Parrot Screaming Training DVD Release

Hi Chet, I have a Quaker and he screams if I’m not paying him one-on-one attention or if I leave the room he is in. He only started doing this recently. I’ve had him for 3 years. Help! Thanks!

Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve done a pretty good job of winning over my abused and neglected Meyers Parrot, as well as teaching him some new annoying habits. When I got him in December, he was afraid to come out of his cage and was constantly biting (hard enough to draw blood!). Now I can open the door and tell him “come to Mama” and he practically runs out of his cage. He’s only bitten a couple times in the last month and is much more comfortable in his new environment. Unfortunately, he is so attached to me, that he’s started screaming whenever I leave his sight. I am currently working on replacing the screaming behavior with more acceptable interactions. He’s learning lots of new sounds and often goes through his whole repertoire before he resorts to screaming. I try to ignore the screaming and reward him for more pleasant sounds.
Your newsletters have been very helpful in giving me insight as to why birds behave as they do. I have never owned a bird before, so I was somewhat puzzled by their actions. I’ve had behavior modification training, but it only helps when you have a clue about why the behavior is taking place originally. I have learned to watch his body language much more, and can now recognize things I’m doing that scare or annoy him. Thank you for your help in improving the relationship between Kiwi and I.
I truly love this Bird!

Hi Chet,

Our Green Cheeks scream loud and continuously on 3 occasions:

1) When someone who has been in the room leaves the room and they know they are still in the house. (They can see outside where the vehicles are parked.)

2) When either my husband or daughter come in to sit and talk to me for more than a few seconds or I am on the phone for a while. As long as we are having a conversation, they will scream. They are only 5 feet from me and my desk faces the cage. (Covering them does not make any difference. When having a serious conversation, holding them is not an option.)

3) While eating, they will scream for whatever we have, even though we have already shared. They want to keep eating what we are eating as long as we are eating.

My Blue & Gold Macaw – Jonah – goes crazy sometimes when the telephone rings and I answer it – he will continue to scream as long as he hears me talking – this does not happen ALL the time just periodically…and it does not have to be that is talking on the phone – whoever answers it!

Jonah is 5 years old…

Ernie screams at very specific times and for very specific reasons.

In the morning, when the sun is shining brightly, ans is warm on his body, he will scream for joy about 4 or 5 times.

If a stranger walks into the yard, be it dog, cat or human, Ernie will scream a warning – a much louder and aggressive sound – once every few seconds until someone tells him to “stand down”.

At night, Ernis does “big wings”, a ritual flocking activity (we all flap our wings and yell in unison) that signifies all the birds are in for the night.

If he persists in screaming we simply tell him ” the babies are sleeping”

In short we don’t really have a screaming problem with Ernie.

Ralph

hi Chet,
My Quaker screams when ever my adult son is anywhere around or if she even hears him open his bedroom door. He’s tried everything to get her to like him.
We stay at camp during the summer and I have to keep her in the bedroom because she screams so bad. I bring her out so she can spend time with me but have to keep her cage in there. I started out hanging it in the middle of the camper and if anyone at all came into our site she would scream non stop. Covering her cage or if I hold her are the only things that get her to stop. I don’t want to reward her for negative behavior though. (except in a case where she’s scared during a gathering).
She’s pretty much just my bird anyway. She’s only let one other person hold her, even my husband can’t hold her anymore without getting bitten. I can do anything with her though.
thanks!
Denise

I have a cockatiel that lost his mate and screams constantly for her. He sings and talks in between screaming, and if we sing or whistle back while he is talking or whistling, he’ll keep talking and whistling. But we can’t talk to him all day long! Ignoring his screams have not worked. The only thing that does work is covering him up, which I hate to do. And as soon as we remove the cover, he starts right back up again. I feel so bad for him and we tried to get him a mate, but he has completely ignored her while they are out of their cages. (She is in a separate cage until if/when they get along or bond.)

Is there anything else we can try?

I have several screamers.. because I use to rescue .. My Umbrella Cockatoo barks like a dog when ever we leave the room, my too macaws just scream bloody murder when you leave the room.. and two of my amazons scream too… one says “drink of water” constantly and the other one just yells…

Hi Chet,
My mom’s Redcapped Amazon is over 35y/o. She came to live in my home with my mom and slowly has become attached to me as I am the main caregiver.
As soon as she hears any noises in the morning, she starts to squawk, so I try and tiptow around as long as possible. Then I go and uncover, feed, change and take her out until I’m ready to go to work. This usually means, she is in the shower with me and going between the bathroom, living room and kitchen until I put her back in her cage and say, “goodbye and have a nice day.” If for any reason I don’t leave immediately after that, she will start her squacking incediuoulsly. If I am home all day on weekends, she continuously squacks until I bring her out and keep her with me. I’ve tried covering the cage, having lots of play toys, variety of foods and on and on. The same happens when I return from work.
I’m currently looking for the manzanita branch (as I can’t afford the one you mention) to see if this might help. Although, I remember she did have one years ago.
Any other suggestions will be valuable to me. Thanks again for all you do to help us featherless lovers of the feathered ones.

I have a blue and gold macaw that screams every time i talk to the dog or pick her up. I can sit on the couch and pet her and he screams bloody murder. He gets attention too. I cant cover him because he has a T stand for a cage. Any ideas?

Hi, just a quick note concerning the screaming issue. I have a “second hand” medium sulpher crested cockatoo. Casey is 12 years old and we have had her for 4 years.
Casey will scream not stop whenever she is “locked” in her cage after wandering around looking for trouble. This is a way for her to “puinish” us for her incarceration. If my 15 year old son is home and she knows it, she will scream until he acknowledges her. Then she will scream if he is in the same room as her and she is stuck inher cage. BTW if my scarlet macaw Chase hears her from the room next to her, he will keep saying “shut up” until she does.
Sometimes she will scream whenever she needs more food, but I wait till she stops and then I will check to see if that is the issue.

I have a 9 year old cockatiel (also afraid of hands, except mine). I am the only one he lets touch and pet him, he likes everybody and wants to go to everybody, just not their hands.
My real problem is with contact calling. The second I am out of his sight he seems to panic. Screaming and screaming. Not only is it very annoying, I am concerned about him being so panicked like I will never return. And I feel so guilty. I try to ignore it as much as possible and wait until he is quiet to return, But after 9 years, nothing has worked. That’s about it. Best of luck.
Melissa

I have two Eclectus parrots, one male and one female only 6 months difference in age. They are both 8 to 8 1/2 yrs old. They are jealous of each other and there is only one of me. The male will scream ‘lightly’ to let me know the female has left the room. (Yes they are wanting to mate but not each other…oh my)

Also, the female is quite mute as she resented the male’s presence in the first place. The male has a great vocabulary and sense of humor, however, anything that startles him will set off the ear-piercing screech. A door bell ring, the new telephone ringer (we’re working on this), if I walk in the room and he’s busy then realizes I’m there it startles him and he screeches a few times.

If the attic stairs come down (they squeak too) then he gets set off as they are near his cage. These are seldom and random but he does screech at the ceiling fan when the sun hits it as we are in a loft room and the ceiling fan is really high – 2 stories. It kind of creates an annoying strobe effect and I have to agree with him, it’s irritating.

Other than basic startling sounds, he’s quite good. He’s second hand and very afraid of baseball hats. I think someone must have scared or hurt him once while wearing a baseball hat. He will screech at those no matter if he likes the person.

He’s also beautiful, loving, happy, singing, very vocal and best friends with his rope perch!! The little female only ‘clucks’ hello, goodbye, kiss, I love you. They are my family and I love them, time-outs and all.
Fran

Maxine is a seventeen year old Severe Macaw. I rescued her seven years ago from a very severely neglected situation. I am sure she was abused by her first owner. We are her fourth family. I was always able to handle her but it took almost three years to fully gain her trust. She worked with me only and hated my wife.

A year ago she changed alliances, completely,from me to my wife. Since then, Max screams where ever she can see my wife untill she picks her up. Max won’t let me pick her up anymore

We have tried severl different approches to stop this but none have worked.

Chet,

My African Grey “Nichi” is about 6 years old and doesn’t really have a probelm with screaming per say. He does however like to make this one particular high pitched “beep” noise. It sounds like a beep from the microwave. Annoying as the beep may be, it was very useful when he accidently flew away.
Miraculously, I found him because of that annoying beep. He’s shy to talk when strangers are around or when he is in an unfamiliar enviroment. He flew away on a Friday afternoon, and I spent all day in the rain with my husband looking for him until it was just to dark to look any longer. I had taken him 3 weeks prior to have his wings clipped to avoid this problem in the first place. Unfortunately, they did not do that great of a job as he flew away with no problem at all. I saw him fly and ran out the door after him, and he was gone. I couldn’t believe it.
The next morning I went out right when the sun was coming up. During the quietest time of the day for where I live. With the cars and the rain and the kids in the neighborhood making alot of noise, it made it hard to hear. After hours of looking I heard that beep. The beep he makes when he’s calling me when I’m out of the room. I was like, I know that annoying beep, that’s Nichi. Sure enough, there he was on top of roof two stories high. Unfortunately, while trying to get him down, he flew away. I ran after him, but could not keep up. I live in a community of about 900 homes. He could of landed just about anywhere. I nearly lost my mind thinking that I had lost my only chance at finding him. I continued looking until dark and turned in, cold, exhausted, frusterated, distraught, you name it. At this point he had been in the rain for quite some time and it was probably in the 50s and 40s at night. I knew if I didn’t find him again soon it was going to be too late. I thought about, what if I find him, and he’s so sick that I watch him die regardless. That thought alone made it hard to sleep that night.
The next morning, I got up early again to look. After 4-5 hours, I was just about to go inside to take a break. At this point my husband and I were driving around the neighborhood too tired to walk anymore with the cold, rain and lack of sleep. As we decided to head home, my husband took a right instead of a left, (taking the long route home). That right turn probably saved Nichi’s life and my own from agonizing questions of “where is he?”, “is he safe?”, “is he warm?”, “is he dead”?
It was the beep. I was like “STOP THE CAR”!!!! That’s Nichi. I got out and narrowed it down to two houses. I could hear him and he could hear me. From what I could tell, he was in the backyard of a house that had not been moved into yet. I went to the gate, opened it, and there he was. He looked tired, slightly wet and I’m sure thirsty and hungry. It was Sunday morning, about 2 days since he flew away.
I warmed him up by the fireplace for the radiant heat, gave him fresh water, food, grapes (his fave), and purchased vitamins that disolve in water. I kept him very warm, around 80 degrees at all times, but not over heating him. He never got sick and 6 months later is doing just fine.
Annoying as some of the noises and beeps and screams your birdy might do to drive you crazy, it just might save their life one day. It made it the impossible possible to find Nichi not only once, but twice. Nichi and I were very lucky.
I will admit tho, when he makes that beep, it’s not so annoying anymore. I however do try to make him make another noise when I hear it. So if he beeps, I make meow sound like a cat. He beeps, I meow. Pretty soon, he justs meows.

I have macaws — a lot of different macaws. Most of my guys do NOT like noise, therefore, screaming is not a real issue at my house. Note I said most … I have a Buffons macaw that just loves to scream when I talk on the telephone. He just cannot stand it. I don’t even believe it is attention he wants — he hears me begin a conversation and joins right in. The minute I stop talking, he stops screaming. Gotta love that boy.

I screamed for a whole day once. But I was a baby then and my parents had taken me visit with friends in Toronto for about three days.

When I board at my Vet’s I hear the other parrots talking (screaming) very loudly. I do not imitate them. I am a good bird. I have never repeated this baby episode and I am 15 years old now.

Dear Mr. Womack,

I have a cockatiel named Sugar that loves to scream. I acquired him as a screamer and he’s much better than when I first got him, but he still screams. My husband thinks that because he lived on a ranch and his cage was outside a lot, it’s possible that he may have been threatened by birds of prey, but we don’t really know. We’re just guessing. He screams for different reasons. Sometimes it’s because he sees my Maximillian Pionus, Michael, doing something that Sugar thinks he shouldn’t be doing, like chewing on the blinds, or maybe Michael got scared and flew down and is walking on the carpet. Sometimes he wants more food, or sometimes Sugar himself got scared and flew down and is walking on the carpet. But, sometimes, Sugar screams for what we think is absolutely no reason at all. We’ll check his cage and see the he has plenty of food, his water is clean, they’re both on or in their cage. The screams are absolutely blood curdling from the top of his lungs, like he’s being maimed or killed or something. He also doesn’t like being touched. We would appreciate any help you could give us. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

My umbrella cockatoo, whom I have had for several years and has had several homes screams on and off alot. One week he is perfect, next week hes terrrible. What seems to set him off is as follows: Answering the phone, When I leave for work and put him in his cage. When he is in another room and can hear people. When he hears me come home he screams bloody murder. I also have to keep him on a schedule of attention, if I give him any extra attention he gets confused and its a day of screaming literally then. I have had him 5 years.

amazon screams when dog barks and keeps on even after dog stops green ringneck screams for no apparent reason and jenday conure screams when hearing any bird chirp

My 6-yr-old male Greenwing Macaw will scream in the morning a few harsh times to call me to the room, or to protest if I walk away.

In the afternoon/early evening, the Greenwing will get set off by my 15-year-old rescue Double Yellow Head female, and the 2 of them will get louder and Louder and LOUDER in what seems like a competition to make the most noise (their cages are only a few feet apart—they can see and hear each other just fine). The DYH is actually vocalizing REALLY LOUDLY (i.e., she is going through a whole range of noises and vocabulary), while the GWM just screams one loud blast after another, with no actual “vocalizing”.

Hi Chet,

I recently moved into an apartment and just took crystal my yellow amazon with me to let her adjust. A family member has my grey and eclectus. She screams if i am on the phone, if I basically am not paying attention to her. She is smart enought to know she is not supposed to as she says “whisper whisper be very quiet” or there is no fire. I have tried putting her in the shower which she loves, but shes begs for more attention and then screams. I then have to cover her because of apartment life.

I want to bring my other two babies home, but as they talk, and need attention as well, i have to get the attention screaming under control. I as well cannot afford the manzanillo toy. she has plenty of toys, it seems to be attention seeking.

Please help!

Chet,
I don’t think I can be of much help because, I have purchased some of your material and I think its great. I learned a lot. I have changed my attidude and I have allowed my birds to regress as far as human contact with me and have let them going back to be bird relaxed with the other wild birds that I have them all in the same area, and they are feed, watered, healthy with loving care and live in big cages in the Beer Garden. I enjoy them being their natural selves, and to watch them interact with each other. Even the different breeds. Others (14) Happy home

Chet,

I have a 6 year old green-wing macaw who happily plays on her playstand and all of sudden for no reason at all will let out a blood curdling, ear piercing scream. It’s even caused my eardrums to pop on several occasions. This, of course sets of my two sun conures and spectacled amazon and they start screaming. I am extremely concerned because the decibal level increases so much from my green-wing at unexpectant intervals that I worry I am going to lose my hearing.

The macaw also screams bloody murder whenever we come in the door after having been gone for any length of time, even if it’s just to the mailbox and back.

Chet,

My Sun Conure will scream whenever he sees me. I don’t think he is really even screaming he just has a VERY loud voice. He seems to be just saying hi, over and over again! My cockatoo screams whenever he wants attention. He also whines to get attention, even when he gets ignored. He also likes to scream when anyone comes to my house. The only thing that will get him to stop is if we take him out of his cage and hold him. If you put him down or back in his cage he will start to scream again or fly around the house until he finds the one person he wants at that moment, usually me or my mother. He will also scream to get my fathers attention if talking to him doesn’t work in about 2 seconds. He is a very sweet bird, he just seems to have a “I’m the center of everyones world” complex. Ignoring him doesn’t work, he just gets worse.

Our Ernie bird screams when there is tension in the air. Our son-in-law does not like the screaming so of course when he comes over, he is anxious about the bird screaming and we are anxiously hoping that Ernie will not go into a full alarm scream that seems to last forever. It seems to be getting better over time but when he has not been around for awhile, it is just like the first while.
Also Ernie screams when the lady across the road leaves or returns home. They have never met but he screams like he is sounding an alarm.

Every time my red lord amazon see me or heres me he starts creaming.If I should cough at 5am he starts screaming.or If I get up to got to the bathroomin the night.the only way to stop him from screaming is site by his cage and put my hand in the cage when I can not let him out.when im trying to clean he will not shut up at all.I love him but need some help with this!!! Iv tryed other things and they have not helped at all.If you cover his cage it make him yell even more.HELP!!

i have a blue and gold macaw called zola. He is almost 5yrs, for the past 2yrs his screaming is becomming out of controll!!! i cant do anything in the house where he can see me, and im not paying him attention: cooking, talking to other people in the house or in generall where he can here me and not see me will set him off. The only time there is no problem is 1st thing in the morning and a night time or i am in the house alone then he is the perfect parrot. can you help.

I have over 100 birds of different kinds…Africa Greys,Lesser Sulfer Crest, Goffin,Green Cheeks,Quakers,Love Birds,Cockatiels,Parrolets,Mustache Pakettes,Finches,Goulians,Sun Conures,and more but the loudest of all is the Goffin Cockatoo. He doesn’t like being alone, and will start by saying hello over and over, when he sees it gets him no attention he will sounds as if he’s crying. If that doesn’t work he screeches very very loud. I’ve tried ignoring him,babying him,giving him treats,moving him to a different room,even put him outside in a very large cage. I love Boomber as much as any of my birds but his screams drives me nuts at times.

I live in Australia and every time the white cockatoos fly past, screaming, my alexandrian joins in. He will not stop until they are long gone!

Hi Chet, I have 3 Indian Ringnecks. My original (& favorite) Darling (latino female). She screams to get up in the morning if she hears me make any sound, & any time of the weekend if she wants to come out of her cage. I work 5 days a week so only hear the screams when I leave & when I come home. If I sit on the couch on weekends watching TV with my partner, she screams for attention & to be let out. Only way to stop her is to either give in or shut the sliding doors so she cannot see me. The other 2 are a blue female, Sweetie, who was found as a young bird near death with other wild birds & given to me. She has settled in quite well finally but her and Darling dislike each other intensely. It seems to be a jealousy thing over me. The 3rd is a young blue male, Misty, who I bought as a mate for Darling. He seems to be too young still & can’t seem to make up his mind which of the 2 ladies he prefers, even though he is only in a cage with Darling. When they are all let out it is delightful to have them swooping around the house yelling at each other & having fun. It makes for a few ducking & weaving moments for us humans so that we don’t get bowled over. The birds seem to love to scare the whoopsy out of us with their dive bombing. All in all, screaming isn’t as much of a problem as we first imagined. Sometimes it gets the better of us & closing the doors seems to make them realise we have had enough. My main problem at present is Misty’s bad habit of chewing everything in sight but I am hoping he will grow out of this as the other 2 have done. Thanks, Cheers, Wendy

Hi Chet,
I have 6 conures (3 suns, 2 green-cheeks, and 1 nanday) that range in age from 3 years to 17 years, all have their very own cage. All are very loving and good natured birds that get lots of attention, healthy food, regular baths, and fun toys. One of the suns is an attention HOG! (he is 16 years old and we adopted him about two years ago from a neglectful home). He will scream until it is his turn to be held and played with, and when I do hold him to play he will scream if I say or give any attention to any of the other birds (or humans for that matter!) Sometimes he will sit nicely with me and just start to scream for no reason.
Also, one of my green-cheeks cannot stand it if he doesn’t constantly see the other green-cheek (FYI all of our birds are pets only, I don’t allow any of them to mate. Both green cheeks are 3 years old and they will fluff up and try to bite each other if they happen to get too close together). He will scream “Pretty Baby” at the top of his little lungs until he sees her again. Sometimes when my husband or I leave the room he will scream “Pretty Baby” for us until we come back as well. We love all of our birds and want them to be happy. We need to know what they are trying to tell us by screaming like they do. Thanks!

My short billed-corella has taking a new habit to screeching like th children do when they are fighting with each other he is doing this the moment they walk in of an afternoon and after they go to bed. He gets wrost and louder if you cover his cage. HELP between the kids and himi dont want to lose either but i cant wear ear plugs forever..

I have a breeding pair of B&G macaws kept in an indoor/outdoor aviary. They scream at dawn and dusk but by ‘putting them to bed’ before the light changes I have managed to stop this behaviour. They also scream when they play and squabble with each other, when they want attention or meal times are delayed! They are very well behaved really.
I would be interested to know how to bring up their babies (who are mainly parent reared) so that they don’t develop a screaming habit.
Many thanks for all you helpful advise – it has been invaluable. Keep up the good work

I have two rainbow lorikeets. One was a still pinfeathered foundling blown from a nest. I had to spoon feed him. (Archimedes) He was loving and sweet…. until (you knew that was coming) I got a call from our vet about 6 months later, saying they had an injured rainbow lorikeet. Broken leg. This one was an adult.

I brought it home, housed it in a separate cage. This poor thing would just screech and screech and screech if you even looked at it. So, I wound the clock back, and put some dark cloth over 3 of the sides of the cage, leaving the front uncovered, making a ‘nest’. This seemed to comfort the bird (Eileen), and it would only screech once in a while when someone walked by.

Archimedes went ‘mean’ afterwards, biting and drawing blood, but I can still handle him. I did use your training package to help with them both, especially Eileen.

But now, Eileen screams…. repetitive over and over. Imagine a dog barking non-stop for 20 minutes, and that is what is going on. Doesn’t matter if the cage is covered, or uncovered. Toys, cage trundled outside for some fresh air, water to take a bath, company, some fruit to have at, nothing stop the barking screaming .

I have a male Hahns Macaw, a female Cockatiel and a male Cockatiel. The male Cockatiel seems to be in a constant testosterone rage! I had him injected by an avian vet once with Tardak I think, to reduce his aggression. It only helped marginally and didn’t last for long. Sometimes he just screams and screams for seemingly no apparent reason, whether he’s in the cage or not. I’ve had to resort to putting them in another room when I’m home, but this does not stop him. He will scream for hours! I’m worried also that he’s stressing himself out and wonder what else I can do. I’ve also tried Rescue Remedy (Bach flowers) in the water, and calcuim supplement. He seems to settle down more in the evening, probably out of tiredness!
“H-E-L-PPPP!!”

i have an alexandrine she screams when i’m in the kitchen,when she is sitting right next to me, even when she is on my shoulder. It used to be when i left the room but now it’s any time she feels likes it.She is three years old if this helps.

I have a green indian ringneck, who screams continuously, I’ve tried ignoring him, but that doesn’t work, I hate to cover him and soon realised that even covering him doesn’t work. He is 5 years old, I even tried to get him a friend, she is a blue ringneck and only 6 months, he fed her when we got her, but now she attacks him. I normally splash him with water, and the screaming goes quiet, as he wanted a bath, but is to spoilt to bath himself.

My cockatiel does not scream. He just does a wolf whistle, whistles the song ‘Road to Gundagai’ and his own wild whistle type song. I think I could train him to climb on my hand if I could find a ‘treat’. He is not greatly interested in sunflower seeds unfortunately.

I have had in my time all kinds of birds from finches to my last bird who was a cute alexanderian, but nothing prepared me for the african grey I have now. dont get me wrong hes cute, cuddly, talks really well and likes kisses. I took over the hand rearing when he was very small and Ive had him for 4 years. Hes great when my husband and my kids are in the house but when Im on my own he screeches and screams all the time, It doesnt matter how much attention I give him he will just screech in my face. Ive been told to ignore him too when he starts as I could just reinforce bad behaviour but nothing works and after 4-6 hrs your ears hurt and you start to loose your sanity, Ive even tried going around with ear plugs or head phones on to block him out but hes just too loud, he has a cage full of toys and gadgets but still he screams. I love him and wouldnt want to loose him and if he talked or sang all day it would bother me at all but with the screaming and screeching I feel I am unable to spend much time in the house when everyone else is out. If you have a way of stopping that I`d love to hear it.

