation for what causes it.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I’m so sorry his behavior has changed, and I don’t have much advice, but I was thinking his cage might be too small, and I have heard of parrots who screamed less after they got a bigger cage. I hope he stops and you don’t get any complaints from neighbors!