Screaming Solutions and Success Stories

[Monica]

You might try feeding pellets first thing in the morning for an hour if you can, then introduce the rest of the foods. That is, pellets only in the cage in the morning.

Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips

A healthy parrot starts with a healthy diet. Although the perfect diet is controversial, many parrot enthusiasts and experts agree on one thing; a seed only diet is a diet that is lacking in essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Studies have shown that adding fresh foods and pellets to a...

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It sounds like you've got a great plan already!

Does he seem to hide at all? If he's feeling exposed, then slightly covering the cage may help him settle - or providing ways for him to "hide" within the cage.

As mentioned, also try playing some calming music. If it's quiet, then white noise could help.

A simple thing could be to reward when he *IS* quiet throughout the day. Just go over and drop a treat in.

If he's friendly and can be interacted with, change how you interact. When you say hi in the morning, try not saying anything. Maybe try letting him out for a few minutes, doing some training, putting him back. Train through the cage. Schedules have the potential to cause stress because birds start expecting things done at a certain time and if you can't do that right then, it could lead to stress.... so keeping things changed up so the bird never knows what to expect could help.

 

[Clueless]

With Secret, we mute/pause the tv and leave the room.

When she quiets down, we come back. If she starts again when we come into the room, we pivot and leave. If she makes a sound we like, we praise her and come back immediately.

I actually had been reinforcing the scream by giving her attention. Just looking, telling her to hush, etc and didn't realize I'd been doing it.

It really is helping us.

 

[mangosaur]

Does he seem to hide at all? If he's feeling exposed, then slightly covering the cage may help him settle - or providing ways for him to "hide" within the cage.

He doesn't try to hide in the corners or anything. When he screams, he's usually standing in the middle of the cage or clinging to the bars at the front. I'll do some research on providing nice hiding spots without encouraging hormones

Good news is that he has started picking at eating his pellets and veggies!

Ah I never thought about that in terms of routine and good point on training through the cage! Our sessions have always been out of the cage, but maybe in-cage training may help encourage to forage on his own more within his home. He's not super friendly lol, we're working on it. But he does step up onto a ring, so I can let him out or put him on a playground where he's most quiet. He enjoys being in the sun and napping

With Secret, we mute/pause the tv and leave the room.

When she quiets down, we come back. If she starts again when we come into the room, we pivot and leave. If she makes a sound we like, we praise her and come back immediately.

I actually had been reinforcing the scream by giving her attention. Just looking, telling her to hush, etc and didn't realize I'd been doing it.

It really is helping us.

Thank you! I'll let my family know too - I think a piece of the problem is that my family is not 100% consistent with his screaming behavior

 

[Clueless]

Yep. I was the worse culprit and I'm the one that travelled to other states for seminars. Go figure. Hubby called me on it and brought it up that I was reinforcing by giving attention.

 

[mangosaur]

Just wanted to give an update:
There were three straight days where Darcy was quiet as a mouse however, he’s had a few screaming fits the past two days, but much much better than a month earlier. His triggers seem to be phone calls and boredom