Hi Chet,
We have two Indian Ringneck parakeets. Scrooge we have for three years now and she will scream when we get visitors, obviously jealous for attention and also when we leave the room. She will scream frantically when she see our gardener and also our maid.

The newest addition Polly – not used to being handled will scream for attention but do not like to be touched.

We keep the two birds in seperate cages.

Regards

Wynand

I have a green cheek conure, he is 2 years old and he screems sometimes when I walk into the room where his cage is (sort of in the middle of the day. Then he also screems when my two daughters are raising their voices against eachother. This started around 6 months ago. It is not that bad at the moment, but I guess could get worse…

we have a black headed caique , jake the caique and he screems continually

Hi. My Gang Gang Cockatoo screams (if you can call a Gang Gang call that -it’s more of an old grumpy man grumble, but loud!) when I put him outside in the morning and he knows I am still home. He also does it lately (I presume) as soon as he hears the garage door open. He has also started doing it when I leave the room, even though I ignore this behaviour and don’t talk back. He is bonded to me and is being really naughty and biting anybody else who tries to talk to him. Thanks!

I have a Goffin Cockatoo. His screaming is horriable, when my friends come to visit he screams the entire time they are here, now no one comes and if they are brave enough to have to put babe in the laundry room and thier vists are very short. Babe also screams when ever I leave the house or if I pick up my keys even to move them. My neighbors joke that he alerts everyone that I’ve left. Nothing works it would be nice if you could help me and others.
Thanks for the oppertunity to correct this.

Thanks for offering this help. I have a rescued Double yellowheaded Amazon. She was badly poked, teased and abused. She has a huge vocabulary but at times will stand at the bottom of her cage, whirl around and scream at some imaginary torture behind her. Then she will whip around to the other side and scream again. This goes on for some time..almost psychotic. Of course, the poor dear bites and lunges at the cage any time I come near to feed etc. She’s been with us for about 8 months now and lives close to two other orange wings. They all get along very well and I feel the socialization is helping and she will come out of her cage now and go back in when I feed her….as long as I am careful and move slow while telling her what I’m doing, she will not scream or lunge. We have many birds in the aviary so as you can imagine, the noise level is high. Thanks again.

I have a 3 year old male Hahn’s macaw. His noise may not be considered “screaming” per se but it is his little version of it. He does not like any change in his environment whatsoever. No new toys can be put IN or taken OUT of his cage and if you bring a foreign object into the room he starts squawking. EEEK EEEK, EEEK EEEK. This can go on for over an hour and I just ignore it but my husband loses his cool and yells shut up Gizmo alot. I often give him a popsicle stick to chew up as I do not want to use food to keep him quiet. I really want to get to the root of this as I want to address the CAUSE as much as possible and not just the noise. He does this for no apparent reason sometimes as well. I have 3 other birds and no one has any issues yet.,not even my Cockatoo.

My lesser-sulpher crested cockatoo, Sunshine is pretty good as far as screaming is concerned – except when he sees my sister. He screams blue murder from the minute she comes through the door until she leaves. Very often we go out and I can only think he knows she is going to take me away from him for a while but he doesn’t seem to do it with other people. Apart from that he does the usual screaming when I leave the room but he knows I’m still around but usually only for a few minutes. So any help in making my sister less of an issue?

My Blue & Gold Macaw sounds like most of these other birds. He screams when I am in the kitchen and I take out one of his favorites ie.peanut butter,crackers. Also @ mealtime even after we have shared. I took your advice and only award when he is good(he will say “give me a kiss”when he wants a treat. One problem I have is when I iron or fold clothes within his sight. He for some reason hates this and screams to let me know it!!!!

My Sun Conure – Go Go, ‘hates’ me to talk or for anyone else to enter the room and walk by me, even when I’m holding him. He will scream and bite me.

My Cockatoo – Ivy, doesn’t scream often but will just suddenly start screaming when she is on her cage and looking out the window (I tried moving her cage but she started plucking feathers)

My Greenwing Macaw will scream when it is time for me to come home (that’s according to my Mom & husband) and when I first get home if I don’t respond to taking him out of his cage for dinner right away.

Chet, funny you mentioned the screaming now-as we have a Calico Macaw who is 3 years old and an African Grey that is 1 year old, both do the screaming when we leave by the front door to go anywhere, but what is going on now is where we need the help, my Husbands parents are not doing well, so my Husband has been going over and spending 3-4 days at a time, when he leaves Angelica (Calico Macaw) starts screaming for “D_A_D_D_Y”, then its “hey Dad”-alittle more quiet but over and over, then its the ear deafening Macaw scream, and when she starts that scream, our baby Bella Donna- (African Grey) starts screaming the Macaw scream she has mastered so well! This goes on for about an hour or so, until they both realize that Dad didn’t come back, and that they didn’t get any attention. “But an hour or so is TOO long-H-E-L-P M-E P-L-E-A-S-E” Thanks, Nee,nee

Every morning when I leave the house to take my son to school my two green winged macaws (according to my daughter) scream blue murder until I return. This sets off the dog howling as well. Other incidents of screaming are when aircraft fly overhead, or sea gulls, or there are children screaming on the playing field; but the worst
is when we leave the house in the morning.

My neighbors as you can imagine love me to bits, and I suspect have tried to ’spook’ my macaws on several occasions. Flash and Punch (the 2 GWM) are 16 years old and have lived in Zimbabwe,South Africa and now the UK. They are well traveled. We used to let them fly about in Africa – but cannot do this in the UK.

Howdy, just wanted to let you know I’ve come to realize and accept the fact that my Senegal parrot hates me. He loves my husband and my girlfriend but when I come in the room the feathers on his head stands straight up and he’ll even bite him if I stick around. He even waits for me to get right beside his cage as I walk by and screams this high pitch right to the middle of your brain kinda scream right in my ear – waiting for perfect timing. He’ll even wait for me to get too close as I walk by and stretch that beak as far as he can to take a chunk of what ever he can get ahold of outta me. Bites at me when I feed him, if he can’t get me he’ll bite the bowl real hard twisting it trying to get me to spill it. I’ll set here at the computer and he’ll come to the back of his cage and stare me down thru the banister and just keep screaming this same pitch but real long and drawn out like he truely just wanting me to go nuts. I ignore him and then go cover him up before it’s over, sometimes that don’t do it either. He won’t attack me though if I get in his cage to clean his grate or arrange his toys and it amazes me everytime, He will try and get me while I open his door to his cage though, but once in he usually goes up in the back corner and watches me (he will now cause I’m braggin huh hee hee) but I’m tellin him the whole time Alex ya better not bite me, it only works when I’m in his cage though. He even attacks at me when I give him his treats I just have to put them in his bowl and leave then he’ll eat, only once in awhile take it right out of my hand. I know what happened and It’s my fault but the pain was awful, he was about 6 months old and I was holding him low like your suppose to, like to my lap setting on the couch, he was nice before then so I always held and loved on him – not having hormones yet I’m guessing. Well he got them this night, he haunched way backwards and with all his force launched at me 3 times quick as a whip bite completely thru my bottom lip in two places and one about 1/2 way. I was hurting so bad I couldn’t see straight. I made it up on my feet, blood gushin everywhere and as he’s eating me alive I got to his cage and just threw him into it to get him off me. It was terrible pain and I didn’t mean to toss him like I did but let me tell ya he remembered it and has hated me every since with a passion. I’d let him out after that and just let him walk around on his cage I think he purposely flew off thinkin he’d lure me in like he’d look at me then look where he always ended up flyin then back at me and off he’d go. Huh I’d get him up with the broom handle and he’d be trying to bite thru it as he’d make his way up the handle towards me. He’s ancient now this was back in 1992 when I got him. We almost lost him to a bird diabetes I believe it was here awhile back but have a smart vet cause he pulled him out of it. He said he was really old. I never knew that, I thought they lived a longer time but needless to say I have to accept he will not ever like me. I know they’ll pick out one person to like (now). I paid 850.00 for a 200.00 bird thinkin at the time. a petland bird being around people like they are and from petland itself would make a difference and if he ever did bite he certainly couldn’t get me like that blue n gold did. huh don’t fool yourself guys that don’t work. The longer I had him the more I learn how truely dumb I really was for thinkin such things. The reason I had bought him was because we found a ad for a blue and gold said he was really a super sweet bird kinda thing we went clear up north to see him. We got there and he was nice letting me scratch his belly bein all friendly, then he got me by my finger and slowly but surely kept putting pressure so hard finally he had me off the couch and on my knees on the floor. I know he was just testing me but he had me good. I was telling my husband to get him off me he’s gona take my finger off. By the time it was over I was ready to throttle him. I t took 10 minutes to get him to let me go. I really thought my finger was gone. My husband sayin there not gona let you take this bird home. I’m crying tellin him it isn’t ever going home with me. Then he got up on ron and climbed right up on his shoulder and grabbed him by the ear immediately and he knew how I felt, then ate the snap of his coat. On our way out the door the woman that had him was cringing throwing her head back in pain trying not to let me see he was doing the same thing to her. So thats when on my way home I decided the little apartment bird they call the senegal parrot was the one I wanted. We’d seen him at the pet shop before going to see the blue and gold and I went right back there and got him. I’m sure it all had to do with that night he had got me in the lip & whatever I done that made him so mad to do that to me and continue it for this many years. My mom and dad are brave enough to scratch his head but even they gotta be careful cause he’ll play possum bein all nice and then sneak attack them real quick like. He thinks he’s a hoot cause he’ll laugh, like truely chuckle at me after he gets me. I don’t think it’ll ever get better between me and him. I just want him happy bein in his old years now so keep toys for him and let my husband do the playin with him. I just stay in another room while he does is all. I don’t know if this will help your trianing video but I know it has to sound like one funny made up story but believe me when I say It’s oh so true.

Hi Chet, my Blue & Gold Macaw screams when he sees us eat anything! That includes sitting down for our meals and sneaking a snack from the fridge or pantry (he can see most of the open-plan kitchen from his cage in the lounge).
I know it’s because he “want’s some”, but I can’t give him something every time… (or should I??).
Love your letters, training videos/DVD’s, etc.! You’ve got the knack!
Regards
Karen
Johannesburg, South Africa

My sun conure screams when I leave the house for too long. She makes a flock call to bring me home. It is a problem for the neighbors, I’m sad to say. She also screams when I have people over and she wants to be part of the group but can’t. (Her cage if full of toys and foraging places, by the way). She screams to wake me in the morning, regardless of when I go to bed. She can be a telephone and leave-the-room screamer, but that’s been easy to correct.

Hi Chet!
I acquired a 20 year old yellow front amazon from a friend who had the bird the entire 20 years. CharleyBird hates women (me included) but sort of likes my husband. He was owned by a man. We’ve had CharleyBird since Thanksgiving. He was pretty good at first until he realized his previous owner was not coming back. He has fallen in “love” with my macaw Zoe. He is insanely jealous of Zoe (she loves me) and will HONK just like a blow horn every time I talk or play with Zoe. He also will HONK non-stop when I am on the phone and in the morning and evenings. He stops if you talk to him, but will continuously lunge at the bars if I get too close. My husband has pretty good luck at handling him, but he’s away at work most of the day. He has an excellent vocabulary, so I don’t get the honking. I know he is going through a period of mourning for his former owner. We can’t give him food treats very much because he is obese and we are trying to get some weight off him. His owner had him on 9 Harrison’s pellets a day and he was starving whe he came to us. He had gone from 750 grams down to 400 grams. He has regained some weight, and is now overwieight again (around 600 grams). He has a big fatty tumor on his thigh. He has been to an avian vet and is otherwise healthy. We feel so bad for the bird. I try to ignore the behavior as much as possible. This bird not only lunges at women but will actually hurl himself off a playstand in full attack mode. He landed on my chest one time and luckily I got him off me before he bit my face. I’ve gotten a few nasty bites from him so I’m pretty careful around him. So we have more issues than just screaming with this bird. I also have 11 smaller parrots, mainly conures, that I have taken in as re-homes, but none with issues this big. They have their own special bird room, so they aren’t around the amazon and macaw. CharleyBird and Zoe are in our dining room/kitchen area where they get alot of attention. I will be interested in hearing your comments. Thanks.

Joan

Hey Chet, the only time my parrot, Beaureguard, screams is on the rare occasion he thinks he’s not getting his way. We have trained him not to do this for the most part. The thing that worked for us was positive and negative reinforcement. Simply said, when he screams, we either ignore him, or cover him up. When he stops, we uncover and play with him. It didn’t take too long for him to figure out that screaming is a bad thing. He’s a pretty smart fella’ . Thanks for all your tips. Peace, Ritz & Beaureguard (17 year old Congo African Grey)

I have a little parakeet named Pierre but he doesn’t scream. I just wanted to let you know I’m still going to buy your screaming information as the other info you’ve put out is such high quality. I can’t wait to learn more

I have a quaker that screams constantly. Especially when he is in the bird room with the other birds. But also when he is outside on the patio, on his playstand and when I leave the room. It is repetitive and loud. If I can’t get it under control, I will have to find another home for him. It is disrupting the household and the other birds.

I have a rescued female Cockatoo, who from day one will scream if left alone. Judging from her reaction to long thing objects (like brooms or brushes) she may have been abused because of the screaming. It can be hilarious when the Scarlet Macaw starts screaming “Shuddup” at her. Structure does not seem to make a difference. She screams even when no one is home. She will stop when people are in sight, or of course, if she is picked up.

My Sun Conure Princess screams more and more often than the other 2 birds I have. I think she does it because she cannot talk as much as the African Grey and the Eclectus Parrot can. She only says step up that is understandable so she sits there and screams when she wants to be out of her cage or when she knows we have come home to let us know that she is still there. My Grey has learned to say I hear you, and what’s the matter when she is screaming.

I have a Macaw that screams in the early morning hours and then evening hours. My vet says that although it is annoying it is the way they let the other birds that its time to start off the day and time to head back to the tree. She also screams when ever someone sits in my desk chair. She is right next to my desk. She really screams when my husband tries to kiss or hug me in front of her. When the phone rings, dogs bark or the rescue sqads or fire trucks go through. It drives everyone else nuts but I guess even though I would prefer she not scream I have tuned it out as you would a childs temper tantrum.

My African grey never screams, just lives to bite me and anyone he can get. My Blue front amazon only screams when she scratches her head and she only scratches occasionally mostly early evening or when I am on the phone. She is outside the cage most of the day.

GOOD MORNING,
RESPONDING TO YOUR E-MAIL RE SCREAMING EPISODES, MY FEMALE ECLECTUS MAKES THE WORST LOUD PITCH SCREAM WHEN I LEAVE THE ROOM. SHE ALSO CONSTINTLY MAKES A LOW BEEPING SOUNDS.

I HAVE AN AFRICAN GREY WHO HAS STARTED TO PLUCK HIS FEATHERS WHICH IS CAUSING ME ALOT OF STRESS. I’VE TAKEN HIM TO THE BIRD VET WHO ADVISED THAT THESE TYPE OF BIRDS STRESS OUT OVER ANYTHING AND THAT HEALTH WISE HE WAS FINE.

THE AFRICAN GREY WON’T STOP WHISTLING WHEN HE WANTS TO HAVE HIS CAGE UNCOVERED IN THE MORNING AND WHEN HE WANTS TO GO TO BED AT APPROX. 5P. HE WON’T STOP THIS WHISTLING UNTIL HE GETS WHAT HE WANTS.

HELP, WHAT CAN I DO?

i have read through most of the comments left on this blog and admit i feel erm tiny in comparison lol Andy is my cockatiel alone now after losing his’wife’ earlier in the year he is a real scaredycat boy! panics at everything that goes anywhere near him the only time he came out of the cage was by accident and getting him back down from a high shelf was a real challenge I talk to him a lot but cant let him free cos my dog thinks he is great …”come play andy oww! that was my nose!!! yes he does sream quite often for an asortment of reasons but can usually be distracted by more attention! since I am 71 and pretty much disabled now i cant do some of the things i would try if he and I were a bit younger but realy enjoy your lessons!!

KC is a 10 year old adopted sulfer crested cockatoo, male. He was neglected and abused. He went to live at the shelter after being kept in a garage for 2 years alone. He arrived featherless below the neck and with a terrible screaming habit.
I’ve had him for a year. He’s a sweet bird. His feathers have grown back but he keeps trimming them short every now and then for no apparent reason. It’s like he is giving himself a haircut. He still screams sometimes, I don’t mind the alerts that “someone is here”. Or even the “get out of my room it’s past my bedtime” screams. I know what those are about. It’s the 30-60 minute tirades for no apparent reason screams that get me. Taking him out of his cage will quite him, but is that the right thing to do? Nothing else has worked.

I have a 16 yr old Nanday Conure that we’ve had for 2 years. The lady that owned her got a divorce and moved out of state. She hates men and dogs. I have to keep her in my bathroom and shut the door. She has a nice sunny location and I let her out in there so it’s not like she’s abused. She has never let any of us touch her. She will bite and draw blood. If the phone rings, she screeches continuously as long as we’re on the phone. She’s quiet when I’m in the room with her or when I put the cage outside for a while, and she will talk softly to me as long as I’m very softspoken. It’s only bad when she sees my husband, the tv is loud, the phone rings, or if the dog walks up to the cage.

I had a lovely umberella cockatoo who screamed like crazy. Snowflake would just get really excited and would not stop. I tried everything…time out, covering the cage, squirting him with water (he just tore up the sprayer whe he was out). My Military Macaw even told him to shut up. I ended up placing him in a home in another city with a friend who raises dogs and goats. He has a big ranch to scream his heart out in. I went to them and when I drove up he started screaming. My friend said he did not scream like that for her. He has lots to do there, (dogs, puppies, chickens, goats). Showflake and his new friend have an excellent relationship. Sometimes I think the match between parrot and human just is not right. Fortunately for Snowflake, I was able to find him his proper person and environment!!!!

Chet- I currently have a ton of birds: one blue & gold macaw, one congo african grey, and around 40 softbills that I breed. My macaw, Cheyenne, has this habit of screaming in the morning hours (which I know it is normal to be extra loud in the morning). It seems as if I just can’t make her happy! I’ll bring her to the kitchen, family room, her cage, and nothing seems to satisfy her. I just don’t know what she wants! Any ideas?
Emily

I have a six year old Umbrella Cockatoo that resides in my full time home office. The first four years were relatively quiet, but since she sexually matureing her voicing her request for attention has grown to being unacceptable. She will scream whenever I leave the office or she hears other people in the house. Some times talking to her, covering her cage, or as a final resort after several warnings spraying her with a water bottle gets her to stop. She will frequently scream whenever I am on a business call and only opening her cage will get her to stop. I do not like spraying her, but pressure from family members to keep her quiet has increased. Of course, she stops screaming if I take her out to see the people in the other rooms.

I have a six year old Umbrella Cockatoo that resides in my full time home office. The first four years were relatively quiet, but since she sexually matured, her voicing her request for attention has grown to being unacceptable. She will scream whenever I leave the office or she hears other people in the house. Some times talking to her, covering her cage, or as a final resort after several warnings spraying her with a water bottle gets her to stop. She will frequently scream whenever I am on a business call and only opening her cage will get her to stop. I do not like spraying her, but pressure from family members to keep her quiet has increased. Of course, she stops screaming if I take her out to see the people in the other rooms.

Our peach front conure, Tweety, screams in the morning everyday after the sun comes up. I’ve taken her in the shower and then she’ll be quiet for a short while before starting up again, wanting attention. Of course it gets aggravating when she is screaming for attention and no one wants to/or is too busy to give her any. My son will be in his room whistling and she starts squawking/screaming. I feel bad that I tell him to stop so we don’t have to listen to the bird. I would love a solution!

I have 3 birds – a cockatiel, quaker, and lesser sulfur crested cockatoo. My main problem is with the quaker. She is about 5 years old and she bonded with me but she screams all the time. It’s like we can’t wait till it’s night time to cover her up. I don’t have to time to pay a whole lot of attention to her which is probably why she screams so much but I talk to her a lot and pet her and when I can carry her around. Her scream is very annoying to everyone because it is loud and so much. The cockatoo doesn’t scream but does make a really loud sound if you get out of his sight range. However it’s not nearly as annoying because he only does it when we walk out of the room and as soon as we walk back in he stops. The cockatiel doesn’t scream at all. No one but me likes our Quaker because she won’t let anyone pet her but me. If my husband hugs me she screams and flaps her wings. If anyone goes near her cage like my son she will run at him and try to attack. With me though she loves on me and kisses me.

Hi Chet
I could really write to you 82 pages abouth my Amazon Amigo 20 years old ,abused and neglected in 18 years of his life before I got him nearly 2 years ago.But I will keep to one type of screaming that I really do not understand.
The sound is very loud and can go on fore twenty minutes.The situation is that we are in the same room as he but sitting ca 3 m from his cage looking at the TV. We always include him in our conversation even when we look at the TV. Suddenly he start screaming.
The same type of screaming sometimes comes when he first sit with us then he suddenly fly away back to the top of his cage and then start screaming. After a few minutes the sound changes from clear screaming to a sound more like something between a 100 men cutting wood and two small dogs barfing.

Hi Chet,

My cockatoo goes berserk when someone comes into my office. I always feel like he is guarding our “nest.” I have to cover him when I have company visit me in that room.

hi chet .Its not all bad news .Iwas given a Long Billed Corrella,the previous owner could nt tollerate the excessive screaching.Itried housing him with a mate to no avail.finally Iput him away from my other birds in an awvary in myfront yard where he sees us comming and going .not only has he quietened down ,he now only screaches if any body enters the yard this occurs day or night He has become the perfect watch dog.

hi chet .Its not all bad news .Iwas given a Long Billed Corrella,the previous owner could nt tollerate the excessive screeching.Itried housing him with a mate to no avail.finally Iput him away from my other birds in an aviary in myfront yard where he sees us comming and going .not only has he quietened down ,he now only screeches if any body enters the yard this occurs day or night He has become the perfect watch dog.

I have two AfricanGreys. One 35 year old does not scream at all. The other is 18 months old in a different room. They are both male.

The youngster squawks violently when strangers approach or when he cannot do whatever he is trying to do at the time. Sometimes he screams and squawks when he falls off his perch. He growls at new toys put in his cage but generally he is not noisy and has an amazing vocabulary already.

I wish you every success with your new DVD set.

Leonard

I have a 4 year old cocatiel that was given to me when her mate died. She was completely wild, after a few months working with her she is now the sweetest, loving, dependant and smart bird alive, she loves everyone and is such a joy.

She has, within the last year began screaming when I do not pay 24/7 attention to her, a baby/child, talks loudly, or sounds of crowds on the television, especially applause. I guess she is now mistress of the home (so she thinks.) Your input is greatly appreciated.

Hi Chet
I have a male Eclectus Parrot, named Jack, and he is such a mommies boy. When ever I leave the room, even to get a drink, he screams & squawks. We now call him the control freak.
He doesn’t care when the kids leave the room, only me.
As soon as I go back into the room he chats away happily.
I now have 2 stands for him, one in the lounge room and one in the kitchen, it is easier to take him with me as I’m not sure how to shut him up.

I have a male and female eclectus pair. The female screams a loud squawk whenever I leave the room and if she hears foot traffic int he hall way. This seems to be a natural call as females do this in the wild as they guard the entrance to their caves. She also will do this if I leave her on a perch and move out of her line of sight. Her squawk is enough to leave the ears ringing for several minutes. The male will occasionally mimic this scream, but he has a more varied set of vocalizations. If there is any way to decrease or eliminate the female’s loud squawk, my hearing will end up preserved.

HIYA CHET,
WE GOT AN AFRICAN GREY MALE CALLED PEPITO AT HOME . HE’S 25 YRS N HAS BEEN WITH US FR THE LAST 5 YRS. PREVIOUSLY HE WAS WITH SOME FRIENDS OF OURS BUT THEY MIGRATED.
THE PROBLEM IS PEPITO SCREAMS ESPECIALLY WHEN HE WANTS ATTENTION AND HIS SCREAMING IS JUST NOT CRAZY SCREAMING BUT HE SHOUTS-MUMMY COME HERE- CALLING MY MUM AT THE TOP OF HIS VOICE. THE MOMENT HE GETS WHAT HE WANTS ESP. FROM MY MOM HE QUITENS UP..IS THIS NORMAL?? I MEAN IS THERE ANY WAY HE CAN BE THOUGHT TO CALL A LITTLE MORE POLITELY?? CONSIDERING HIS AGE AND ALL??

We have two Mccaws. The older one is 8 and the younger on is 5. The older one is female and the younger one is a male. The male screams all the time we spend any time with the older one. They stay in the same cage and are together all the time, but any time we show any attention to the female the male screams. Any time we feed her or any thing he screams. we talk to her or him and he only screams. If we remove her from the room he goes nuts till we bring her back. The female can talk about 50 to 60 words and the younger one only screams when we try to get him to talk. Some times he will scream for no reason at all. He will be shitting on the jungle jim we built for them to play on, but for no reason he will scream. Have you covered this kind of a problem in your CD?

Hi Chet

I have an Ecletus Parrot, he hardly ever screams, besides him naturally being a quiet parrot, I don’t think that he screams for these reasons:

-I give him attention at the same times everyday
-He is situated in our kitchen were people walk in and out all day so he isn’t lonely
-I reward him for good behaviour
-If he screams or bights he goes back into his cage or I ignore him for a short while to show him that it’s not acceptable! Parrots are very sensitive and can feel your emotions so if you feel tense or angry of course they are going to react!
-We also have a ringneck, green cheaked conior, pategonian conior and 2 cockatiels so he isn’t lonely.
-I replace his toys once a week so that he doesn’t get bored

I personally think that the main reason for bad behaviour is bored and the feeling of being forgotten about, so I make sure that he doesn’t feel those feelings and it works like a charm!

Our birds are a Peach Face Conor (7yrs old) and a Quaker (I’ve had for 2 years) the conor was found in a parking lot and the quaker came free with a cage… so go figure… they are both needy… the conor is the issue… of course she is a screamer… she always interrupts phone conversations…can smell what i am cooking before i cook it (i finally got her to sit on a table perch and wait for her share…not perfect but better than being screamed at and company thinks shes funnie)…the only solution i have found for the screaming is the “no-no” room….i have one room with a TV and she is sent to the “no-no” room for being to loud…she watches cartoons(sponge bob square pants is her favorite)..dances on the perch and head bobs to the music…no cartoon is not an option… she crys…i cant stand it… it is worse than the screaming… it is a different sound…after she calms down or gets her cartoon fix or i get done with the phone business …. she has to be quiet for at least half an hour… i go get her and all is fine again for the day… the quaker only closet talks(that babbling rambling everyword you know talk-in a low rumble) but he doesnt scream… different personalities totally… he sits on a shoulder or in my lap till he is done being sociable then flutters to the floor and walks to his cage… climbs the leg to the cage and sits to wait for the next event… he does pick on the conor… he is a bullie…she just runs from him… I cope and use the advise from your news letters…

My 2 year old sun conure really loves my 4 dogs. If they leave the room he yells to get their attention. “Jack” hasn’t learned to talk yet but it sure seems like he’s trying to say “dog, dogs”. I’m not sure how to either train Jack to stop screaming and teach him that dogs need to go outside and play, or how to train my dogs to pay better attention to the needs of their winged brother. Any help would be appreciated – the neighbours hear Jack all day long when I’m gone. Thanks.

Hi Chat
I have a macaw name is tasha
yes he scree.ms most in morning to be first in the food line
also when Jamie comes he will scream till he leaves. Jamie when he lived here he would get up in morning and sceam and CURES at the bird.

I have a 1 year old sun conure and a 1 year old cinamon cheek who share a cage. I live in a studio apartment and their cage is right next to my easy chair. Whenever I leave the chair the sun screams until i come back to their cage.

My 2 year old jenday conure, Kiko, squacks:
* first thing in the morning when he hears me get out of bed because he wants to be taken to the toilet and then be fed – since he does not poop in his cage, sometimes when he squacks, I will either put him on his perch or hold him over the toilet so he can relieve himself so, it is difficult for me to determine if he’s doing this because he has to go to the washroom or if he’s looking for attention
* when we, or pretty much anyone else, enters the house
* sometimes when he hears me talking on the phone
* when he is in his room, the house is quiet and then he hears me speaking to someone
* when I enter his room – he could be either on his perch or in his cage – he then goes through all of his antics and tricks for which a treat is rewarded when done upon request in the hopes of winning a treat – eventually, if I whisper to him and tell him to whisper like a nice boy, although he does not yet vocalize words, he does make some soft little “purrs” in his throat
* when we are about to take our shower, initially when I sit him on his perch in the shower, he will squack until I get in and close the shower doors at which time he will settle down as he absolutely loves his shower – resting his head on my cheek and letting the water run on his back
* lastly, he will squack if my dog enters his room with me or either of my two cats. I keep his room door closed to prevent my other critters from disturbing him but they will sometimes enter the room behind me when I am spending time with Kiko

Despite the fact that I have tried to adhere to a schedule and routine with Kiko, squacking continues to be a bit of a problem.

Your guidance in this regard is most appreciated Chet!

Chet,
I am a novice bird owner and have been following your suggestions and doing well. However, Franklin, my 3 year old Green-Wing has started barking like the dogs, telling himself to “Be Quiet!” and when I am in the grooming room (with the dogs and him) and the phone rings, he will scream non-stop until I walk over to his perch and talk to him (even though I am still on the phone)
He has a great diet and an outdoor aviary where he can fly, play with toys, look at the horse next door and make other bird noises. He does not have clipped wings. In my novice ignorance have I spoiled my bird?
Thanks,
Donna

Hi Chet~
I have a beautiful sun conure who screams non-stop every time my granddaughter is in the room. She moved into our home about a year after we got our conure. Maybe he feels she’s an intruder….but she’s been here for about a year and a half now, and he still screams when she’s in the room. By the way, our granddaughter is not a small child…she’s 19 years old.

I have a Green Cheeked Conure that is a screamer! Everyone in the house is annoyed with him and I’m trying to do everything I can to keep him quiet. He screams, well actually screeches, the most when:

1) someone enters or leaves the room
2) he sees something outside the window
3) when my cockatiel throws a fit at me (I just got him and he’s a little afraid of me now)
4) when he hears someone in the house but can’t see them
5) if he feels he’s being “ignored” (someone is in the room with hiim but not paying attention to him)

Hi Chet,

HELP – Our sulphur crested minor cockatoo is driving me crazy!!!!!!!!! My husband bought Jasper when jasper was one years old, he is 3 now. Jasper is very attached to my husband but my husband doesn’t pay much attention to him any more because of the screaming. The screamimg is unbearable, he screams when my husband comes home, when he wants to be fed by him, when he leaves the room. He screams when we have visitors or when my grandkids are over. When Jasper and I are home alone together, Jasper is a quiet and happy bird who is very talkative with me (he copies what I say, I have to make sure I don’t have a potty mouth LOL) I’ve tried cause and effect, ignoring him, training diet, lots of different stuff but nothing seems to work, I like him alot but, I’m at the end of my rope. I ‘m at the point of wanting to give him away.

Hi Chet!

Thanks for asking for my help in this matter. Unfortunatly I don’t know that I will be of much help to you.

My rose breasted goffin cockatoo, named Rosie, is a really good bird. The screaming she does is limited and always has a reason.

She is our watch dog…I mean watch bird. She screams to let us know someone has pulled into the driveway or if someone is walking on our property. She yells with excitement when one of us come home. Most of the screaming is out of excitement and its very short lasting.

The only screaming that I don’t particularly care for is when she wants attention and I can’t give it to her. Then she screams a bit too much and a bit too loud. I try talking to her to get her to realize I’m only a room away, eating dinner, doing laundry, etc. Sometimes it works…sometimes it doesn’t.

“She”, I think, is really a “he”. She shows male courting behavior by hanging upside down, flapping her wings and squawking loudly. I don’t know if I should try to stop this or not. It is something hard wired in her…I mean his brain. I don’t think I should stop her from being a normal bird.

I will be anxiously awaiting your new training info!
Sincerely, Laura…and Rosie

Aloha Chet,

At the begining I shared with you about my Polytellis Alexandrea bird how the previous owner was only able to spend a few hours a day with her bird, now I have owned my pretty little buttercup for five years now, but the screaming for attention was on. At first I let her sit on my shoulders a few hours a day then set her back on top of her cage, and she was happy with this arangement, but just like children they always want more. I decided to get my little buttercup a mate, now after two years of owning my male bird (Westley) he has begun to scream at her for attention, I think what I need to do is get a new cage, and let westley have dominion over the new cage for a while then introduce the female to the new cage so she understands who is in charge.
Thank for all the news letters they have been very helpful at times.
Ellen, Aloha OR.

oops……..I stand corrected by mt husband, sorry for my lack of bird lingo……Jasper is not a minor, he’s a lesser……..LOL

Hi Chet,
My African Grey is 5 years old in May and seems to be going through what the wife and I call “stroppy teenager mode” (lol).
He used to love coming out of the cage onto my hand and playing games etc. Now he just will not step onto my hand he insists on doing everything himself and will go to play on the top of his cage. He will play there with me and will after 10 mins or so come onto my hand and be very friendly but insists on his independence first. Any advice here, am I right to let him continue or should I be trying to retrain him back to my hand first?
Secondly he has developed this loud squawk you talk about which is quite deafening. He never does it when you are by him but if we leave the dining room and go into the lounge especially when we have visitors he will start this and continue for quite a while. We try not to give him attention whilst he does this but only play afterwards when he stops it, but I have to admit it is getting more and more frequent.
I would welcome any advice
Many thanks,
Stuart.

Hi Chet,

I have an african grey, blue front amazon and a blue and gold mccaw. My amazon starts screaming as soon as I get up in the morning because he wants out of his cage immediately. Also as soon as I get home from work. My grey doesn’t scream but bites. My blue and gold mccaw is just a baby (6 months old) and I am hoping these bad habits won’t carry over to him. Any ideas? Thanks

Hi Chet,
I always enjoy reading your e-mail, but I don’t have any problem (not anymore) with my blue crown conure.
He still does scream when I leave the room, or when I am on the phone. My son suggested that I spray him when he does. It does work. All I have to do now is to show him the spray bottle.
Sincerely
Suzanne

My 3 year old Cockatoo screams when our cell phone rings or when someone drives in the yard. If a new person is in our home he will just make noises to draw attention but not scream. What a wonderful friend, but the screams are almost to much for us to deal with. Please help

My husband and I have an 25 year old African Gray and he does not scream but sometimes when you walk by his cage he lets out a very loud and high pitched whistle or noise, which hurts human ears. Not sure how to get him to stop because I think that is his greeting to us. We have ignored it and he still does it.

Hi Chet,

I’ve had my Quaker Parrott – Kiwi – for 5 years, since she was just 3 months old. She’s (I believe she’s a he) very affectionate to me, but not my husband. She / He screams when we are sitting down in the evening watching TV. When it gets dark, she says “night night for Kiwi”. If we don’t put her to bed, she’ll continue to scream until we do. It’s maddening. We can’t watch TV in our family room past 8:30pm. I’ve noticed she’s been very aggressive this spring – seems to be getting more aggressive each year at this time. It helps if I pay attention only to her, but as soon as I walk away, he starts again.

Hi Chet,

I have two cockatiels and a blue and gold macaw. One cockatiel doesn’t seem to care about much. He likes attention but also likes to be left alone and is pretty quiet. The other screams whenever I leave the room. She does stop after a while, though. The blue and gold, on the other hand, will scream for quite a while. She doesn’t want me to leave the room and if she knows I’m home, she won’t stop. I pretty much just take her from room to room with me whatever I am doing. Thanks.

Hi Chet,

Thanks for your email. I have a male Eclectic Parrot at he is 2 years old. He has screamed very loudly since we got him. He has a few problems in that he cannot fly properly, he goes to take off but just cant let go, he cant walk without tripping over his own feet and falling over. He just all in all seems a little slow. The biggest problem is that he screams that loud that i cannot listen to him as he hurts my ears. He does it for long periods of time too. He is worse when we have any visitors coming round to the house, its asif hes jelous that they are getting the attention. He screams when we are cooking, as he wants the food. He just seems very unsettled, almost asif he was abused as a baby. He is definatley more comfortable with my husband than me, but i think that comes from me being a little on edge as he has a tendancey to bite, not as much now as he used too but when he does it REALLY hurts! I am not sure what to do to get him to stop the screaming when it is not possible to give him the attention that he wants.
Any help would be so gratefully recieved!

Fiona.

I have a 1 1/4 year old Timneh African Grey (“TAG”). My TAG parrot “Jamie” has 2 particular screams that are ear piercing and won’t let up for awhile once he/she is in that mode. One of them sounds like a Tiger being choked and it’s very loud and prolonged. I noticed Jamie doing this mostly when he/she hears my voice but doesn’t see me. The 2nd sounds like a loud very high-pitched whistle that doesn’t have a melody. It’s just a stabbing ear piercing chirp that pulsates every 2 seconds for 2 minutes straight when he/she is in that mode. I notice he/she does that mostly when I turn my back on him/her.

My Quaker Skyler is going on three years old and his screaming issues are parakeet related. They are gossiping away in the other room with the finches and he feels the need to get a few words in and chatter away. Well, if he was chattering i would be pleased, its more well, you have the idea, i am posting here after all. When i take him with me when i house sit, he is the most peachful bird, he will talk but not scream. Play and not bite, and actually listen. I hope removal of my parakeets from our home is not the required action to take. Thankyou and have a great day!

Xena Girl (African Grey/4 years old)

1) When I’m on the phone or am focused on something besides her. My guess is she’s bored.

2) In front of the window. She likes to perch in front of it and make a lot of noise…some screaming, some high pitch beeping, whistling, talking, etc…sort of entertaining herself. It’s the screaming and high pitch beeping we don’t like, but since she does it along with a whole bunch on of other noises, I don’t have a clue how to stop the screaming and beeping.

3) The absolute worst is this SUPER HIGH PITCH beep she does…my husband is currently stuffing tissue in his ear. We think she learn this from a cockatiel we baby sat 3 yrs ago :-/. This is the worst not only because it’s ear piercing, but also because she does it when she’s happy/content. Ex. right before she tilts her head to be pet or to snuggle, she does a single HIGH PITCH beep as well as when we finally turn off the light to sleep. It’s like her “thank you” beep :-/. Her body language is so sweet, that I’m not sure how to correct her on this.

So far my attempts have been telling her consistently “talk nicely”, closing the curtain to the window, changing her location, etc…but nothing seems to teach her that a specific behavior is unwanted…oh well. I’m also an aspiring voiceover artist/actor and am frustrated that I am unable to do any recordings at home as I have no where to put her out of earshot …sniffle.

I have a Mealy Amazon parrot who screams when certain company is over. If Keith (just to name one) comes over, Manfred, my parrot, loses his mind and does a cat-call whistle continuously while puffing his feathers and flaring his tail. It’s obvious that Manny likes Keith a lot. When Keith leaves the room, Manny screams continuously. It only stops after Keith has literally driven away from the house.

He screams and dances when he sees the children playing in the yard next door.

He tends to scream at dusk and dawn also, which I’ve heard is a trait among some parrots.

I’m sure my neighbors hate me and I would love to have some answers about this. I’d also like to know what Manny is doing when he fluffs his feathers and flares his tail while doing the cat-call whistle…

Looking forward to the answers…

Kelly

Hi Chet and Bird Friends,
I have had birds on and off for as long as I could remember, I missed not having birds around, and then would go out and purchase even a small parakeet(s) to keep around. But, I did experiment with other birds like small cockatiels, and then I had been going to a pet shop for a while, and started to look into a parrot. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for, or how much maintence I would find myself having to do. But, it is definitely maintence, I would buy a Hanhn’s McCaw for my husbands birthday, and then a little latter I decided to go for a bigger parrot. I got a Yellow Nape Amazon. It is a great bird, she understands my sillyness, and I adore her many zany movements. At times she gets bored and just sits, but all I have to do, is go over and start to play or interact with her, and she starts to do her usual bird stuff. When she starts to squawk we allready are prepared usually with biscuit from Stella Dora, like Anissette Toast or the Bananna favorite is even better. I notice it usually keeps her occupied for awhile. She is really very good other wise. The other birds I own are Quaker Parakeet and a parakeet in a seperate cage. They are enjoyable, but they make no wheres as much noise as the others. I hope this has helped in any small way. Gloria and Featherd Friends

PS – Manny is 3 years old. I would love to send you a video of his display for Keith so you can tell me what he is doing. I kind of think it is a mating dance, but I honestly have no clue.

Chet, I recently rescued a 15 year old double yellow head amazon parrot. She was in a small cage for her entire life and was never let out. The person who owned her simply fed her and did nothing else with her. Now that I have her she comes in and out of her cage and plays on a perch on the top of the cage. She screams unknown words and sometimes phrases alot. She screams as loud as she can and repeats herself over and over again. I can’t distinguish what she is saying, but only know that is is very loud and repetative. I talk to her constantly and treat her like a member of my family. Her screaming is on and off all day long, whether I am in the room with her or in another room. I don’t know what triggers it, or how to get her to stop. She is extremely aggressive to everyone except me. I have partially won her trust and she will come to me and let me scratch her head and neck. If you could just help me with her constant screaming, I believe both she and I will be more happy.
Aaron

i have a blue crowned conure named Cloe who just turned two on April 6th. she screems at the top of her tiny little lungs as soon as i leave the room she is in or am out of view. my roommate tells me that she also screems incesently when i am not at home and nothing he does seems to cease the screeming until she arbitrarily stops on her own. Cloe is friendly enough to my roommate and will step up for him but will usually not perform any tricks for him. i dont know if she steps up for him while she is screeming.
Thanx,
TravisD

My Citron Cockatoo (Corky) loves my husband (Mark) who works out of town Monday – Friday. All weekend, if Mark leaves the room, our Citron will scream until he comes back in. Mark won’t pay attention to Corky until he stops scraming, but it hasn’t helped.

We have a green wing macaw that we got as a weaned baby a year and a half ago, she is always very quiet and only screams when she sees something outside or is left for awhile on her playstand alone. We recently rescued a blue and gold macaw who lived with a cockatoo. She talks quite a bit and had a very high pitched “beep like scream” (it sounds like an African Grey imitating a smoke alarm but magnified in volume). I believe she does it only when she’s excited. Her annoying screaming however is harder to deal with. Both birds have a large cage in our bedroom and our GW never used to have to be covered, when the B&G sees that we are stirring in bed, she starts to scream. We began covering them and that seems to keep her quiet until we are ready to get up. Because they are in our bedroom, whenever I am in there getting ready, she has this really shrill scream that she works up to with a little cluck, then a scream. She does is the whole time I am in the room. I have tried to reward her by petting her and talking sweetly and quietly to her when she is not screaming and ignoring and walking away when she is screaming, but it is definitely something she has done for awhile (she is 16 years old). Luckily the GW has not picked up on the screaming yet and I want to get it nipped before that starts. She is more bonded to me and the GW to my husband, when I was out of town for 5 days, my husband said that she did not scream like she does when I am home. I am guessing that it is an attention thing learned from the cockatoo that she lived with, and I know it can be fixed, I just need to know how to do it.

Chet,

I have a 2year old blue and gold macaw and he screams ALOT!!! he’s driving both my husband and me crazy! He screams when i leave the room, he screams if i’m on the phone, he screams in the morning. I put him in his cage when he screams – but he keeps on screaming, i also cover him which calms him down after about half an hour but when i take him out again he starts screaming again. the only time he doesnt scream is when im in the same room with him watching t.v or if he’s in my hands playing with him. he also doesnt scream when nobody is home. Please help!!!

I have a double-yellow headed Amazon. He screams so loud and I was taught he see’s us as his pack and must be with us or he is calling to us. It is no unnerving. He is a Beatuful bird, we have had him 12 years. His biting is what gets me it’s because it’s me who gets bit. He thinks I am his mate. I have had him 12 years and I’m so tempted to get rid of him. Love hate relationship. I put him on utube under Mrose13006 so everyone can see his cute side. So much more but have to go. BYE. Marge Loyd

Hi I have a red lori. He is 10 years old. When i eat he will scream until i give him a bite. Not bad also when i talk on the phone. When i have a lady over he will act up sometimes. I believe it is he’s just wanting attention. thanks

My 8 year old Cockatiel, Sniffles, will continously scream whenever company comes over (which isn’t very often). His screams are ear peircing and can be heard from 3 blocks away.
I understand that he doesn’t like other people and he is trying to protect and “warn” me of the “intruders”, but it has really gotten to the point of annoyance.
He doesn’t scream too much when I am home lone and even when I am spending time with the other birds in my house (I have 3 other Cockatiels and 2 Parakeets), but if anybody comes over, he starts up with the screaming. This happens even when it is somebody that he knows.

I have a Moluccan cockatoo and a citron cockatoo. The moluccan sceams everytime the citron cockatoo hops on me. My moluccan won’t get on me — won’t do step up and gets very nervous if he does get on you — so that doesn’t help the situation any. They both scream when I leave the room. And they both scream when they hear someone come in the house or the doorbell ring. When my roommate comes in the room and tries to talk to me, the moluccan cockatoo screams and you can’t hear yourself talk.

when my amazon Dizzy decides he wants to come out and be upstairs with me or my wife (he’s in 1/2 of a very big double cage along with an african grey on the lower floor of a 3 floor townhouse) he will begin calling and wont stop until someone i get him and bring him upstairs. He will get louder and louder and even when I completely ignore it, he just keeps it up (knowing I guess that eventually I will give in). sometimes it’s just not a good time to have him out with us but i can’t seem to get him to stop unless I give him a treat after which he is finished eating, he will just start all over.

when my amazon Dizzy decides he wants to come out and be upstairs with me or my wife (he’s in 1/2 of a very big double cage along with an african grey on the lower floor of a 3 floor townhouse) he will begin calling and wont stop until i get him and bring him upstairs. He will get louder and louder and even when I completely ignore it, he just keeps it up (knowing I guess that eventually I will give in). sometimes it’s just not a good time to have him out with us but i can’t seem to get him to stop unless I give him a treat after which he is finished eating, he will just start all over.

Dear Chet:

My situation is similiar to the others. My B&G is 12 years old and I raised him from a chick. He has had no other owners. Just this passed years he has started screaming when I am out of the room or leave the room. I ignore him until he stops and then I will return to the room. He is in the living room sometimes even when I am sitting on the couch in same room and waching tv he will start screaming. Is he just begging for attention from me…?

I have a black headed conure that screams when you enter the room and stops when you leave and shut the door.

Dear Chet,
I have a Budgie named Sammie. He is still young, just coming about a year now, but he has some screaming habits. His cage is placed in the conserventry, and I leave the door open so he tends to fly around it, or sit on the coach. Its more like his cage rather than a conserventry. The conserventry comes out from my dining/living room, so he can pear right through to the other end of my house. But when me and my parents sit down and have our tea, or when we are watching telly (it is usually when we are eating and watching telly) he screams. It is constent, and I try to ignore him and give him no attention, but its so irritating I have to go and shut the conserventry door. Is it that we are eating food and he isn’t, or he just wants our attention are we are socilising as a family and he is left out, in his own space? The same problem happens when we move his cage into our lounge later on in the evening.

We have rescued several birds and have issues with each one. Our male Umbrella, Coco, (17 years old) goes into a full-on display complete with loud screeching, and wing flapping, crest up and flipping his head, every time I go to the wash area (it’s in the “bird” room) to fold or load washer and dryer. He can see me but continues to screem the whole time I’m there. We do not say shut up in our house because my rescued B&G, Peppy (21 years old) came to us saying shut up every time we would make any noise or if he saw us. That was a hard habit to break and I was afraid that the other birds in the house would pick it up(we have 12). He has now started the screaming when I do laundry. We grow our own manzinita so all have foraging trees in their cages as well as in the large play area. Coco is also very distructive even though I give him safe things to tear apart, he has distroyed 3 cages since I rescued hime 3 years ago(he rips the bars out of his cage). I am afraid I will find him hanging in the opening he has created, and so When he started on his new cage I put sheets of Plexiglass over the areas that he usually takes out, he has not gone to other areas of his cage. Coco is an ambasador bird at the local elementary schools and is a very precious love muffin, he gets along well with everyone and puts on a very cute show for the kids, but the screeming when I have to do laundry!!!!!!!!

I have a 20 year old blue front double yellow head amazon, Nieko. I got him about 10 years ago and know his previous owners quite well. He is an attention screamer. He also gets excited when he hears kids playing and screaming outside. Also when he hears audience sounds on TV. It may be a concert, dancing with the stars, Sharks playing hockey (Go Sharks!!)….the clapping, cheering and general loudness can get him going. He is in the kitchen next to the sliding glass door going to the back yard. He has quite the vocabulary. If I set my purse on the table looking for my keys he asks “Where are you going?” If I am eating something he will ask “is it good?” or “is it for Nieko?” If I yell for my daughter he will yell “I didn’t do it”. If we get into a loud discussion (argument) near him he will say bad words that I won’t repeat here. He already knew most of this stuff before I got him. My family will constantly ask me to quiet him down. It usually happens when we are out of the kitchen. Covering his cage helps. When I walk into the room to see why he’s screaming he will stop screaming and ask “what are you doing?” I usually answer his questions, like he’s a child. He does have a good sense of what to say and when. My concern is that I’ve been asked to adopt a Cockatoo. A hand raised chick (under 10 years old) and very sweet. I understand it has a yellow crest, but I haven’t seen it yet. The family isn’t as thrilled as I am. It could go one of two ways. Really loud or more calm. Nieko also has a bit of a split personality. One moment he is being sweet and the next he will lunge at me. I also have a couple of rescued or adopted cockatiels. Their noise isn’t a problem. What do you think?

Hello,

What a coincidence. A week ago my mom told me to do something with my Yucatan Parrot because recently he screams and screams in high pitched tones and all the neighbours can here him. And up came your email.
He usually starts whistling and doesn’t stop until scolded, but then continues. He craves for attention. I read that I should put him more toys. I will try that. He has a big bowl where he loves to bath almost everyday after the water is changed. Let me know what other ideas I can do.

Hi Chet,

Firstly thank you for your excellent DVD’s they are truly inspirational & they work.
The room in which my Grey’s cage is has a door at either end and for some reason in the past month or two he screams when I walk out of one of the doors, the one that is nearest to his cage, he also only does this after the children have gone to bed, which is a bit of a problem, but I guess they are getting used to it! I am assuming this is attention seeking or maybe because he thinks he is going to be left for the night due to this also being the same door I have to go through in order to go to bed.

My conure screams when I talk with someone else. If he and I are alone he sits quietly and plays with his toys, but once I start talking – either in person or on the phone he starts screaming. He also screams when I leave his sight – I’ve been working on this by talking to him as I go to the other room and back so he knows I haven’t left.

Hi Chet,
My Indian Ringneck “Wobbly Boot” is three years old and he screams in the mornings as soon as he is uncovered and I leave the room, when I get home from work he is screaming, I sit with him and have a chat then as soon as I leave him he starts screaming again now the dog has started barking at him when he screams so as you can imagine it gets pretty noisy and stressful after a day at work when you just want peace.
I have tried having him in the same room or in a position where he can see either myself or my husband but it doesn’t make any difference he still screams, I am constantly checking to see if he has water and food but this doesn’t seem to be the reason he is making the noise, he is attention seeking.
Hope this helps
Lyn
Love your emails thank you keep them coming

My little girl screams all the time. She really yells whan people come over. She needs to be up front if they dont pay att, to her we cant talk. She yells whan i put her to bed, and whan a man walks in her crown comes up and the yelling starts. I;ve watch your dvd but nothing works. Shes a handful. I wished you was;nt so far away she would be the bird you could try all your steps on. Please help

Dear Chet, Thank you so much for including me in your blog. My wonderful double yellow head Reo is unbelievably well behaved!
He is,of course,a creature of habit and my solution has been to focus on GOOD habits.He eats when we eat and sleeps when we sleep.I get him out of the cage in the morning and we have breakfast.We usually get a shower and since I have MS we grab a cart an walk the halls of the apartment building.He says “Hello”
to the neighbors we pass and sings the Oscar Meyer song as we exercise.Reo is extremely obedient thanks to repitition and good habits.We broke the biting habit thanks to your advice and we trade off…I do the things he enjoys(eating,showering,
riding on my power chair,going outside to the gazebo to commune with nature) and He does the things I enjoy(chatting,
riding with me and walking the halls with me, and laughing at Everybody Loves Raymond. I love him and he loves me!

I have a 10 yr old African Grey.She will scream if my hubby plays cards with anyone..I don’t know if she wants to join the game or if she is jealous.I have to cover her cage during the game and then she is quiet.She will also scream if she wants something and I have to guess what it is..I try to ignore her when she screams..Is this the correct thing to do?

Hi,
I have a blue and gold Macaw – Julius, he is only 20 months old and he has started to scream whenever I leave the room. He can keep the screaming going for ages. He picked up this ‘bad habit’ from my son’s Jendaya Conure – Nino (or El Nino as I call him) who can scream for Scotland (where we live). Fortunaely we have a large garden therefore we are not bothering any neighbours but I would love to help the birds stop this as it must be disressting for them. We give our birds lots of love and attention – Nino has always been a screamer – unbelievably loud for such a tiny little creature, and as for Julius, well I suppose the old adage of “when the old cock crows the young ones learn” certainly applies. Keep up the goofd work and I look forward to hearing any tips to stop the screaming.

Dear Chet; It’s the same story she yells all the time no matter what i do. nothing works with her.

I have a blue and gold macaw (Chevy) is her name and she screams when she is either Bored or she just wants me?
I also have a Pandgonian who does not like me to talk to anyone unless it is with her, especially if I am on the phone or talk to my wife while in the same room. Her name is (Biddy) Both birds are almost 2 years old now.

Hi Chet,
My Blue Fronted Amazon, “Pippin” is pretty good, she likes to join in with the noise around her, but is not screaming.
She used to scream when I was looking after a Male Amazon, since he has gone, she only mimics the screams of the Seagulls occasionally.

Hi Chet,

I am writing in response to your e-mail on screaming. I have a Sun Conure, Sunshine (Sunny) that I bought (2/2007) from a person who found him in their backyard. He was smart and friendly and took to me and then to my husband pretty quick. I bought most of your bird tricks items but read the book mostly on training and screaming.
He screams when he hears me pull into the driveway when I come home from work. He also screams when he hears the dogs barking outside. I use the no attention until he stops advice and it works most times.
He has his own room which he shares with 2 parakeets. I got them to keep him company during the day. I also keep the radio on while I am at work to keep them company. I open the door to his room when I get home and leave him alone until he stops screaming and then I will go in there and give him kisses or a treat. If he comes out of his room on his own and does not scream, I will give him attention.
The only other time he acts like a pest is when I am cooking or eating. If he does not listen when I tell him no, I put him in his room and close the door. He also doe not like my chihuahua. When he sees the dog, he swoops down and claws him on the hind quarters and poor little dog runs for cover. This scares me sometimes because I am afraid the dog will run out the door with the bird on his back. Other than the this few things, he is a little sweetheart. I wish I could be home all the time and give him the attention he wants.

Sharon

I have an African senegal, Andie (female), who for the most part isn’t a screamer. However, 2-1/2 years ago (Labor Day to be exact) I found a sun conure on the hood of a car. It was very hot that day and it looked as though the bird was dead. I approached it and said, “It’s gonna be okay, honey.” I took it home and nursed it back to health and tried to find the rightful owner which was not an easy task. No genuine responses came and having become attached to “Sunny”, I decided to keep “her” (blood test confirmed). She has become very attached and has a tendency to scream when I come in, when I leave the room, when I do laundry, go to the bathroom, etc., etc. I’ve tried ignoring her, talking quietly to her, shouting, screaming, spraying and it only gets worse. I love her very much but her screaming is disrupting our household. The Senegal is jealous of the attention I give Sunny, so you can imagine how crazy things can get trying to make them both happy. My next step (aside from any training videos) is to work with a local behavior consultant. I don’t want to give Sunny up and, even if I did, she’d still have the same problems in her next home. I have no idea how she was treated before I found her, so I can’t really say why she screams the way she does. As a matter of fact, it sounds like Sunny’s screaming “Come back!!” whenever I’m out of her sight. Abandonment issues, I’m pretty sure. Help!!

Hi Chet,

Our Patagonian Conure Louie will scream mostly for me (not members of my family) if he sees me, if I leave the room, when I pull up in the driveway (he knows the sound of my car), while we’re eating (we don’t give him people food) and when I get on the phone.

We’re trying to teach him to say “Hello” if he wants something from us. I try to ignore him when he’s screaming for something and wait for him to say “Hello” before I react to him. It works some of the time, but if he doesn’t get what he wants fast enough, he reverts back to screaming. I’ll stop dead in my tracks until he says “hello” again and them move toward him. I don’t know if I’m getting the point across or not. He probably thinks it’s a game. He always starts with the screaming though. “Hello” is never his first option.

Hi Chet,

For your consideration in putting together your screaming course, I would really appreciate you adding something to it that covers birds with ADD and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I have a Lilac Crowned Amazon who is an angel bird, except for the screaming these disorders cause. When he hears the slightest noise, he gets panicy, and shrieks! For example, when a cup is placed down on a table by him in a less than tippy toe fashion, he will stand up very tall, dart from side to side and shriek. This behavior is over within a few seconds then he is back to normal. The Antecedent seems to always be a noise he notices that shocks him (even though they are very quiet noises to me) the Behavior the Scream and shriek the the consequence is usually us whispering to him “Shh it’s ok” or ignoring it, or in the worst of cases, a birdie time out to a silent room. Keep birdies like us in mind, ok? Thanks!

Hi Chet!

We have three parrots. Bernie – 5 yrs old rescued Senegal. Loki – 1 yr old silly tame Congo African Grey. Toby – 6 month old rescued Green Wing Macaw.

Bernie has THE most annoying screech that is the equivalent of finger nails on the blackboard!! He does a short, sharp screech to seek attention or if the other birds are getting attention and he isn’t. Bernie is only semi tame. He will take food from our hands but occasionally he will try to bite us instead. He does the common Sennie Lunge at the cage bars for no apparent reason when you talk to him, implying that he would rather rip your face off!

Loki hangs upside from his favourite bell toy and screams the house down whenever he sees that someone or something is getting more attention than he is! That could be the TV, a visitor – anything really! We have tried ignoring him like you have suggested in previous training sessions and, when we can stand it no longer (the birds are in our lounge where we spend most of our time) and shout “LOKI” he does tend to be quiet for a wee while.

Toby is our latest arrival. He adores my fiance but isn’t keen on me at all. He will take food from my hand and also from my mouth without any problem but he lunges at me when he is in his cage. This is despite the fact that it is me who feeds, waters and cleans him and his cage!! Using a modified version of your perching technique I have been able to stroke his head with a clothes peg until I finally stroke it with my hand but when he realises it’s me he lunges again. We both appreciate that macaws need to vocalise so we don’t mind it when he screams a bit. He screams when we play loud music (particularly rock music!!) and also when the vacuum cleaner is on. It vibrates your ear drums it is so loud! We try to ignore him when he does it and make a big fuss of him when he is quiet.

I gotta say though that the Senegal has the most annoying scream and we are at a loss how to stop it so we would be grateful for any help!!

Best Wishes
Nicola & Dale
Scotland

Hi Chet
My blue fronted amazon Oscar screams “aaaarrrhhhhh” constantly for about an hour or two most afternoons when we are in the house. He also shouts when he hears the car coming from 200 yards away and makes our three dogs bark. He seems to enjoy making them bark, and even “Ruh Ruh Ruh Ruh”’s himself. You should hear him howl! I think my daughter started him screaming as they would have a competition, both laughing at each other. He’s such fun and mutters to himself in the evening like an old man grumbling.
Thanks for the blog and a great site! Hope your wife and baby are well.

Lisa

We have conures: a maroon-belly, Carl, and a gold-capped, Fred; the maroon-belly is almost three, the gold-capped not quite a year. Fred started out extremely shy and prone to hissing more than screaming. Carl’s never had a screaming problem- but then, we’ve never indulged him when he did; we always ignored it once we ascertained there was no real problem. Fred has learned ‘how to behave’ from Carl, I guess, and screaming is pretty much not an issue. There is the morning greeting, the ‘Alarm’ when someone or thing new is in the yard or drive, and the VERY loud ‘You’re HOME!’ screaming when we each get in from work.

They will each scream while the vacuumn is being used, but that seems kind of normal, to me- even the dog runs and hides from that. Again, such is ignored and as soon as it is turned off, the screaming stops. The only issue we have with noise is on windy days they are both prone to loud calls- but again, this seems to me to be a normal reaction to seeing a lot of movement outside the windows, even though their cage isn’t near windows.

Generally, they’re both well-behaved birds, and if they’re not, well, they get left alone to sulk as they wish. For us, ‘punishment’ means being put in the bathroom on the towel rail, door closed, and left alone and quiet. It seems to do the trick- they like the ‘down time’, and come out ten or so minutes later much more sociable.

HI I have a cockatiel and an african grey. I have found a very effective way to reduce or eliminate screaming. Birds being flock ainimals depend on comunication,fine, so comunicate with them. If I go up stairs or in another room, I periodically call to the birds. IT DOES NOT TAKE MUCH. I just give the occasional are you all right charlie or a whistle and he calls back. It works very well for me and my birds. I think it reassures them that all is ok. I can honestly say that using comunication works. well, I dont have a screaming problem. Ok parrots can be noisie at times but thats parrots

3 of my parrots are great–the 2 parakeets and the green cheek conure; and then there is Kona, my sun conure. His screaming has gotten so bad in the last few months that it’s regularly crossed my mind the idea of re-homing him, but I won’t. I love him too much and just keep trying to think how to fix it. He is the coolest bird, but the screaming has gotten ridiculous. Its loud, repetitive, and seemingly without reason. Kona lives with the other conure in a huge cage, has tons of toys that are rotated regularly, pellets, fresh fruits and veggies daily, plus the occasional seed during trick training. He is handled daily for about 1/2 hour and is out of his cage just hanging out with us on his gym or playstands for an additional 2-3 hours daily. While in his cage and we’re not home, the radio or tv is left on. Kona when we got him was relatively quiet for a sun conure. He only screamed when I first came home from work until I said hello, first thing in the morning til I made breakfast for him, and at night if I had him up and he wanted to go to bed.
Now its all the time. He screams daily nearly non-stop for about an hour mid-day. I just ignore him when he does and wait for quiet, even a few minutes of it, before I’ll acknowledge him. I randomly pop in the bird room to say hi if he is being quiet throughout the day, and hang out time is in the late afternoon and evenings.
He also screams now even when out on his playgym, which he never did for the first 1 and 1/2 years I had him. Kona is almost 2 now, so I don’t know if its related to maturation. He also randomly screams even when being handled. He is in good feather and is weighed regularly and has not gained nor lost any weight for well over a year. He’s been checked by a vet and is healthy.
I don’t know what else to do. Everything I’ve read or been told to do to stop repetetive screaming hasn’t worked with Kona. I think even the other parrots are annoyed with his screaming and its been a miracle no one in our apartment has complained. Please help!

Hi Chet,
I am adding my comments to help make sure you have all the screaming possibilities covered. I have 5 parrots: Green Wing Macaw, Congo African Grey, Double Yellow Head Amazon, Moluccan Cockatoo and Triton Cockatoo. Guess which ones are the screamers? Guess which ones are the most crazy? Guess which ones are the most needy? And yet, guess which ones are the sweetest and most cuddly? Yes, you are right, the Cockatoos win on all counts!

I love all my baby birds and they are all sweet in their own way and they all demand attention in their own way, but the Cockatoos are by far the loudest, even louder than the Green Wing, probably because she does not shout that often. The Amazon just yells, ” Hello, hello, hello”, until someone answers him, but the Grey is telling him, “Quiet!”, the whole time! If the dogs bark she shouts “Quiet!” to them too. But when the Cockatoos get going even the Green Wing shouts “Alright!”

The Triton screams as soon as she sees either of us humans. And the Moluccan screams when she can’t see us! They are both high strung birds and easily spooked. I have given them all very large aviaries (8ft diameter) outside and they have smaller sleeping cages inside. I live in Hawaii so the birds can spend most of their time outdoors. They get plenty of sunshine and plenty of sleep and pellets and seeds and nuts and fruits and veggies. I think they just wish we spent all day with them, but of course we can’t. The Moluccan also chews off all her feathers, except her wings and head, so she looks like a Muppet. She is a rescued bird and was naked when we got her. I was hoping good food, more space, sunshine, rest, hugs and kisses and attention would help her overcome her habit, but not so far. I think attention could solve the problems, both feather chewing and screaming, but it would require one of us to hold her all day, which of course we can’t do.

We have tried to substitute words for screams and now Luna (Triton) yells, “Gimme kiss!” followed by a big smooch sound and Molly (Moluccan) says “I love you Molly?” or “Come here baby bird?” or “Hello birdy birdy girl?” or any number of combinations, all as questions! None of these have actually resulted in stoppping the screaming.

So we keep trying. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Suzanne

Hi Chet,
My Ducorp Cockatoo rightly named, Sweetpea, screams when I leave the room, the telephone rings, the door bell chimes, the coffee pot whistles, and when he senses fear or upset in me or another family member. His screaming is ear-piercing and emotionally upsetting to the nervous system. Family gets really pissed. Doesn’t have positive affects for Sweetpea, so I need to learn to curtail his loud screams.
I believe he needs more attention and more time out of his cage. I am working on this.
I am the only person in the home he will come to, stay with,and not bite. Therefore, the other household members won’t touch him for fear of getting bitten.
He hears my car or me coming and the screaming starts. My family says he can hear the car clear down the street and my car is not loud.

I have an 8 yr old blue and gold macaw called Mickey who will scream if we leave thr door of the room he stays in open, or if we have TV onwith shouting on like football/race horsing/rugby or any noisey TV. He will also shout if he hears us talking loudly in another room. Generally he is OK though. We used to have a cockatiel that was noisey (lasted til he was 24 and only died 2 wks ago so we were really sad) but he was too noisey to keep near the macaw as they would compete and the macaw could be heard right up the street! I think generally macaws shout when they want to tell you something they are not happy with. I know when somethings on TV Mickey does not like cozhe tells me!

SINCE I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION-HAVE YOU DONE ANY STUDY AS TO A PARROT BEING LEFT OR RIGHT FOOTED??? BOOTSIE ONLY EATS WITH HIS LEFT FOOT AND I WAS WONDERING IF IT MADE ANY DIFFERENCE IN THE TRAINING IF THEY WERE MORE ONE FOOTED THAN THE OTHER??? (I WANT CREDIT FOR THE STUDY!!) ANYWAY, BOOTSIE SCREAMS AT NIGHT WHEN HE’S READY FOR BED-IF I GET TOO CLOSE WHEN TRYING TO GET HIM TO STEP ON ME-IF SOMEONE COMES IN MY APT-OR IF I BRING OUT THE VACUUM CLEANER-RUN THE PRINTER-RUN WATER-OR MOVE QUICKLY IN HIS VICINITY-PLEASE ADDRESS ALSO FEARS MORE-HE WON’T LEAVE HIS CAGE BUT VERY SELDOM ON MY SHOULDER AND THEN HOPS RIGHT BACK-

I have a female solomon island eclectus that screams when we leave the room or when we are in the room, really no reason that clearly defines the screaching, this does however happen at our main house that has high ceilings and wood floors, when we go up to our vacation condo in the mountains where the ceiling is low and we have carpet she only screams when someone exits from the condo. The condo is also only one level when our main home has two levels and a basement. The screach is unbearable, we have to put her in the basement cage to get any peace in the house, we have tried many of your tactics, like leave the room for instance when she screams but it just does not work. We are at the point where we are seriously thinking of putting her up for adoption to get some peace of mind, this unfortunately would break my eldest sons heart as the bird has bonded with him from the start. We also have a male eclectus and he is just a pleasure, he does’nt scream at all and is very friendly.

Jeff Cox

Hi Chet:
Here is my input:
Jaco my Double Yellow I’ve had for 23 years screams when:
We leave the room.
He wants better food.. can hear and smell us cooking in the kitchen.
If we do not wake up on time in the morning.
When the phone rings.
When I dial the phone to make a call… he can hear the tones.
If there is conversation in the room or when the TV is on.
He wants more attention.
When dinner is done and I have not put him in the cage and covered him on time.

Jaco is clearly spoined rotten since my girlfriend gives him food to shut him up. Lately I have just been isolating him in the second cage in the hangar.

What can I say….
dn

Dear Chet,

I have a 7 yr. old female Solomon Island Eclectus named Scarlet and she has been with me for 6 of those years. She was in a pet store until her 1st birthday and not sure if she picked up the screaming there but her ear piercing screaming is driving me and my husband crazy. The main time she does it is when me or my husband leave the room (she is in the living room). She is like clock work if she hears us getting ready to take the dog for a walk or if we are going in and out of the house. She seems to be somewhat of a tattle tail and screams when the dog runs in the house. She did this when I lived alone and it was just her and I. She was more vocal meaning talking then too now it’s been several months / year since she will talk to me. We are expecting twins and we really don’t want to move her main cage downstairs but she is so loud. Some where between 5-6 PM she usually starts in constantly and I’m sure that is bread in her jeans some how but I can’t take her out every time she starts in especially when I am going to have two infants to take care of and she is in ear shot of babies room and heck I can hear her across the street and down at the corner when I leave the house.
I’ve called the behavior person you recommended with your training package I purchased, and her ideas sounded good but didn’t help. (such as changing toys, taking her out at different times during the day, etc.) We have done the ignoring, tried to attach a string to the cage and pull it when she screams to startle her, and when she screams when I’m in the room I’ve done the leaving the room and staying out of sight until she stops which does not help when I have things I have to get done and I’m hiding for a good 35 -50 minutes at a time.
I think I need some type of a “Bird Whisper” to fix this problem as she is part of the family but she is making it so hard to keep her upstairs with us and I don’t want to move her to the basement since she is social and is my first pet and my baby and she can be sweet and loving at least to me but I’m at my whits ends and would love to fix this before the babies come at the end of Sept. 08. ( Sorry for making this so long ! )
PLEASE HELP !!!!
Kim : )

I have a 4-year old Jenday Conure…she’s named “Mad Maxine” for a reason. I’m at wit’s end because:

-The minute the sun comes up and she hears me getting ready for work, she starts screaming. FYI…I’m in a 2-story — I’m upstairs and she’s downstairs.

-when I come home from work, she must recognize either the sound of my car or my footsteps on the walkway to my door. The minute I get out of the car (it’s about 200 yards from my parking space to my front door and she cannot see me) she screams nonstop from that point on until I cover her cage and put her to “bed” for the night or when it gets dark outside. The only time she stops screaming during the day is when I’m out of sight, and she can’t see OR hear me. When I hold her and pet her she’ll talk, then scream, talk some more…scream some more. Drives me crazy.

-When I have company, I have to put her upstairs in her mobile cage and close the door. It doesn’t make her stop screaming, it just lowers the volume a tad. Quite frankly…it annoys me so much that I’ve started thinking about selling her. I’m just not enjoying my parrott much these days.

FYI…the people I got her from got rid of her because of her constant screaming. I thought they were exaggerating, but unfortunatley they weren’t. They just couldn’t take it anymore…and were on the verge of divorce because of it. I now understand how they felt.

This is my first experience with a parrott and just may be my last — HELP!!

My 10-year-old Senegal (assumed to be female) must create a huge racket when we are in the kitchen doing dishes or preparing food. The kitchen is open to the rest of the main floor, so she has direct view from just a few feet away. Might be the noise of running water or rattling dishes that she feels gives her license to make her own noise?

Also, any time I go to a cabinet or shelf that is behind the front door, she will scream. I think this is because I get my lunch bag from there many mornings and she is upset because she believes I’m going away – but she’ll do it any time of day, no matter what I actually pull out (baggies, storage containers, etc.).

And if she cannot see me – if I go upstairs, for instance, or into the bathroom – she screams, even if I talk to her while out of her sight.

Chet,

My B&G loves to scream whenever we are not in the same room she is. Doesn’t matter if it’s either me or my wife, as long as one of us is in the same room, she’s ok..but if we both leave the room, or put her in her cage which is not in direct eyeshot of us, she screams bloody murder, and doesn’t stop until she doesn’t hear anyone for about 10 minutes. Then when we speak, she screams again.

The other problem we have is when we have company over, and if the company leaves, or it is time for bed while the company is over she screams..and I mean LOUD ear piercing screams…the kind that creep up my spine and knock on my head.

Occasionally she will scream when we put her to bed, but usually a “go to bed” will do the trick.

Hey Chet,

I havn’t received your course yet but I’m waiting. I have a 1 year old indian ringneck parrot. When I first got him anyone could pick him up and we used to pet him and i even would put his head inside my hand like a cave. But then when he got to about 6 months old it stopped.. he started hating hands and biting anyone who came near him. I am not to worried about that part, our training is coming along fine i can still get him to step up and not bite about 60% of the time and I’ve got him coming across the top of his cage and touching my finger then i click and give him a treat.. (although im not sure what the clicker orientation is about yet)..i just went and bought a clicker.

but the SHRIEKING just has to stop, I cant deal with it, its ear piercing. I tried doing what you said and ignoring it and acting like its not happening but that does not fix anything.. I tried screaming at him and of course that doesn’t work. I get so mad sometimes I feel like getting a bat and smashing the cage, not that i would do that but you know what i mean. he screams when im in the room, when i leave the room, when i leave the house,even after i let him out and on top of his cage he keeps doing it, he screams repeatedly sharp and loud as he can over and over.. and its random.. we will watch tv and he will sit there and play with his toys and then all of a sudden its time to scream again.. its not for food, nothing is scaring him.. he acts ( like you say) a 2 year old bad kid. all i hope is that the course has something in it when it gets here to help me or i dont know what i will do, my training with him isnt helping.. I will be forced to get rid of him.

thanks
Corey.

I don’t have a screaming bird but thank you very much. Jack is great.

Hi Chet,
My Red Bellies and Brown headed parrot only scream for their dinner. I never feed them while they’re screaming but wait till all’s quiet. They still do it every day.

My baby sun conure (17 weeks old, and only with us for 1 week so far) screams whenever he can see the dog (apparently she scared him yesterday). He also screams when I cover him for the night, despite already having snuggled himself into the corner with his blanket and making it very clear he does not want to be disturbed.

I am a first time bird owner and did not know there was so much joy in owning a bird as a pet. As a gift my son gave me a Blue-Gold Macaw we call CapHook although I already had a chihuahua named Baby. CapHook is very delightful and quite entertaning. I have learned that he does not like loud noises outside to the house, especially when the gardners are mowing and are near the doors or windows. This will set him off to squawing very loudly. I will close all doors and windows to try and muffle the sound and turn the radio on to easy listening music. I will try and distract him by talking to him or offerring him a ride on his favorite chair or my arm. CapHook is the most delightful and entertaining bird in the world.

My green conure will not quit screaming, he screams till we get up in the morning, he screams if we have company, he screams at my brother in law, I have done everything I can to get him to stop, I’ve covered him up, or eed him treats, or petted him, nothing seems to help, I’ve had him or fourteen years and it has always been the same, people ask me how I can stand it, and why don’t I get rid of him? Why I love him

My Australian long-billed corella starts to scream when I have a group of friends over. His cage is in my entertaining area and normally he only gives and occasional scream if he is alarmed. But when my friends all start chatting (no music or other noises) he starts and just will not stop. I have to wheel his cage out into the backyard, cover him and he eventually settles down. He doesn’t do this when there are three or four family members chatting, only when there are friends there.

We have an african grey, Ruby who is a real screamer whenever we leave the room , or when people come into the house and greet him . He doesn’t scream with all strangers though, as far as children go I try to tell them to ignore the bird and then I will introduce them in a relaxed setting and Ruby is fine with them.It seems he has to warm up to people.As far as the screaming goes when I can’t take it I just put him into his sleeping room on top of his night time cage and he just shuts up!Sometimes he puts himself into the cage and takes his on “time out”

I have a unique screaming issue. I have a Greater Vasa, and they are famous for whining. It’s like a scream but initially low in volume. She whines constantly when you get her out of the cage, and it gets louder if she is not getting her way. It grows in volume until it is a full blown scream. She wants out of the cage, but she whines/screams until she is put on the playpen. When you move her back to the cage, she whines/screams until she is back in the cage. I know that Vasa’s are kind of rare in aviculture, but any advice you have would be great.

Hi Chet,
I have a Quaker Parrot that I adopted from my co-worker about 5 years ago. He found her in his garden. He had kept her in the garage for about two weeks in a parakeet cage. He told me that she was a Yellow Amazon, so sight unseen I went out and purchased a new cage big enough for a Yellow Amazon and then some. So here is this little quaker in a huge cage. I thought she would be very happy. She was sooo very scared the first several months and not a peep out of her. When I realized that my 2 pit bulls would not go after her I started to leave her cage open. She eventually became the aggressive one. She would nose dive over them and eventually did the same to me and my husband. She even eventually started to say “Woof”. Eventually the dogs both passed due to old age and that is when the screaming began. She screams when we enter and leave the room. She screams when she hears me in another part of the house or on the telephone. She screams when I am trying to take a nap. Heck, she even screams when she is covered. The only time she is quiet is when I am holding her or when she is asleep. Don’t get me wrong, this behavior is not every day all the time. It’s only during some time frames. For example, a week or maybe two. She can be the sweetest bird but her screaming is going to get me thrown out of here. I make sure I spend time with her daily and I buy her new toys constantly but the screaming continues. Hubby has threatened to get rid of her. I notice that a week or two before she lays eggs she can be very noisy. Yet once she lays an egg she is quiet. Oh by the way, should I be removing the eggs from her? Last year she laid 13 eggs. Last Sunday, she laid her first egg this year.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Hi,
I have a 2-year-old female cockatiel, Jojo. Since she does not talk, all she does is squawk and scream.
She loves to scream whenever she wants a treat (ie. she likes rice and meat). Unfortunately, while I’ve been away on a trip, my mom has been spoiling her with her favorite treats. Of course, that precipitates the screaming every morning when she finds no treats in her cage. My mom told me that Jojo started off screaming whenever she heard the alarm go off and my mom walking about upstairs. Then she started screaming 10 minutes before the alarm would even go off every morning. She even managed to change for daylight savings after a day or two! (I’ve told my mom to stop leaving treats in her cage and to only give her the Zupreem pellets. This has decreased the screaming in the mornings.)
She will also scream whenever we go outside, come back home, and she hears the garage door opening. I’m afraid neighbors can hear her screaming.
Jojo’ll scream while she’s on my shoulder (and make me deaf!) when she sees my sister leave the room (when she visits). I don’t really understand this because she never bonded with my sister (my sister is scared of Jojo). Sometimes, Jojo will scream while on my shoulder as if she’s looking for my dad or fiance (she likes boys better. hmph!).
Jojo’s gotten a tad bit better with her screaming for attention and being let out of the cage when I made her a bigger enclosure (I put her cage within a cage and kept her cage door open so it seems like she’s running about). She’s also gotten better with her screaming for attention after she got used to the parakeet I got for her (the parakeet is terrified of humans though and will follow Jojo wherever she goes!). Oh yeah. The parakeet… now imitates Jojo’s screaming. So not only do I hear Jojo’s ear piercing scream, I hear an echo right afterwards! LOL
Of course, when Jojo is tired and sleepy at night, she will scream for me to turn off the light. Or she will come running into the bedroom (where she normally sleeps with me) while squawking.
Hope this helps~
Jina

Hi Chet,
I’ve really appreciated your videos.

I have 5 birds right now. 2 cockatiels, 2 blue-crowned conures and a lovely little white parakeet (Lilly). Lilly just sings so nicely! The cockatiels, ChooChoo and Pepper like to wolf-whistle and sing their own tunes. If something statrtles them they scream… not much of a problem.

The blue-crowns are another story… Paulie is SO tame. he loves to lie on his back in “dad’s” hand, sit in the window and call the kitty & meow. His cage-mate, Buddy is my problem bird. Not sure if Buddy is male or female, but loves Paulie! Buddy is all my bird! screams if I leave the room & that gets all the others stirred up. Buddy has taken a chunk out of my lip and my ear lobe, but I love “him” to death. Sometimes he lets me hold him close, but usually I just keep him away from my face if his body language isn’t “just right”. He loves to give me kisses & makes kissy sounds, but if his “hair” stands up, I put him back on his cage. There are times I am scared half to death of him, and times when I can really cuddle up to him. What do I do with him???
Maggie

Hi Chet,

Hi Chet,

I have a rescued male Eclectus, Ricky. He is green and evil to me. He is the epitome of charm and affection toward my husband. Ricky’s screaming will be two different times.

A time of isolation where he has not been included in the household activities for a period of 2 or more hours- Ricky will start in with an opera of screaming that lasts from 4 – 24 shrieks. My husband and I both ignore this screaming.

A time of agitation. The agitation can be several things. If I am in his “space” for too long of a time, the site of the pool cue, a belt or a suitcase and he starts screaming for a much longer duration than the isolation opera. I try to ignore it, particularly when he screams at me. My husband tries to remove the agitation.

The screaming is not terrible but it is gradually getting worse. We rescued Ricky in July 2007 and he never screamed until he had been with us for about 2 months. He first started screaming at about 4:00 in the morning every morning. And that has finally stopped or maybe I just sleep through it now.

Hi Chet,

I have a pair of Eclectus, just rescently purchased the female, the male I had for about 7 years. He screams for attention & I can relate to Fiona’s comment my male would always scream for the attention of any male person who came into our home. Since I got the female, he screams less, but she screams, not alot yet i noticed she screams in the am if i open the curtain to let the light in early in the morning. I did try your advice about ignoring him & it worked but we moved & he had to adjust to a new environment but is screaming less. The Eclectus do love attention most of the time. My male has to even sleep with me at the corner of my bed at night, if I didn’t take him to bed he would chew up his wing feathers & feet. He is getting better though thanks to you.

I have a 3 year old Senegal named Roscoe. Roscoe started screaming when I leave the room about 3 months ago. When I leave the room or area where he can see me, I always tell Roscoe I will be right back and then we would whistle to each other while I was out of the room. Roscoe has started screaming when I leave now, He screams several times in a row and I continue to maintain the usual contact whistle. Normally after about 3 – ?? screams, he will finally start replying to my whistle. I onlt return to an area in his sight after he has returned a whistle to me.

Hi Chet,
My male senegal parrot, Sammy, usually screams when i leave the room, put him in his cage, or when he’s on his pearch and i’m not paying any attention to him. Very spoiled bird in my opinion, but he must not think so. He’s rarely ever in his cage or left alone, but i get the feeling that he screams out of boredom. He has plenty of toys but rarely plays with them. He would rather get on the floor and find trouble than play with his toys.
His screams are not tunes or bird calls but just awful screams. sometimes a cry.. it bothers me because i just want him to be happy and content. Maybe i have spoiled him too much and thats the problem.
Thanks
Lacie Crow

My Orange wing starts screaming the minute my other half gets up. She’ll uncover our parrot and then it stops screaming until Sandy leaves the room. When ever we’re out of her sight she screams. We’ve tried just about every thing to stop this, with no success. And as you know we can’t spend every waking moment with our bird. Hope you can come up with some suggestion.
Thanks,
Dave

Well reading over some of the replies I have to say the my Ring Neck mainly screams when we are in the room eating. Like someone else said above even though we share with her she just seem to always want more.
Thanks
Chris LaFrambois

Chet,
I have 4 birds; a one and 1/2 year old blue crown conure, 2- one and 1/2 year old fischer love birds, and a one yearn oldn parrolet. They were brought home in the order above, all about at 4-5 months, and of course the conure is the worst offender. He feels the most need for attention, and his way of expressing “need” is the squawcking noise that you describe. I get the most feedback from him when I leave for work in the morning, when I walk out of the room, or if I am talking to someone on the phone. He (I am assuming, not DNA tested) is extremely smart, and I try to keep him stimulated with toys, new things, conversation, etc. I am the only person in the house, and I think he just assumes I am his “mom”. I can squelch the noise on occassion with the trick I learned from the lovebird breeder, to whisper, “I love you”.It works…but not always. Any help would be greatly appreciated, it can get annoying. Thanks!

My African Grey companion rarely screams – when he does it is purely to tease me because I’ve told him I am too busy to hang out with he right then. He is very smart and knows that screaming won’t bring me to him… but he likes to let me know he isn’t complacent about my “neglect”. Usually I tell him he is a very noisy bird and can make much nicer sounds -that placates him and then he usually will sing for a bit. CAGs are so sensitive I am constantly amazed how his behaviors mirror my own moods!

We’ve taken in a cockatiel, aged around close to two years. He was in a home where he was alone a lot and covered up for more than 80% of his time.
He now has a great cage, lots of light, attention and the best food and treats we can find. He gets “out” time every day and has learned to whistle an astonishing amount of tunes. (We play all sorts of music for him and he ‘watches’ the animal channel, lol.
But – when he wants attention or we leave the room, he shrills. We try to wait it out if needed and reward him for his happy tunes and smalltalk.
The biggest problem with George, though, is that although he will touch our face, walk all over us and so on, he will not leave our person to explore. He is not curious about ’stuff’, he is afraid to be touched although we’ve never hurt him in the year we’ve had him. He will join kisses and adjust my watch, but hands, fingers will be bloodied if they come too close.
He flies well, although always without filing a flight plan…. is there anything we can do for him to help him feel safe around hands? When I catch him by putting my blanket around him and holding him, I can touch and scratch him and he seems happy. Given a finger by the beak, he will bite.

A common problem I have with my birds that I think you should include is night firghts. Although it isn’t the type of screaming you immediatey think of, it is unnerving to wake up at three a.m. to murderous screeching and flapping about the cage. Just something I thought would be helpful to other bird owners.

Hi Chet,
I have a 4 year old red Lorded Amazon named Tahoe. The best thing I taught Tahoe to say was “that’s right”. He agrees with every thing I say. Any way, Tahoe will scream when family members walk into the room. He will not make a sound when people unknown to him enter. I’m not sure what to make of his actions. Can you help us?
Thank you,
Martie

My Goffin gets to doing her screaming every time the family is having a conversation or on a telephone call. She just doesn’t shut up. The only way we can get her to be quiet is to go over to her and start petting her on her head in the cage not out of it.

I live in a small apartment. My Senegal (Buddy) screams at noises from people who live upstairs, run on the stairs, children”s high-pitched voices and any movement or sounds he sees or hears from outside. I can remove him to another room but that does not cure the problem the next time the same outside stimuli occur.

My male Miniature Macaw, ToughGuy, Had a different kind of issue as well. Of Course he screams, when he wants attention ( not often) and wants some of what we are eating…I can deal with all that. its issue with the door being open. He HATES it. Its spring and the door is open ( with screen/storm door) more often and would love to find a way for him to be ok with it.
I have a theory as to why. When he was just about a year old, he was having his wings trimmed by the pet store owner, was startled and flew out the door. Because he did that the Store owner when he retieved him, literally cut his wings off. ( he did grow them back to the suprise of EVERYONE!)I think he DOES have a accosiation of ‘outside’ and his wings being cut off, although hes GREAT for a wing trim these days and LOVES to go outside with me when its warm enough.But I do think he hates the door being open for that reason.

What do you mean by “moderation”?

I have a cockatiel that screams when ever i go near his empty cereal box. I think he uses it as some kind of nesting site or something…lol. The cereal box is on top of the fridge, so he sits up there a lot and gets a bit defensive and screams if i go too close. Ive tried taking the cereal box away, but he still gets defensive when he sits on top of the fridge. It seems to be a hormonal thing I think, because he goes through stages where he goes nuts over it then other times when he couldnt care less about it all.

I have since discovered an unusual solution to the problem – if i approach the fridge whilst saying “wheres your chickey babe” (chickey babe – aka, his bag which is his girlfriend!?!) instead of screaming, he puff’s his wings out and struts around, but you got to keep on talking about his “chickey babe” otherwise he goes nuts again! Dont know why. Weird.

Hi Chet,
I have an indian ringneck that I suppose everyone will think is just a noisy bird. But he is generally pretty good and speaks alot, and I have trained him to say words when he wants attention rather than scream. He also talks on the phone! (thats another issue…)
But in the morning when I am getting ready for work, I let him out and he will follow from room to room doing a really annoying screech. And its pretty loud and I worry my neighbours will get annoyed. He also does it a bit at night but that is just the natural dusk noisy time and he tends to use more words then. Not sure how the morning screech came about, he used to be pretty good.

Anna

HI I’ve been reading your emails and learnt alot about birds from them thanks.My double yellowheaded amazon is a very smart bird.She can sing and has a very large verbal catorgory.most of the time she will talk and sing instead of screaming the only time i have trouble with screaming if someone comes over she don’t like then she gets in her bad mood.some times i can talk her out of it and give her a treat,or tell her easy,but on some people she will not listen to me.I have more trouble on her behavior attitude she wants attention from me.which is singing and dancing,or just talking to her.If i don’t do what she wants she will try to bite me.Maybe you can give me a few hints on it. would appreciate it thanks

Clara is a really really awesome talker for a Tulucan Amazon parrot but squacking is a problem for the entire family. We always ignore squacking and immediately respond to talking or favorible sounds. My husband and I work from our home so we are home all day everyday. Clara knows our every move and oru routine. We have narrowed down her screaming to a few key points. She is in LOVE with my husband and everytime he comes down the stairs she screams to get his attention. It never works but she still tries! She screams if anyone of leave her area. She screams everytime my daughter’s phone rings. She screams everytime we move her cage for any reason. She will scream until she hears you move – not talk or respond necessarily to her – remember we ignore her completely when she screams – but just a sound of you moving will get her to stop then she immediately starts talking. She will say peek a boo or come here come here or how are you or what a cracker or start singing, something in her vocabulary. I tried to get her to switch from screaming to her meow and it seemed to be working because I wold answer her meow right away but it is not working anymore at all!!! Spring seems to have changed her a lot!!!! She does this really weird dancing silly softer squack in the spring. We call it her “lookin for love” dance. She is a HUGE part of our family but she can be really annoying!!! Oh yes, she always squacks or barks like a dog when someone strange comes in the house. She will do that non stop for a few minutes then stop and starts showing off!!! I guess she invokes a love-hate emotion in everyone in this family. She is awesome though – she never bites – instead she bites her own leg. Very funny gal!!! Any suggestions? Maybe stand infront of her cage all day and stare at her? NOT!!! Allthough that would fix her that is just NOT possible!!!

Dear Chet;
We have Holly a 3year old Nanday Conuare and Deigo a3year old Sun Conuare they are both males. We know they are not getting enough attention for about 6 months as we have been baby sitting our sons large cat George and Annie a large chocolate Lab we have a very small dashound, Phantom. We have had Holly for about 8years and everything was going pretty good when my husband found Deigo at a pet store and they both really hit it off Deigo just loved on him, but we found out he hated women and bit them. Well I felt sorry for him and we decided to see if he would be Ok. Well they both scream and are crazy about each other but I never trust Deigo as he has bitten me very bad, hanging from my face and would not let go. Well we gave him the excuse that he was trying to fly and we thought maybe he got scared and grabed hold. Any way our seven children and 39grandchildren and our mothers can not stand their screaming. They have all stated don’t leave the birds to us if something happens to you guys and all our children love birds and animals: but after reading some on the commits maybe it is because Holly and Deigo become excited when new people come around. but they scream with me and my husband too, I just wish we could enjoy them more. If you are vacationing in Tombstone,AZ give us a call and maybe you could meet our little darlings and give us an extra tip or two. We have room for you and your wife, and children. Its a fun place to visit. Thank Ken and Phyllis

My Sulfer Crested Cockatoo is my baby, but she is makeing the family crazy. When there is any anxiety in the home, even if voices are not raised, she goes crazy. She screams when we go watch tv without her and she screams when we sit down for dinner. We share, but we wonder if feeding her is rewarding the behavier. I recently bought a black sheet and use it when she is screaming. That has seemed to work. I use DIFFERENT covers for sleep and the black sheet for time out.

Dear Chet,

I forgot to mention we have had Deigo for about five years, so he is not a new member of the family. thanks Phyllis

Hi Chet,
My Blue & Gold screams when I take plates in and out of the dishwasher, if I play acoustic guitar (he’s fine if I play electric), when strangers enter the room, when I leave in the morning and sometimes if we are talking and not giving him attention. For the two first it seems that he reacts to certain frequencies, the other seem like more behavioral issues. Can you confirm this, and maybe suggest a remedy?

Thanks!

My two year old goffen cockatoo Henry is so attachd to us whenever we leave the immediate room and he knows you are in the house he starts to scream. When he is with us watching TV on your knee if you are not constantly scratching his head he will also screech. I personally think we spoiled him but I would love some info to correct the problem.

Thanks, Bev

I have a Quaker that is approximately 3 years old. Was given to me by friends who could not stand her screaming all the time. She does not like to be touched although I am working on that.

She screams whenever she hears sirens as if asking me to make them go away. She screams when I play one of her former owners CD’s, making it very hard to listen to music anymore, LOL. She also screams when I cough. If I sneeze, she says “bless you” and “thank you” but a cough will cause her to scream. She also screams when she gets tired at night, but I know that is her sign she is ready to be covered and wants to go to sleep.

I have been trying to find a training treat she likes, but she does not like sunflower seeds or peanut pieces. I even tried pieces of fresh fruit but she just throws them out of her cage. LOL. She is a little bitty bird with a great big attitude and voice.

Definite personality!

Thanks,
Tina Carlson

Hi Chet
I have a quaker parrot named Bonsai. He just turned one in January and ive been having some problems with his screaming. I live in an appartment building and im worried i might get kicked out if he keeps it up. He will scream when i start getting going in the morning. I keep him covered until i come back from my hour class because he screams more when i take off the cover then leave for class. Another time he screams is when i want to take a nap without himvand shut my bed room door. i really need to catch up on my sleep but he screams so loud. Lastly, he will start screaming at night while im on the computer and watching tv.
he has veggies to chew on and lots of toys but he just sits and screams when im not playing with him directly. or he will go find something to shred up like kleenexs and pens and my school work.

QUIGLEY, AN ECLECTUS, SCREAMS WHEN VACUUM CLEANER, HAIR DRYER(IN OTHER ROOM), DISHWASHER, OR WASHING MACHINE RUNS….AND DOESNT QUIT UNTIL ITS TURNED OFF…OH YEAH…JUST RUNNING WATER IN THE KITCHEN ALSO…THIS IS MAKING ME CRAZY

I have a 13 year old female umbrella cockatoo. Mating season is the worst time for screaming. We are forced to give her depo shots to stop the behavior as well as the screaming. I doubt there is much you can do to stop “mating” screaming. She definitely suffers from separation anxiety. She is highly intelligent, speaks as clearly as a 3 year old child, understands most phrases and responds appropriately. She knows several tricks and truly is the light of our lives!!! We have had her since she was 8 months old, so she is not a re-housed bird. She is truly a sweetheart except for the mating screaming.

Hi, I have a Male Eclectus, a Male White Front Amazon and a Sun Conure of undetermined sex. My Eclectus has recently started screaming in the evenings if someone is watching TV but not holding him, and if he sees my boyfriend or myself and we don’t take him out he will start to scream. My Amazon will only start screaming if he sees us holding the Eclectus or Sun Conure and he is not getting attention. But the Conure screams pretty much all the time. As soon as I walk in the door he is screaming, and I can’t even try to wait him out to play with him, he will just keep screaming until I take him out or cover him. He also screams if he is out of his cage but I am working on the computer or on the phone. Then if I have to leave he will scream for I don’t know how long.
I hope this helps you help me get my house to be quiet. Thanks

My quaker screams for food or anything she thinks is food and won’t stop. We used to give her a piece just to shut her up but haven’t done that for years and she still does it. As soon as someone starts eating anything she screams. She also screams her head off when she sees certain things such as a vacuum cleaner, broom, and other things that aren’t scary. Like a box, a thermos, the other bird’s cage. Everything seems to scare her and she screams.

Hello Chet

I am the proud owner of 3 indian ringnecked parrots. Joe and Jill are 7 years old and have a baby called jessy who was one year old yesterday. I had to seperate jessy from the parents because joe took on the responsibility of being mother and father. if jill tried to have contact, there would be an all out war. Since removing jessy, joe and jill are all lovey dovey again. My problem now is that joe screams all the time when anyone approaches the cage other than myself. If the phone rings joe will not stop screaming until i put the phone down. hope this helps. thanks

Mandy

I have sixteen large parrots. They each have their own home. My first bird, my sulphur crest is approximately 40 years old. He is a bird that was imported, and has had several owners. I rescued him. He was in a cage barely big enough for a cockatiel that was filthy, had no toys or perches. He has screamed from the time I got him. It doesn’t seem to have any reason. He screams if you’re in the room or out. He screamed before I got any other birds and has screamed since. I have not changed his environment. Of course he screams first thing in the morning and late in the evening. I always expect that because it has to do with the way they behave in nature. If I am eating or cooking he screams. I give him something to eat and he screams. I have had birds for awhile, and can tell what causes most behaviors. There just doesn’t seem to be any rhymr or reason for his screaming. I always make it a habit of not going to him when he screams or giving him any type of attention, so this doesn’t encourage the behavior. I have tried everything.

I will be getting a Pionus hand-fed baby bird in a couple of weeks, so I don’t think I have to worry about screaming from that bird. But…I had to get rid of a sweet affectionate Sun Conure parrot last year…the tamest little fella ever…but…every time I left his sight, even for a minute, he would break out into earsplitting screams as only Conures can do; my ears would actually HURT, his screams were so loud. Every time I went into another room, or left his line of sight, SCREAM! SCREAM! SCREAM!!! IT DROVE ME NUTS, and I finally ended up screaming at the bird to SHUT UP!!! It was getting so bad that when I left home, I wouldn’t wanna come back home ‘cos I knew he’d scream at me the minute I opened up the door, which he always did. It got so bad that finally I took the bird (which I’d paid $600 for) BACK to the pet store, and I just gave him back. It was either that or make Conure Stew out of the little guy and I didn’t want to do that. But the screaming was the loudest, most AWFUL screaming I’d ever heard. I was literally screamed out of my mind by that bird. Thing is, I really loved him and we had a lot of fun together, but no matter how tame he got (or maybe because of that), he’d just scream, scream, scream. In closing, I have no idea how Parents put up with screaming kids. I am hoping this Pionus I’m getting is, well, easier to tolerate. But it’ll be interesting seeing what you come up with, on how to stop screaming birds from screaming. I don’t mind a few squawks here and there…but the Conure probably perforatede my eardrums!

I have a three year old sun conure who loves to scream. He screams from the minute he sees my car coming up the road, until I pick him up. He will continue screaming if I do not go and handle him. I realise that by picking him up whenever he screams I am reinforcing the screaming, but I really don’t want to make the neighbours angry by letting him sit there and scream, so of course he gets his way and I pick him up. Studying has become a real problem, because if he knows I’m home and he will scream non-stop.

He has a mate, and lives in a a bird room with 3 other birds. All cages stay open until, it’s bed time They have a playstand, a huge variety of branches to climb on and I change their branches and toys every week. I know he plays with these toys when I am not home, because they are always chewed up, but if I am home, he refuses to do anything except scream unless he is with me. He does not make any other noises that I can reward/encourage, and I really can’t use the ‘ignore him until he stops’ method, because he will scream all day if he had the chance. Thanks for your help!

i have electus female parrot screams everytime we go out off room more so when my husband goes out and leave her she think he her mate ! he can do anythink with her but if i try she trys bit me

Hi chet,
i’m havin nearly 1 year old medium sulphur,snoppy, it’s really a good bird always use to be quiet,very close and affenctionate to me,it’s a harmless bird, but when it sees me or when it sits in my hand or if me and my brother is going to sit near it , the bird makes growling noise like a baby cockatoo asking for food from their parents, even though it had it’s tummy full it always makes the sound so please help me with it.

Yes, I would like to comment on parrot screaming. My parrot, Hoppy, screams especially when we eat. His cage is located in the dining room. He also screams right out of the blue without any reason. His screaming will go on for about 30 minutes solid without stopping. We’ve tried covering him and putting him in a portable cage in another room, but it doesn’t help. This bird is a Caique and the sound he emits is ear piercing. We love Hoppy but his screaming is out of control.

I have a parakeet, and I don’t know what the deal is, she just starts screeching randomly and random times of the day. I’ve heard that most pakeets just do that but I don’t know if that’s true. I know not to yell at her, and i don’t. I just wish I knew why and how to get her to stop screeching.

Hi, Chet,

We have a 10 year old Umbrella Cockatoo that has been with us for nearly a year. Trooper seems to scream whenever I leave the room unless it is night and he is covered. Most of the time during the day one of my grandmothers or other relatives is in the room and Trooper remains fairly calm, however when I come in and then leave sometime later, such as leaving for class, I hear him start screaming before I get to the car. He will also do this sometimes right after I leave that room to go play the piano, or go upstairs to study. The outbursts usually last about 5 minutes, I guess until he realizes I won’t be coming back too soon.

Today was a prime example, as I went to play piano before leaving for class, and as soon as I walked out he started screaming. I turned and went back into the room and literally mid sentence, his scream changed into this very quiet and polite “Hi, chodz tu.” (In Polish, chodz tu means come here). Really uncanny. I ended up taking him with me to the piano room and he danced on my shoulders while I played…

So I am pretty sure his screaming is just a way of calling me back, if only I could change it to something at a slightly lower decibel level…

P.S.
He also screams outside, but that seems to be more a warning to other birds, so I am OK with it, unless he does it right next to my ear, which is every time actually…

Hi Chet,

Here is the problem in our home. We have two Senegals and one Baby ACG. One Senegal is bonded to my husband and the other two birds are both bonded to me. Anytime my husband leaves the room his bird screams constantly until he returns. Whenever I leave the room my two birds scream constantly until I return. We’ve tried ignoring them and not returning until they stop screaming, but we have waited for as long as half an hour with no let up on the screaming. So, how do we solve this little problem? That’s where you come in. HELP!!!

hey i hav a sun conure thats bout 4 yrs old.she only likes me n my brother and will bite any1 else but is very loving 2wards us.she screams in the morning wen she 1st hears sum1 is up n as my sister wakes up early im often woken by this screaming.she is usually fine but as i am a skool student n get ALOT of homework n assignments i dnt always hav time 2 get her out evry day n as a result she screams 4 attention until sum1 cums 2 c her.as the rest of my family dusnt realy like birds they r not as tolerant as me of the noise n often yell at her 2 shutup wich apparently makes them scream more (not 100% if this is tru).do u no wat i can do 2 shut her up as well as tips 4 keepn her entertained wile im not home.(at the moment we dnt hav the room 4 an avairy or a large inside cage so she stays in a smaller cage n can only fly wen i get her out meaning she has alot of energy that can b used 4 screamin)

Hi Chet,
My Cockatoo was really having a screamfest a year ago. I sent for your CD’s that had recordings of other birds talking. Sorry to say I was unable to tell most of the time exactly what they were saying, however I played them everyday for my bird , SNOBALL. I am happy to say now that he has replaced his screaming with the most delightful jibberish you have ever heard. We get such a kick out of it and it has really helped with the agitation level from the neighbors, ha.
All in all the CD’s worked well for our purpose, and when he jabbers and someone else is here to hear him, I just make up something and respond to him. The visitors are amazed that he said something bazaar like,,, hello, I want a new cage, of course he said nothing,, but I have the visitors believing he did. Thanks so much for all your help.
Linda in Fallbrook CA

my 2 year old galah peroni is very friendly and loves me dearly but lately whenever i sit infront of the tv he starts screaming. He can still see me and is only 7 mtrs away. and won’t stop until i walk towards him. ignoring him doesn’t work. Covering him works but after you take the covers off and i sit down again he starts up again. if i get him out for a while and then put him back he is quiet for 30 mins then starts again. I tend to just cover him and keep him covered from about 7.30pm Is this because when i get him out i sit there and pat him and he is wondering why he can’t be out getting a pat now? I can be anywhere else in the house and he doesn’t do it. He also screams when i feed the dogs as soon as i walk back inside he is quiet. Maybe he just likes the sound of the kibble. It very strange . thankyou

Hi there –

I have a 13 year old Blue & Gold Macaw. I’ve had him since he was 3 months and he is very attached to me.

I’m hoping your new set will address screaming when a new person enters your (and your birds!) life.

Thanks!

Hi! I truly hope you can help me! My cockatoo parrot (Izzy) starts screaming at the same time on the dot every afternoon and screams until the sun goes down. I have tried to teach her that she will not get taken out of her cage if she is screaming but that is the only way she stops, if I take her out. So her screaming is literally when I’m home from work.
I normally take her out and let her walk around the house with me, and we spend time together, but some days, I have to do some house work, and I fear the cleaning products around her so I leave her in her cage… and then she screams and does not stop. She is just being demanding but she does not understand that I cant take her out at until I am done with my chores.
Pls help.

I’ve just finished reading all one-hundred-seventy-odd posts on this site, and I don’t feel so bad about my reaction to irritating bird noise; seems a lot of people on this site have experienced and felt that. I am sorry I got rid of the Conure, but at the time, it was probably best that I did. (see above post)

I had to get rid of my Sun Conure last year because of it’s constant screaming whenever I left his line of sight. The noise literally sent me over the edge; I couldn’t face him anymore ‘cos of the screaming. Once I played with him, etc., he’d quiet down, but I couldn’t leave his sight for ten seconds or he’d scream.

I have a mustached-parakeet. She (although is possibly a he) often screams when people leave the room she is in if she is in her cage.
She also often screams when we go out of the house, or when one of us comes home. She sometimes screams solidly for 10 minutes or more when we come in the door.
She also screams if she is left on her own in the mornings. Normally I’m up pretty early but if we sleep in and she gets bored she will start screaming.
Generally, it seems to be that she screams when she thinks she is being left alone, or is on her own for too long.

our parrots are in seperate cages and in different rooms now but anytime you enter room they begin screaching. This shriek Helllllooooooo ! They get recognized and told hello but continue to shriek for a bit. Most times of continual shrieking and ear piercing scream is when you try to carry on a conversation with another person in the room.Mind you voices are not screaming but talking normal tone and the 1 parrot especially starts screaming. What is your idea to make this stop? HELP ! Thank you

Hi Chet! We have a quaker that makes loud noises when we are watching TV. It’s been reinforced by my kids yelling at him to be quiet, and my going to the cage to let him out to keep him (and the kids) quiet. Thanks to your videos, he knows some tricks and enjoys performing them (when a reward is in sight!) His cage (and our cockatiel, and meyers parrot) are located in the living room near the TV.

Our rescue Moluccan and her recently added friend (another Moluccan) scream for several reasons. The first is when they are hungry, which is reasonable. The second is when they see me leave the vicinity of the aviary…going in the house or leaving in the car. Then if they see me go by a window in the house, when they are in the aviary, or hear me on the phone through a window. Lastly, they go on and on and on when the sun gets to about 45 degrees in the afternoon and beyond, on its way to setting. This particularly annoys my teen age son who is trying to get his homework done and hates the screaming…even says he hates the birds.
I’d like to reduce all of it except the ones where they are notifying me about their hunger or something actually being wrong…oh, yeah, like when they are a bit chilly outside (that one is reasonable, I think).

Hi Chet,
My Blue & Gold Abbey screams during specific events. First, when she is “fighting” with her indestructabell – she dangles from the chain and screams, she pokes at it till it swings back and hits her and she screams, and when she gets frustrated that she can’t get to the clapper she screams.
Then there is the nightly 4pm to 6pm screaming frenzy. she will talk in between, but spends most of this time screaming…

Oh, and also when my husband takes the dog for a walk. I work the midnight shift, so it’s just the 3 of them in the morning while I’m sleeping, but as soon as hubby goes outside with the dog, Abbey screams incesantly to announce their departure (naturally waking me in the process!)

Once the sun goes down, she is calm as could be… even when left alone in the room, she will just sit quietly on her perch all night (she even falls asleep there while everyone is watching tv)

for background, she has her own room for her cage but as long as we are home and awake we bring her out to the family room on an open perch. she is also EXTREMELY attached to me. (bites my husband daily and he is the one that feeds her and takes her out of her cage every day!)

My Cockatoo screams at roosting time but also at various times during the day (for about 20 mins each) that I have no explanation for. Perhaps it is attention seeking, but she even does it when I am present and playing with her. When my husband is around she is far worse as if deliberately taunting him, consequently he does not like her. The screams do sound different, I can clearly make out a playful scream which sounds like a dog barking – she does this in the morning. In the afternoons she has what I call her ‘amazon moments’ when all you can do is cover your ears. Petting her, giving her toys, no deterrant seems to work.

I have a Cinammon Cheek Conure, her name is Yeyo.. she screams when the sun goes down and it gets dark in her area, but only at sunset, so, the way I stop it is REALLY only to talk to her while flipping on a light.. other than that she is a REAL ANGEL.. I ALWAYS LEAVE THE TV on a MUSIC station, AT ALL TIMES, or a RADIO on to keep her company as well…

I’ve noticed though, if my hubby yells “SHHHH YEYO STOP SCREAMING” she only screams louder, which CRACKS ME UP.. but she is a really good girl, Im lucky to have gotten her at 2 mos. old…

I have to say that I am a stay at home 24/7 person.. so that might be the difference in what other peoples are saying… if anyone lives in the SAN DIEGO area needs to get rid of there bird for such a problem.. I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND and would be willing to take on the responsibility…. just let CHET know, he has my email….

denise

P.S. She turned one years old April 3rd..

Hullo Chet~ I have just a regular Budgie, and his screaming problem is something I can’t find a solution to.
It screams whenever I come home.
It screams everytime I talk to someone.
It screams when I try and open the cage.
It screams while going out of the cage.
It sits on my shoulder and screams in my ear.
It screams whenever I stop playing with it.
It screams when I touch one of its toys.
It screams, and screams, and screams… in all other random situations.
It has always been a loud baby, screaming even when I was hand feeding it, and screaming yet again AFTER I fed it. It just seems to me that this budgie is a new breed of hardcore screamo parrots.
I am beggin for a solution…

Hi Chet!

I have 2 Sun Conures, “Maui” my 3 year old Male and “Duchess” my 18 month old Female. Maui screams ALL the time! In the morning, when he hears a door open, a toilet flush, a sigh, a whisper or anything at all that even hints we are awake, or even if we’re not yet awake and he just hears a car drive past or a dog bark, he will scream – and scream – and scream and NOTHING shuts him up. He also screams if he hears a car drive past, if he hears a clink of cutlery hitting a plate or bowl or pretty much any random time he likes. Even if he is out with us and sitting on us, he will scream. Sometimes he stops when hearing the command ‘enough’ but not often enough to keep my husband from threatening to sell them both.

Duchess is alot quieter usually but is quickly picking the screaming up from Maui and has started screaming at the same time he does, just not as much. They also scream alot when they are separated, say if I have Maui on my shoulder and my husband has Duchess on his shoulder etc. Maui is quote friendly and hand tamed well but has suddenly taken to very random acts of biting in the past 6 weeks. He has nipped me three times out of the blue where he never had before! Please help us Chet, we love our birds but the noise is just too much, we had a council complaint last week and are thinking we may have to pass them on to someone more tolerant of the high pitched non stop screaming. I really don’t want to have to do this, hence this message – I really hope you can help.

Alicia from Australia.

Many people will hate me for this, but I have a blue and gold macaw and I have NEVER had screaming issues with her. Annie is 15yo however i have only had her for about 7 months or so. I do believe there are some important things I do so she doesn’t develop this behavior. Annie’s cage is in the main living area so she is always with us and never wondering or curious as to what the rest of her family is doing without including her. Annie’s door stays open so she is free to go in and out as she pleases when someone is home and she spends lots of time outside in the sunshine under the watchful eye of her mum (that would be me). When Annie is left home alone, at times I will put on a DVD like Bird Sitter or Polly Vision and if I know it will be dark when I get home, I put a lamp on timer. Annie can hear the key going in to the door when we get home and I will hear a little sound of excitement. STRAIT AWAY I go to Annie and ask her how she is and if she had a good day. When ever I address Annie it is always in a high pitch tone similar to the one used to praise a pet, or child, when they do something good. I will ask her if she wants a scratch and if she bows her head, I have been granted permission. The point here is that I make time for her as soon as I get in the door. I do a similar thing when I leave saying “bye bye, mummy loves you, bye bye” and “I wont be long sweetie”. I also recommend interacting with other people in front of your bird so they don’t think they have the only claim to you. At times I speak to Annie while out of her eye site (around the corner or from the bathroom) so she knows that I will interact with her even though she can’t see me and that this way, she knows she has my attention even when I am out of the room. I also speak to her at random intervals. For eg when I am cooking, or watching TV so she doesn’t think that I only speak with her when I play with her or give her fresh water – be unpredictable so they know that you will talk to them, just not when. And many times I take her around the home with me so she knows what I am doing when she hears noises in the apartment she cant see. It is not only cats that are curious.

Yes it all sounds fabulous, and it is! A macaw that doesn’t scream. However, I spent some time at a bird boarding place and a sulfur crested cockatoo had been given up due to his highhhhh
pitched scream. It was so piercing I had a headache within 5 minutes. So I began talking to him in my high tone and as soon as he begun screeching I left the room completely. When he had quietened down for a while, I re-entered again and praised him, then gave him a icy pole stick colored with food dye to demolish. Again, when he started his screaming, I quit the room, waited for quiet and so on. It is a continuous cycle but eventually the cockie got the message. Repetition repetition. When he begun to suspect something, he would try me out by looking at me, then screaming, then stopping. Just be patient and continue with the regime. Eventually I would suggest getting other different people to try this out on the same bird so the bird doesn’t develop the habit of not screaming with only 1 person but screech crazy with others. Mix it up a bit.

One thing I just remembered with Annie.
As we all know, birds are generally preyed upon (in the wild – go with me here) and animals which have their eyes in front of their head (compound) like humans, are generally the hunters. So for this reason, if you have a skittish bird, look at them with your head slightly tilted so your not looking at them face on – face on will get their preservation instincts on high alert. Conversely, if your bird is not abused or frightened of humans, you can use this to your advantage. For example, if Annie bites me, I will put my index finger up in between us so she is looking/focused in my direction, and looking face on, I say “NO Annie” in a firm voice – but never loud or yelling. Just firm. As I generally address her in that high praise pitch, when I use my firm tone normal voice, she knows I mean business. If she tries my patience, I put her in the cage, close the door, and once again say “No Annie, No.”

So… include your bird in your family activities – they want to feel important too, and if you have a screamer on your hands, ‘punish’, for lack of a better term as I hate that one, them by leaving the room entirely. This can then be down graded to simply ignoring them whilst still in the room when they scream just to test you out. Trust me, they are a lot smarter, clever and cunning than us…

Hi Chet,

First of all, thank you so much for your training materials, I have enjoyed teaching my 6 year old Cockatiel, Fred, many things. He was a hand-fed baby when I bought him and he is incredible. I have never had a Cockatiel that is so adventurous and smart. He is also getting more aggressive but I have learned that is kind of my fault. I am using the pause method you showed in one of your videos and it is helping a lot. After reading all of the above, I would not say that he is much of a screamer or squawker, but is so persistant in wanting what he wants. He will then squawk at me like he is all mad at me for not doing what he wants, such as taking him on the long stick to our hanging plant so he can chew on it. Basically he keeps busy with his 7′ condo that we built in our living room that is covered with ladders for all 5 floors. My husband says to get him a mate, but I am worried that if we do, he will change too much and then not want to “hang” with me. I am disabled and home all day so we together a lot so he does not scream for attention, he only seems to squawk at me like he is scolding me. Any help would be appreciated and keep up the great work you do to help us bird lovers. Thank you…

Hi Chet
I have 3 birds – a Jenday conure and a pair of Lesser Sulpher crested cockatoos. The male cockatoo I have had for close on 20 years and he is just the cutest. I bought him a girlfriend about 5 years after I bought him. He hates her with a passion (the feeling is mutual with her) He does not scream, but boy can the female scream non-stop. Even if she is sitting on the couch a few feet away she will wail! She does this by crouching down and spreading her wings. She also has this “shaking” thing that she does – very odd. The Jenday was given to me – same story as Marlie Gorman – he also changed into this mad attack bird, but when he wandered off and I went out to get him out of the neighbours garden, he was all sweetnessand climbed meekly onto my finger. Other times he launches at my riding boots and hangs onto them with a venegence! But he is the best burglar alarm that one could buy! Who needs motion detectors?

I am only a beginner Bird Person. I still need to learn a lot. But I am totally hooked. Currently I have 44 pet birds and I love all of them a lot. Noise do not worry me and luckily I live in a big house, so they are all in my house.

I always enjoy reading your articles and would love to somehow get hold of some of your DVD’s. Just waiting to be able to afford it.

When my babies scream, I tend to run and spoil them. They are not to bad as most of them are talking and they are teaching each other and when I am at work, I leave the radio on for them.

Please keep in touch always and send me your articles. I have learned a lot from it.

Keep up this wonderful work.

We live with an eight year old Hans Macaw who came to us a year ago. He is very tame-on his terms- adn if you read his body language a joy to be with. He can make an incredible amount of noise when we leave him (go out for a morning or afternoon, this is all the time apart from overnight that he spends in his cage with the door shut). I believe it is part of his ‘parrotness’ to’sing’ and if he were a canary we might be encouraging it, so I don’t expect him to be quiet all of the time so my question is how do I get him to be quieter or to be quiet to order. We do not want to cover his cage, never have done, but there are times when it would be nice to be able to turn his volume down or off.
We ‘talk’ to each other which is fun and I do not want to stop this mutually agreeable and enjoyable interaction so is it possible to curb rather than completely stop his very loud screams which can be very penetrating? Sometimes it is distress as in when we leave him when we go out, but sometimes it seems to be just for his fun.

Ok Chet,
My White Eyed Conure Screams whenever I leave or come into the house. Also whenever anyone comes in and tries to visit with my husband and I he will scream the entrie time they are here. His cage is positioned at the side door where most of the traffic is for the house. I am at work most of the day so he misses me. But the only way to get him to stop screaming when I get home is to let him out of his cage to play.
HELP!

My 3 year old Lilac Crowned Amazon screams when I leave the room. He does not scream if I am not paying attention to him nor does he scream if I go outside only if I leave the room and go into another room in the house…

Hi Chet,
I having screaming corella’s, my youngest one is just over six months he started off being quite, now he’s screaming all the time, and if the other one isn’t he wakes him up and starts him aswell, they mainly scream when we leave the house, and when we return. They also watch for who’s coming to the front door and let us know by screaming too!

I have a 2 year old Dusky Conure parrot which I’ve owned since he was 2 months old. Screaming is the only problem I have with him.
1)screams when doors open or close
2)screams when I leave the room
3)screams if someone comes up the front walkway or if a car pulls in the laneway (guard bird)
I’ve tried just about everything to curb this annoying habit and nothing has been successful to date.
He gets daily outside of cage play time, handling, treats, has many toys which are alternated. Covering the cage doesn’t help. Moving him to another room doesn’t help.
Looking forward to your new DVD on screaming.

Hi Chet ,
I have a 10 month old Jenday Conure called Dotty .. She is very affectionate but whenever anyone comes into the house she starts screaming at them for attention .. Also she does it everytime the phone rings and also to annoy my German Shepherd . I live on my own and there is a constant battle between Dotty and my GSD .Dotty screams at him and when he goes near the cage she stops. As he goes to walk away she screams again . Hence he goes back to the cage and this continues untill i have to in the end cover her up or shut him out of the room . I have had Dotty since she was 21 weeks old and she is very tame . I hope you will be able to help me with this before i start screaming .

koko screams all the time,he screams when i or my hudband walk by him. he screams if he see’s us eating or hears us in the kitchen. he screams when he see’s me interacting with my children (which he hates due to jealousy). he will get off his cage and chase them to bite their feet. he screams when u interact with our cockatiels and when you leave him after playing with him. he is a rescue bird who wants to be glued to me and hubby 24-7. he was in bad shape when we got him. one bloody mess. all is healed now and doing great as long as he runs the house. thanks helen

I adopted 2 Hahns Macaws (youngsters about 8 months old now) just over 2 months ago. They have only recently started screaming a few times throughout the day.

They scream when we have breakfast, when we have lunch and when we have dinner. Or rather, they scream while I’m in the kitchen preparing the food.

I sit close by them most of the day, and 2-3 times throughout the day they’ll scream right in my ear for no particular reason that I can tell.

Their screaming bouts never last longer than 5-7 minutes.

Anna

Hi Chet.
My Ring Neck (ringo) screams when first of all i leave the room, he screams when i take his food dish out to fill it,he then screams a louder scream if im in the same room as him and not standing by the cage talking to him, he could scream for most of the day without stopping and i try everything to calm him down and the only thing that works is if i stand at the cage.

Thanks for all your great articles i read them over and over.

Good luck with this one. All the best.

Shy.
Ireland.

Hello, Chet.
We have an African Grey, Jacko, who was wished on to us just over 3 years ago. He had had very little human company for the first 11 years of his life, was very agressive and noisy and has bitten both my husband and I. However, now he is very affectionate and a real character but I still can’t handle him, mainly through my own cowardice not wanting to be bitten. I am awaiting delivery of a playstand for him to get him away from his cage. He has 2 favourite screaming times – morning at breakfast time and lunchtime -in the evening he comes out on top of his cage. He will also shout rather than scream sometimes if we have visitors for a meal (his cage is in the dining-room). Sometimes we get him to be quiet by standing by the cage and talking to him quietly for a while. To be honest he sounds as if he is imitating human rows when he gets noisy always ending on a crescendo! He doesn’t talk much yet but imitates noises incredibly quickly from hearing them only once or twice. Any advice would be very welcome. Thank you. Jenny

Oh and just a little note..

I have realised that telling ringo to “shut up” was a very bad idea as now it is his favourite thing to say..

Shy.

I have a three year old bare-eyed cockatoo called Zoe + also a 6 year old Hahns McCaw called Sammy. The birds have their own room (separate cages as well) which is about 12ft x 8ft and they are out from 7:00 am in the morning and go to bed when we do ! They have the radio on all day as well. Zoe screams if she knows we are in the room next door and she can’t get to us. Once Zoe starts, Sammy then follows suit and I’m sure they try and outdo each other in loudness , however, no contest – Zoe wins every time. It goes on and on until we let them out. Once out, they both shut up and then take it in turns to sit on either me or my husband – occasionally together, but then they bicker like brothers & sisters ! They are on us constantly, whatever room we go to, the kitchen, even the bathroom. When we are eating, they have to go back in as they are constantly trying to eat our food, which I know is bad for them. Zoe is partial to dunking a digestive biscuit in tea to make it soft !! If we go out, as we’re getting in the car, we hear them screaming. Not sure how long it lasts, but the neighbours tell us for quite a few mins until they realise we aren’t coming back. When they hear the car pull up, they start screaming again. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but it is so loud the neighbours do hear and this is a worry.

Our 7 month old Severe Macaw, Keely, will scream bloody murder when she hears my car approach the house, but as soon as I begin to open the front door, she stops. She cannot directly see me come in the door, so this all seems to be audible stimuli with her.

I usually don’t approach her for quite a while after coming in the house, so as not to doubly reward her. (probably because I am unloading groceries or some such). I figure to her the reward is that I came in from the outside in response to her call…but what am I to do…stay outside so that she does not think she rules me???

Usually when my amazon is screaming its usually because no one is paying him any attention, as soon as you walk over to him and give him a little stroke or talk to him he stops screaming.
He also screams if someone shouts but i dont think its because hes scared i think its because hes trying to speak louder than them, as soon as you stop shouting he’ll stop screaming but if you try to talk again for the next five minutes or so he will try and talk over you.
Hes got a pretty wild vocabulary and if anyone new comes to see him, hes quite a show off and starts rolling all theses words and sentences off his tongue hell scream in the middle and at the end, and if you try interupting him hes not happy and will scream.
I guess from this you can see hes quite an extrovert and only screams if hes not the loudest in the room and not the star of the show. lol. He soon changes it and we love him so much we usually let him.
If you pay your bird attention he wont scream in my experience but we cant pay them attention 24 hours a day so yes especially with amazons expect some very annoying screaming!

Chad,

Like many others my Green Wing macaw hollers when I leave the room and he knows I am still in the house. And around his normal 8 am time. Which really screws up the weekend and the teen agers mornings in the house. Count me in when you are ready to release your DVDs

hi i have a blue fronted amozon and recently he seems to be screeming most of the time even when he is out of the cage or when im talking to him. i have tried the things you set out in you dvds and book that i brought but nothing seems to work he is starting to do my head in please help mandy fox

My B/G Macaw makes alot of noise screaming there is no particular time he does it just alot of the time I have told him off when he does it and have gone over to him when he does it and started to talk to him but neither work My African Grey has a habbit of clicking on his cage he goes on and on doing It really gets on your nerves If you can help stop them doing these things it will be fantastic
Thank you for asking

Hi Chet,
I have an 18 year old Yellow Front Amazon whose name is George of the Jungle. I must be a very fortunate bird owner because he never screams. The only time he gets a little loud is when he knows I am down the hall talking to someone and he cannot see me. Then he will yell out “Mom”. But since he only says this once or twice, it is not annoying and everyone thinks he is cute! I love your tapes, they validate everything I have been doing with the birds I have owned for years. Main thing is to learn your birds body language!

Keep up the good work.

My bird screams at 6:00am for an hour once someone has been awake in the morning. As well as when i leave the room. Though it’s beeen the best bird i’ve owned for awhile. Also will scream when been talking one on one with him

I have a green cheeked conure. He is a lovely bird, but always screams when I do the dishes, especially when the water is running, or I’m doing the cutlery. He also has a bad habit of sitting on top of a cupboard in the kitchen and screaming when we’re watching TV in the adjacent room, then refusing to come down for bed time. It might have something to do with attention, but I really dont know. He also likes to try and chew the freckles off my face…. which kinda hurts, I’m sure you can imagine.

-Kat

Hi,

I have a cocketiel. S/he makes little noise except when calling me and when hungry; at those times, she makes specific noises, so I know what s/he wants. At times, s/he makes a noise that is similar to the sound when s/he is hungry, but it is not food that s/he wants. At times, it has gone on and on, for perhaps a half hour. It is always, or very nearly always, in the mornings, but not necessarily during the first hours of the morning, so that theory that it is “to be sure that the sun comes up” does not apply well, it would seem(?). It might be associated with an attention to fly – it is certainly high-energy moments. It might be to call my attention and I seem to have cut it down recently by simply ignoring it.

I have a sulfer I rescued, I have gotten her to not be afraid of anyone anymore but, she screams a lot. I know she screams if she eats all her food and wants more but, she screams at other times too. I tried changing the rooms she was in, I have gone in to give her attention but, this has not made a difference. I have noticed she starts screaming every evening when the sun is going down–does she hate her day is ending????
she has 2 other bird in the room with her. Hope I can find out how top make her stop screaming, she is a sweet heart.

Thank you

Hi I have a blue and gold macaw and a grandson they are wonderful each in their own but together can make me crazy when he cries the bird screams and screams then he cries harder, the screams scare him, it takes me a while to calm them both down

Hi, this is my first time posting and I don’t know if it’s in the right spot. I have two caiques, they scream when they want to play, when I come home or if they just want to come out of the cage and be with me even if I’m busy.

Chet, I have another problem with them, people say that caiques can be trained and I seen clips of them doing tricks but I’m unable to train mine and I really can’t get my mail to stop biting just out of the blue. can you help, I desprite. I guess you don’t come to NJ much and I know I can’t afford you if you do, because I’m on disability and I have your dvd’s too.

Please help, Heather

I have been an animal behaviourist for 25yrs. Three yrs ago, I rescued a sick, African Grey from PJs Pets.
Routine and boundaries are very important to all animals, especially the most intelligent, I also own four Border Collies, and they need plenty of attention. My job, which is done mostly from home, is extremely busy from 7:00am to about 2:00pm.
My parrot knows this, so in the morning she knows this is her time for playing on her own and talking to herself.
Come 2:pm, she is ready for her shower and nap. Nap is sitting beside me on my pillow and being stroked while I lie down for a couple of hours. She then goes back to her cage for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening she sits on my shoulder and shares dinner with me, watches some TV, and to end her day she runs around my bathroom or on the rim of the bath, and plays with me. It is night, night after that and she easily goes to bed. She does call to me during the day, and I pop in and give her a scratch, and say a few things, but she is so settled into her routine, that she calls my name, “Hi Mom,” or a darling low little whistle. She knows I am busy, but her time is coming, so she feels no anxiety.

She helps with chores on the weekend and so we hang out when we can, and spend more time together.

Animals or birds, need a routine, and if they know their real time is coming where they are truly focused on, they will never feel anxious. The two hours of being in my bed, by my face and feeling my hand going over her are very precious moments of bonding for both of us. We love this time together, and she helps me relax and she feels so loved and so much physical attention, that she is never anxious. I have glass doors between my office and her cage, so she can see me and hear me, and when I am on the phone she just talks along as if she were me talking to my clients. She is ready to get up now, and I just hear little words now and her using her name. She doesn’t have to scream, as she knows I will come right away to get her up.

I am certain that this has stopped her ever screaming. Why scream, when you know what your day is going to be, and that you are loved, and given plenty of attention, without screaming for it. Separation anxiety in all animals is caused by inconsistent owners. This is so common in many dogs, and they whine and scream and shake if their owners leave the room, and left alone in the house they can tear the house to pieces and seriously injure themselves, that spend days with their animals and then suddenly change this routine and don’t see their dog for hours, and the dog now begins to feel anxious, because they have lost that attention that has been focused on them all day. An all or nothing from their owners, is the worst thing you can do. It is like a lover who has been all to you and then stops that and goes off, and then you feel heartbroken. Consistency in love, never causes anxiety. Diana Fischer, Animal behaviourist.

My Alexandrine is devine… EXCEPT when screeching.

In the morning she will be quiet until she hears my alarm. If I want to sleep in, I just need to change the alarm time… and she stays quiet. BUT as soon as she hears the alarm she starts screeching… and I have to hide behind my bedroom door, waiting for a ‘quiet spell’ before coming out (so as not to reward her screeching by coming out when she’s noisy).

She also screeches anytime I leave the room she is kept in (day or night).

This wears thin overtime… especially when I have a migraine and want to lie in bed (but end up on the lounge to keep her quiet)!!!

I’ve tried to teach her a less offensive ‘contact call’ as I move around the house.

I have filmed her when I’m away at work… and she is much quieter and plays throughout the day. (Thankfully or the neighbours would have me evicted!)

Regards

Hi Chet, I would be happy to put my input on parrot screaming.

As I am writing to you, even though she is right next to me in her cage, she is sending out her every 30 seconds shrill.

She also does this shrill/scream/calling, when I am not in her sight.

She has a a very big vocabulary that she will nolt share if anyone is looking at her but will talk her pretty colors while playing with her toys.

My Scarlet is 5 years old, she is a Red-sided eclectus. She is a
special character, sometimes it makes it very hard to deal with all the screaming. Why can’t she just speak to me and tell me what she wants, I know she knows the words, I hear her say it at her toys.

Any help offered would be much appreciated……………Lina

hey, my indian ringneck was not a tame bird when i got her, and she still isn’t. she freaks out when i get near the cage and doesn’t say much when im home, but as soon as we’re not home or in plain sight,like at 6 in the morning, she starts screaming. this poor bird has never been held and lost her sense of play.i would love to get your dvd’s so i know what to do for her, but unfortunately i don’t have a credit card to purchase it. thanks for the tips, keep em’coming.

I have a sun conure who screams for several reasons. First is when someone walks in the door. Usually a greeting will make that subside. He’ll also scream when we have company. People sitting in the living room (where his cage is) will get him started. He’ll scream for snacks if someone is eating, or if he wants stereo or radio on. Sometimes he just screams when the family is watching TV. Usually a “time out” (covering him for a short period of time) will calm him down. Life would be a lot more pleasant though if we could get him to stop screaming.

My daughters’ Indian Ringneck is a screamer – recovering! We were given her a month ago. Her previous owner, a young working girl, could not spend much time with her so when she was home, Phoenix screamed for attention all the time. I work from home and the cage is now in my office. When she screams I clap my hands and say ‘no’ then ignore her until she shuts up, then I make a fuss of her. The improvement is magic.
We also homed ‘Bonapart’ at the same time (from a bird breeder friend) he had been abandoned on the doorstep in a box, has no foot on one leg and is missing 1 toenail on the other foot, he also had no feathers except on his head and tail – after 2 weeks on antibiotics, Betadine washes and lots of TLC, he is now becoming a handsome lad and very loving. Both babies have had blood tests for ‘beak & feather’ disease – results negative.

I have a 2 year old macaw that screams almost all day! As soon as he has finished breakfast. It does not matter if you set him on one of the 12 perches throughout the house and carry him from room to room. He does have an outdoor flight and seems to at least not scream for a couple hours while there but starts again for no reason. Now, if you hold him, he won’t scream. I enjoy him being my best friend but I can’t type or cook or do laundry while holding him. We shower together but after I get out to dry off and put on make-up, well here we go again!
Help
Dawn

hi, boz is now 3yrs i got him and sparky when he was 2.5 yrs, his wing was not sitting on his back,it hangs low,he can stretch it back wards, and when up to flap, one goes all the way , that one he can’t get up very high,and is broken,or dislacated and appaently this happen about a year before when 1.5yrs ,both birds are fine, happy singing whisling etc, boz how ever, gets scare if what he thinks is a man, coming towards the cage, he growls he’s head off louder and louder, sounds like a gnowling growling dog with rabbies, as long as every man is away and sitting down away from the cage he’s fine,

My African Grey, Kokomo, has this really high pitch, schrill, shreek that she does when she wants me .. mama. If I am not home she yells .. mama .. mama .. then shreeks this sound. (It is driving my Mom crazy .. she has tinitis and it makes her ears ring) If I am home and I leave the room she is in she will do it then also. She is just over 2 yrs. old and is talking up a storm. I have been told that she is very advanced for her age. Her brother doesn’t talk nearly as much as she does (I don’t have him but do keep in touch with his owners). When I am not home and she does it I have told them to either put her in her cage & cover her up for a little while or put her in her travel case (a cat carrier with a perch in it) and cover that up. My mom doesn’t like to be mean to her so she does not do it all the time. When I am home I usually have her in my room with me on her perch stand. If she does the noise because I am not paying enough attention to her I get the “box” (travel carrier). I say .. Kokomo stop that noise or in your box. If she does it a 2nd time I put her in the box & cover it up for 5 -10 mins. Then let her out and wait till she does it again. Tell her no and then when she does it a 2nd time .. back in the box. Sometimes it helps but most times we just keep going back & forth. I don’t know what else to do. Any suggestions?
THXS for all your info .. most of it is very helpful.
Kitty

My 9 year old blue and gold macaw screams when I’m not in the room, “barks” at my wife when she gets near the cage (I had the macaw before I met my wife). Most importantly, she starts screaming early in the morning, while we are still in bed (this morning, just after 6 o’clock). Needless to say, my wife is not happy with this. I’d love to hear solutions, and can’t wait for this DVD set.

Chet, I have two rescue birds. Both are 9 yrs old. The first one is a Blue Fronted Amazon and I’ve had him about a year. He NEVER screamed. I added a female Congo African Grey about 3 months ago. She never screams, but she will run all over my house! The Amazon began to scream when I first get up in the morning and I have attributed that to just a morning “flock” call. But now, he starts to scream every time I get on the telephone. It doesn’t matter whether a call comes in, or I make one out. Since I am a night dispatcher (from my home) for a Towing Company, his phone screaming is becoming quite a problem. Can you help? Thank you for all your help and wonderful DVD’s! I think I own them all.

I have a year old Orange Wing Amazon that will let out some loud jungle calls every once in awhile. He only does this when i am outside of the room he is in doing something and not paying attention to him. i try to avoid going in to reward that yelling, because i don’t want him to think that he can do that to get someone to come into the room. By the way Chet, I think you are absolutely amazing when it comes to handling these birds. I really have learned alot on how to deal with my bird.

I have a mollucan cockatoo named Mistletoe. He’s 24 yrs. old. I’ve had him 1 yr. during which we have become very close. He’s a great speaker and unfortunatly he’s also a self-mutilator. He’s wearing the cone. I’ve purchased the largest cage available which he loves, lots of toys and I’m home all the time with him. In the past few months, he screams whenever my husband enters the room we’re in. I believe he’s jealous or wants to ride around on his shoulder like he used to before he was fitted with the cone(it’s difficult for him to do that now due to the cone’s circumference). I wish I knew something about the old lady who used to own him(she passed away). They were together 23 yrs. After that, he was passed around a bit before I found him at a pet store. I’ll never give him up for anything. I’m 52 yrs. old and my daughter(14) and son(24) have promised to take over him if anything happens to me. He is my joy and makes me laugh every day. My husband likes him, but, cannot stand the screaming, so I always go to him to get the screaming stopped. Ignoring it is no problem to me, but, it is to my husband. Mistletoe enjoys our time every day in the kitchen, listening to songs on the radio(I play the guitar) and watching me cook. He’s such a little beggar(I know not to give him salty or sweet foods but fruit and vegetables instead). I brush him mostly every day and give him a shower with a spray bottle(mist). On hot summer days, we go outside and watch the horses and other wildlife. I use his original cage for this. He loves a car drive. He has a good life with me. I have a large home with many windows for lots of light. I’m trying to convince my husband to build a nice, roomy, safe atrium for the outdoors. Some day, when we build again, I plan on a beautiful sunroom just for him and another cockatoo(my husband will give in). We have 6 horses(2 rescues) and 2 dogs(both rescues) also, so, what’s one more) Do you think a friend would help discourage the mutilation?

Hi Chet,

Our Double Headed Amazon Parrot, Jewel, is a wonderful bird with a large vocabulary and is happy most of the time. BUT, every afternoon when I come home from work and bring her out of the cage into the kitchen on her open stand, she starts that screaming a few minutes later. It can really get to you. This screaming usually doesn’t stop until my husband gets home. However, when we are both home, and we go out of the room, she will scream, especially when I’m busy doing chores, like going out getting the mail, taking the dogs out, running out in the yard to fill up the bird feeders, etc. Jewel makes these aweful loud noises. We have tried your suggestions, by putting her back in her room in the cage and closinig the door until she is quiet again, then we go and get her and bring her back out. This isn’t working. We have repeatly done this and still no change. What is it going to take to make her stop these loud noises along with her screaming? I don’t know if she is bored, or just glad to be out of the cage and is letting off steam. Any suggestions for us? Other than Jewel’s screaming, we do not have any other problems with her. She’s a wonderful talker, pleasant bird, no problems with her coming out of her cage, she steps up, all those other behaviors, we do not have. Its just her screeming everyday for a few hours. Our little African Sengal parrot is well behaved, talks and of course is so bonded with just me. No problems with him.
Thanks for your advise.

Hi there
My baby is a cockatiel, not a parrot. My husband and i park our cars next to one another and share one double remote garage door. When she hears the garage door open, and it is HIS car that is pulling in, she screams……… she does not have that same reaction when i pull in with my car. One has to see it to believe it. My only conclusion is she hears the sound of the car, BEFORE the door is actually activated to open. She will not stop unless the door has shut, and we go and greet her, actually, anyone may greet her, she is not fussy about that. Thereafter, she will relax and chirp in a normal high pitched tone, pleasant to hear and converse with.

I am curious to hear your explaination.

Kind regards, Kathy

I have a 17 yr.young Yellow Naped Amazon named Carlos, He was an abused bird when I got him we have bonded quite well in the past 6 months but he has one very annoying habit if he isn’t getting what he feels is enough attention he screams
” WHAT UP ” over and over and over etc.etc. It is driving my neighbors crazy, if I ignore this behavior he will stop but it does take a very long time, any suggestions? He is very affectionate to me but no one else can come near him.

I have a Jenday Conure that is 1 year old. He craves attention. He spends most of the day on my wife or me and goes back to his room quietly for only brief periods each day, then screams when he wants out. We bought him a playground set that he likes so we can at least put him down, but we have to move it to the room we are in. If we leave the room, he screams.
We’ve tried leaving him screaming, but it can go on for hours and he even starts losing his screech (squeaks instead) like someone screaming would lose their voice after a while.

Hi Chet
I have two Quaker’s I keep them in different room they scream from the time they are uncovered for about 2 hr. I have tried to ignore them but the screaming can really get to you. . They are out of the there cage about 4 hr a day playing. I can put them on my shoulder and they still scream and about break, my ear drum. I have let them play together for about 30 min a day they are fine them but when you take them away from each other the screaming stars again. When I only had the one the screaming was really bad I can’t take much more hope you have the answer

Chet:

My Sulphur Crested Cockatoo is a screamer….not all the time, but she can lock into a good fit now and then. The one occasion that I find to be hardest to train out of her is screaming when neither I or my wife are in the room where she is caged or may be roaming (and finding other trouble!). I’m sure the issue is one of wanting attention from us and not enjoying being seperated (even though we DO spend a lot of one-on-one time…hours each day…with her outside of her cage). So, how do we reassure her that we will be back in the room with her in just a matter of minutes and that screaming is not the way to get us to respond with positive attention and calm?

Hi

I have recently bought a Jandaya Conure called Fidget, who has recently started screaming whenever I pass by the room he is in…he comes out for frequent exercise (seems to enjoy flying around the living room more than anything else). He continues to scream for a good minute or two even after being let out of his cage. I’m always in the room when he is out and he does tend to settle if I’m in the room and dont make any efforts to get him out. I never let him exit the cage of his own accord, and aside from the screaming he is a very tame and friendly bird.

Thanks for any suggestions

Neil

Hi Chet, I have 4 parrots. 3 african greys and an orange winged amazon. It the amazon than we have the problem with. He was in effect a rescue bird and was in really poor condition when we got him. He is now (after a year) in what looks like tip top condition. He’s plumage looks like it actually glows. However he does screem quite a bit and he is teaching our grey to do the same. I can be quite funny because the grey starts screaming then says “shut up Jack” (Jack is the Amazon). Jack isnt a friendly bird and wont let us touch him. I’m loath to try and hand tame him using the techniques you have shown us because of how poorly he had been treated before. When he starts to scream it doesnt matter what we do he wont stop. The only thing that does seem to work is to squirt him with water. I have thought about getting him a mate as he spends a lot of time looking in the mirrow and making noises at his reflection. I will be interesting what you recomend…

We have a two year old Umbrella Cockatoo named Bentley. He is a very sweet bird but has picked up the dog’s bark. We do not know what prompts this outbreak. If we go to him, he will stop. Otherwise he will continue for a long time. Need help.

i adopted a 3 y.o. umbrella cockatoo 6 years ago because the previous owner was tired of the screaming. this problem is drasitcally reduced between me calmly saying, “in this house , we talk nicely.” and my african grey yelling at her to “hush” and “no scream”. however, when i arrive home, she’s fine until i take the dog out to go go to the bathroom, then she screams! she quits upon my return to the house and proceeds to use her limited vocabulary. i even have a mockingbird in the yard mimicing a muted cockatoo scream! weird. i haven’t figured out how to break this behaviour. if the screaming has really been incessant , i won’t let her out of the cage. usually the next exit and return is better, then we regress again.

Hi Chet
Our family is made up of an Umbrella Cockatoo, Yellow Naped Amazon, Blue Crown Conure, and a Quaker Parrot. Our screamer of the bunch is Precious our U2. She is 12 years old and is a rescue. Now, when just my wife is home they seem to have no problem, but anytime i am home Precious starts out calling me “papa” over and over. When i do not respond she goes into full screaming mode (non stop). I have tried ignoring the screams, covering the cage, but no help. The rest of our flock were not screamers till we brought home the U2.
My wife will go to the cage and just sit and talk to Precious and love on her, and she will stop for a little while (couple hours), and the other birds only scream when the U2 does. We are working hard to get the U2 to let my wife handle her, and if i am not here, well then they can do just about anything, but as soon as i come in the U2 well bite my wife, and start the screaming process. I end up kinda growling at her and covering her cage. (doesn’t work) Again my wife will go the cae and sit and talk to U2 and she will be nice and quite. My wife can handle her out of the cage around me at this point, but i think if she could Precious would not scream and carry on as much, and i also think Precious loves my wife and wants to be with her but my wife is very scared of getting bit again, as Precious has bitten her 3 times very hard (stiches required)
Anyway, the problem seems to be with me being home and that is when she screams. My wife can get her to stop for a little while just by talking to her. But i have also heard that Cockatoo’s are the loudest screamers and that they will do it mostly for attention, and that sure seems to be what is happening here. (i think anyway)

Thanks Chet

John Rockett

I can’t wait to see this new video I really wish i could get you to come to VA and help my wife learn to handle U2. i think that would solve our screaming problems

oh- last fall i adopted a 15 1/2 y.o. blue and gold macaw who after 2 days in the house started telling the cockatoo to “shuddup” (which i don’t say, so now she’s modified that to “hush” ) and calls the cockatoo a “brat”.
it’s a wonderful, funny zoo!!! whan i talk on the phone. the cockatoo hollers” hug”, the macaw” look” and the grey just laughs.

My greenwing Carmen loves to yell loudly at the TV set. She yells, sings along, and makes a lot of racket. I’m not sure if it irritates her, or if she is having fun. I think sometimes it is both.

I have a sun conure and he is 9 months old. He gets lots of toys and lots of attention. I have the screaming problems when I leave the room or leave the house. When my husband gets home he screams the whole time until I get home. I love my bird so much and I am not sure what to do to make him stop screaming so much.. Please help!!!!!!!!!!

I am owned by a 4 mth old Pacific Parrotlet named Boo…I love him to death, however, he’s only 4 inches and truly thinks and acts like all of the larger Parrot species…

My husband and I were just talking about his reasons for his screaming…If I leave the room, at times, that will set him off…
He hates my husband…If my husband comes near him, he starts cussing him in bird language (funniest thing)…

He will start to scream if he sees sun shadows on the walls, if he sees me watering the plants, the sound of water running from the sink, sounds of crumbling paper bags…

He’s a little green monster!!!!

Hope this helps…

We have a Sun Conure. With research, we have learned that that Conures are the loudest of all parrots and Sun Conures are the loudest of all Conures. He will quite when we cover the cage. But mostly he screams when someone is walking by the house and espcially when someone is coming to the door. If we have company in the same room he is in, he does show off and scream a lot. If I put my hand on the outside of the cage and shush him, he will be quiet and then I give him a treat. But I think he has me trained. When ever he wants a treat, he will squawk.

Hi Chet,
I have a 2 year old Quaker, that screams when in his cage. I am trying an experiment with him this week. I feel (I am just guessing here) that he associates his cage with sleeping and being covered and does not want to be in there during daytime hours. He does come out during the day and play/stay on his play gym, but if I need to leave him in his cage, he just hangs onto the side (doesn’t even sit on his perches most of the time) and yells/squawkes/screams. The only way to quiet him is to cover him (and I hate to do this…cause what’s the point in having him?) So what I am trying is…..I have gotten another smaller cage, and I am putting him in it to sleep at night with his sleep tent (which he loves) then I will remove him from that cage in the daytime and try putting/keeping him in his large cage with his toys. Don’t know if this is a solution or a good thing, but I need to try something before I give up totally!! Another problem I have is the he “REALLY” screams when someone comes into the house to visit…….like a watch dog that you can’t control…………………ugh!! If I am going to keep “Seamus” I need help……………….otherwise I am going to have to give him up, because it is such a disruption in my household. Please HELP!! Thanks!!! :Þ

I HAVE A QUAKER PARROT. I HAVE HIM IN THE ROOM WITH 2 COCKATILS. SOMETIMES HE CAN REALLY DRIVE ME CRAZY BY SCREAMING. HE SCREAMS WHEN I LEAVE THE ROOM OR I AM IN ANOTHER PART OF THE HOUSE, BUT WHEN I GO BACK IN THE ROOM WHERE HE IS HE SHUTS UP. I THINK HE IS A LITTLE SPOILED. HOW CAN I STOP HIM FROM SCREAMING? I REALLY ENJOY YOUR E-MAILS. I HAVE LEARNED ALOT.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Our 14 yr old Double Yellow Amazon can and does let loose with doubles, triples and quadruples when she works herself up. Since we are usually home there are a lot of contact calls if we go in the basement or otherwise out of sight. We keep a routine; Birdo comes into the kitchen area on a perch when the activity centres there at supper time. Failure on our part would provoke loud reminders.
It gets worse in the spring/nesting season. We respond with lots of showers – in the shower – and this has made a big difference. She’s too busy getting beautiful to complain.
I have found that carefully looking around and assessing helps me understand the ‘why’ and then help calm her down.

I have a Gold Capped Conure — who screams/screeches when telephone rings and you start talking. He also does that when a group of people start talking (not paying attention to him) He also screams/screeches when a car pulls up in the driveway — Actually we don’t mind that — he makes a wonderful doorbell/alarm system for us.

hy i have a gold blue macaw whos screaming if you let him alone in the room or when you put him in the cage.there it is a very big problem …the cage.if i.m in the same room with him and he is in the cage it is going crazy …just cant keep him in the cage.
that about it screaming….when he is free in the house with me ..no problem.he is a doll.

I have a screaming problem with my pet lovebird. Every morning when he wakes up and I am asleep, he tends to scream until I take him out of the cage. I try to ignore it to teach him to stop, but it’s not working.

I hope I help you cover all the subjects you need and I love getting those e-mails that give small helpful tips.

I have a Blue and Gold Macaw whos name is Gold Dollar.He is also our mascot for our buisness.My customers come just to see and talk to him.Dollar loves the attention and loves children but gets ver upset when he hears a baby cry and will do a high pitched scream until the baby is gone.He also hates a vaccum cleaner when in use,I started whistling when I use it and he will whistle for a few minutes but then starts screaming again.Also at home when my phone rings he will scream as loud as he can and I will have to go outside or in a room and shut the door so that I can hear,but he does’nt at the buisness,and the only other thing is when somebody is walking down our road or a motorcycle or bike goes by he spreads his wings and continually does a high pitched scream as if he is territorial.Dollar has been with me since he was 4 weeks old,he is now 6,I hand feed,helped him learn to fly,how to perch and raised him as I would raise and love my own child.I love him dearly.These things really don’t bother me but might somebody else.I don’t feel he is upset when he does this,it’s just part of being a macaw,but if you have any clues to if I am wrong or should do something for him,please do tell.thanx Patty

My 2 year-old green cheek conure has been screaming after lights out since we brought him home. Right after we turn them off, he seems ok but after 20-30 minutes, he’ll start and continue for about 30 more minutes. He also does it randomly throughout the day (probably to get attention when we’re not playing with him)

Angel is a African Grey –
She is normally a whistler and will whistle when she wants my attention – usually when I get home from work (alone all day). I take her out of the cage, say hello, walk her around, put her on her cage, then go into the other room. Then she will get LOUD with her whistles and noises. She wants my attention! She doesn’t get it however. She will do this if I’m cooking – 10 feet away and visible. I can’t just go to her and re-inforce the behavior. On occasion she “tops the list” and I’ll go over and get in her face really quickly and she will back off her perch and stop. Then I’ll talk to her and she quiets down.

I have a parakeet (mostly just jabbers) a cockatiel (talks some) and a sun conjure – the screaming monster!! He screams when I pull in the driveway, and keeps screaming till I get in the house and go see him. He screams when I leave the room, when he thinks he’s hungry, when he thinks I don’t pay enough attention to him, and when the parakeet won’t stop jabbering! I’ve started to work with him with the clicker, and that seems to be giving him a clue to keep a little quieter! Thanks for your help!!

A footnote to the screaming conjure: he’ll bit me, but anyone else can go to him and pet him with no problem!! Very discouraging for me!!

I have 2 Solomon Island Eclectus and 2 Black Headed Caiques; the Eclectus’ scream now and then but birds do scream in the wild. My Caiques on the other hand seem to scream just to scream. When I come home they scream, when they hear me in the next room they scream, etc. It’s the absolute worst; I’ve managed to get it down to a managable level by rewarding them when they are quiet or making pretty sounds, but they revert back quickly at times. Any suggestions?

Hi Chet,
Thanks for all your great emails and advice. I have a Nanday who is almost 5 years old. I have had her since she was very young, and I hand fed her. She screams for attention sometimes, like many of the birds I read about in replies. I have done many things:
1. A lot of times she just wants a drink, so giving her “a cold one” makes her happy. I use tiny dixie cups for the water and tell her she can have a cold one. Even though she has water, she likes it chilled and right out of the filter.
2. If she begins to fuss and fritter, with increasing vocals, she is bored. I give her toys, shredded wheat biscuits, wheetabix, or toilet paper to rip up and play with.
3. If she screams a lot and out of character, it is almost always an alarm. At first I got mad at her, but she trained me to look out the window and see what is happening. If I explain what is out there most times she settles down.
4. She screams many times when I am trying to work in the kitchen. She knows it is dangerous and gets upset when the stove is on or the microwave beeps, etc. I tell her “I got it, don’t worry” and sometimes that works, but she has her worst screeching when I am in the kitchen. I don’t want her to totally stop giving kitchen warnings, because it is really a good thing and quite normal for her to warn when something smells hot. (Remind everyone-NO TEFLON) If the verbal clues are not enough, I have to put her in her cage in the bedroom for awhile until I am done. (She spends most of her time on a playpen and table in the living room when I am home).
5. If she is being uncontrollably screechy when I am working, I tell her “I’m going to get the towel”. She does hate the towel at the vet’s office, and she knows exactly what that means. Just saying sometimes works. I show her the towel, and may wrap her up and ask her to calm down. I only hold her for about 20 seconds and talk to her calmly, then let her out. Instead of a towel, I use a washcloth at home for holding her for smalll grooming, meds, etc. We call it booboo. She is always praised for letting me “fix her booboo” and always gets a wheat chex (her favorite) as soon as we are done with booboo. I don’t want her to hate the vet, but it is natural for all of us to dislike tests and things that hurt. She does get special toys after for getting through it.
6. If all else fails, she goes to “birdie time out”. I put her into her smaller travelling cage and put her in a quiet room for a few minutes. The cage has seeds and toys, and I may cover the top with a towel. She has to go to birdie time out a few times each month, and it is usually when I am trying to talk to people on the phone (especially strange new voices like clients from work).
7. If my husband is the one calling, I put him on speaker and he tells her to be a good birdie.
8. She screams in the late evening, and of course she is tired. I scoop her up and ask her if she wants to go nitenite. I hold her, tell her she’s tired and needs to go nitenite, and get her in the cage and covered quickly.

My conclusion is that screaming is essential for communication between us. She is not an all-day-long screamer. Even a bird that does that is doing it because it is scared, lonely, jealous, hungry, thirsty, tired, or bored. A human baby uses a similar method of communication when it cries.
Your advice on teaching a bird words, sounds, whistles, and non-verbal cues such as sign language to ask for what is needs is very good advice. Developing a common language of words, sounds, whistles, and gestures between a parrot and its human companion is essential for both if you want to have a happy and healthy cohabitation.
Abused and rescued birds, like humans, bring their baggage into a relationship. If you take this on, you are indeed special and gifted. All you can do is give out lots of love, patience, and genuine respect for the feelings and needs of your little survivor.
I hope this helps you Chet. Drop me a line anytime- D

I have just weaned my 4mth old female eclectus Miss Mollie, the screaching she would make just about made my head explode, everytime I put the kettle on for a cuppa she thought I was mixing up her food, thank goodness she has finally found that the fruit/veg & seed bowls, I have now been making my cuppa in peace for the past 3 days.
I also have 4 quaker parrots and they know when I walk in from work or out the back door they start up a mighty raucous, if I want them to stop I make a really loud Ssshhh shush sound it seems to stop them straight away I then tell them how good birds they are and let them out to play, getting lots of kisses and snuggles from them, yes they bicker amongst themselves but using the shh sound soon stops any unwanted behaviour.
I also have a companion pink and grey galah so at times my house can be pretty noisey with all their chatter they are all great talkers teaching each other while I am at work lol
Thanks Chet you have given me the ability to look after my feathered friends with confidence and joy.
Suzy, Miss Mollie, Scooter, Dudley, SweetPea, Mintie & Wally

Several years ago I bought your Parrot problems and solutions and clicker training. It was not as helpful as I had hoped. My bird still has some of the same problems that you said this would fix even after several years. I am sure I am the problem. But I did try to follow your instructions. One of the problems is the screaming is still there. I have a Jenday Conure who is 5 1/2 yrs old and I have had him 5 years. He didn’t start screaming until he was around 2 that is when I got your CD. He screams when some walks into the room. Long, loud and several times. When the garage door opens. Which I assume he understands I am home and associates that with excitement the scream is similar to someone walking into the room. He also has a short stacatto scream that he does even when nobody is around and he likes to do that for a longer time. This one I can find no reason for and never at a certain time or circumstance. Or I am just missing it.

Chet,

Our 10 year old nanday conure screams for 2 reasons. First is the nanay morning and evening routine which is fine by me, since I knew what I was getting into with a nanday.

What I would like to stop, but I haven’t seen addressed anywhere is that she’ll scream and viciously shake her toys when there are strangers in the house within a 2 room vicinity of her.

She will scream without let up for hours, and gets rewarded because they do eventually leave. (LOL)

Any insight to this problem would be greatly appreciated.

I have a Quaker (female), pair of lovebirds, pair of parakeets (VERY bonded) & one of thier(‘keets) babies – in a separate cage. I don’t really have a problem with my keets, except for when I took the daddy out away from the momma once …. I learned QUICKLY that he could be in a separate cage but had to look at & be able to touch the momma.
The luvbirds do a “chatter” loudly when they argue, but will yell at birds in the yard from INSIDE the house.
My quaker ‘Echo’ is a second hand bird. She squawks when she gets put in jail for pulling hair or biting AFTER she has been told to stop. (She will usually warn you that she’s gonna do it she says ‘ouch’, ’stop it’ or ‘don’t bite’ before she does it).
Another yelling time is when she hasn’t been let out of her cage long enough during the day or rather what SHE deems long enough!!
Just recently I have noticed another kind of yelling spree, she (DNA tested a ’she’) has “come in” or shall we say “has boys on her mind”. She has gotten a tad moodier (which I don’t blame her for), & has started to molt some too – which she gets sprayed down for to ease the new feathers coming in. I would love to have a boy ‘come to visit her’, but I do believe my boyfriend would choke me!! LOL
She has seemed to ‘wake up on the wrong side of the perch’ before too.
I can also be in the back of the house cleaning for too long (according to her) when she starts yelling too.
Hope this helps ….
Angie

hi Chet,
I have 2 Umbrellas that I have hand raised. One is 13 mth old male and the other is a 6 mth old female. They have their own cages in a large sun room with ample play areas and attention. They get into screaming at random times. One starts and the other seems to try to out shout the other with the full display of what we call the ” linda blair behavior” ( head spinning wings, feathers out) getting louder all the time until we intervene. (removing one from room, or putting them in cages) . Any clues?

I love your training techniques and they are working on both my parrots. I have a sun conure and a Quaker. The only problem with my birds screaming is that they think I don’t give them enough attention. Unfortunately it is foaling season on a horse ranch so they have to suffer through it with me for about the next two weeks. Then I can go back to giving them the attention they think they need. Thanks for all your great tips. My daughter is also using them on Parakeets, a Cockatiel, and her Quaker parrot.

Our African Grey, Gordon, has fits of what looks like angst. He screeches (it’s a nails-on-blackboard kind of a sound). Sometimes his wings flare up and he swings his head like a child with severe autism. It is the kind of behavior I would expect from an intelligent bird kept in a small cage–it’s like panic attacks. But Gordon is free-flighted, gets love and attention, and is seldom alone all day. We think the screeching may have somewhat abated since we have forced ourselves to be 100% consistent in ignoring it, but as of yet the results are far from satisfactory. Thanks!

My Brody is a 4 year old Hans Mini Macaw. I work from home and I cannot keep him in the same room because as soon as I get on the telephone he begins screaming. I have tried on occassion to bring him in the room when I knew I wouldn’t be on the telephone, but he will (most times) after a while begin screaming and will not stop until I cover his cage. Seems to me that unless he is getting my undivided attention while in my company he is going to SCREAM. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I hate keeping him cloistered in another room most times.

My green cheek conure rarely screams. He makes the “wolf whistle” sound when he wants me. I started early on by rewarding the more pleasant sounding whistle, so now that’s how he communicates. The only time he really screams is when he’s extremely alarmed, and then it’s only one squawk. On a comical note, cold season affected our house especially bad this year, so whenever anyone would cough, he thought we were calling out to him. Now, whenever someone coughs he responds with a “cough-cough”. It got even funnier when he learned that when I use hair spray and he calls out using cough-cough, it makes everyone laugh. So it’s the morning ritual: After I fix my hair I whip out the hair spray can and everyone goes into hysterics coughing. Of course, I go into a ventilated room to actually spray the stuff because he really will start coughing if I don’t!

I have a quaker parrot and he is a lot of fun. He loves to play and talk and laugh and sing but the problem I have with him is if I am not in the same room or I get up to go to another room and I am no longer next to him he starts this blood curldling scream that I cannot stand and he will continue until I return. I do not know what to do about it and I can not get him to stop. Other than than that I just love him.

I have a 2 year old African Gray who screams when we leave the room. She also gets pretty loud when she’s just chatting to herself. The other day I was in the room with her and she was making very loud noises. I said to her “That’s too loud. Can you make some softer sounds?” and she said, “O.K.” Too cute!

Anyway, I think my gray gets loud because my 2 coackatiels and parakeet are singing away in the other room, and I think my gray is trying to talk to them. I don’t mind the chatter; it just gets too loud sometimes.

Well The Bird Screaming Issue I Have I Think I Created And May Have To Live With, And Getting Used To As Well… I have 8 Parakeets In One Monster Cage, And I Have 2 Canarys In A Good Sized Cage, But I Also Have 8 Love Birds Paired Up In 4 Seperate Cages, And They All Scream At Each Other All Day Long…. Hope You Can Figure This One Out

Hi, I would like to know what does someone do when your Amazon starts chattering like a squirrel? He starts out low and then gets it louder and louder. Nothing has started him doing it and he does it at odd times of the day, and not every day. I have tried putting him back in his cage, I have tried ignoring it and also tried just talking to him. He is a blue fronted Amazon and about 2 and half years old now. Some days I say he is PMSing and other days he is as wonderful and does not bite and wants nothing more then to please me. We (my family) where just trying to figure out why he just starts screaming or chattering when nothing has provoked him. He talks well and also whispers and whistles really good. Is he just trying my patience or just trying out new sounds? Thanks for your help on this I appreciate all you do…Carole

Chet,

We have a 3 year old white-eyed conure who can be a screamer. She screams if we leave the room – we’ve tried telling her we’ll be right back; we talk to her from the other room so she knows we’re still there and we’ve also tried getting her to use a different, quieter contact call. Unfortunately, none of that has worked so far. She also screams when the dog next door barks and then the two of them just keep each other going. And she screams a short staccatto scream when something scares her.

If you can figure out a way for us to keep her screaming to a minimum, we would really appreciate it.

My Blue & Gold, Raucus Beauregard (aka Raukie) has several things that trigger non-stop screaming. Doing anything with the dishwasher (no matter how stealthy I try to be), doing anything with the washer or dryer, opening the coat closet (he thinks I’m leaving?), or talking on the phone. Nothing I’ve tried has altered these behaviors. What’s the solution?

Personally, I am about 2 steps away from getting rid of my small Amazon for screaming. I have a broken eardrum and when my parrot screams, it is quite painful.

I figured out how the one person got his cockatoo to stop screaming by operating the garage door. I was taking a walk the other day, and here was this cockatoo in a garage by the door with a bunch of other junk. So the secret is … put your bird in the garage!

I have tried everything I can think of to get him to stop — water spray, a remote bell to ring when he does, etc. Nothing works. He’s dumber than a goldfish when I try to teach him to stop screaming.

When does my parrot scream? Anytime he wants to. When he wants out of his cage, when he wants attention, and when you are trying to have a conversation with someone else. Yes, he talks too, but when you talk back, he starts screaming instead. He only talks to try to get attention, then screams.

The one thing all of the suggestions I have read about screaming seemed to call into question which one of you is the pet and which one is the pet owner? To respond to every whim of a bird tells you who really is the pet.

I hope you do come up with something that really works and establishes who the boss really is in this conflict. Or… my neighbor’s cat may get an expensive meal….

We have a lesser sulfur crested cockatoo named Rudy. He is about 9 months old, and we have had him for 2 months. He is a very sweet bird, but lately, he lets out the most blood curdling screams. He likes to perch on top of his cage, where I think he believes he is dominant, and will go into a “war stance” where his crest and wings are up, and he looks like he is warding off something. He will bob and weave, and look like his is attacking an invisible predator. He will not stop this screaming. This is just something that has occured during this last month. He has not done this before. He is given plenty of attention, food, toys, etc. We just don’t understand what or who this behavior is directed at, or more importantly for our eardrums, – how to get it to stop.

My Macaw screams at the vacuume cleaner.

The Goffins Cockatoo is like a 2 year old…he screams when the phone rings & when I’m talking to someone..

Can the Macaw be taught somehow?

Despite what we were told back when he came to live with us, it is evident our Greenwing Macaw has abuse & neglect in his background. Among nutritional damage, his fear of males and his complete lack of training (he does not know “step up”, his vocabulary is seriously limited, etc), he has massive seperation anxiety. When the mood hits him and I leave the room he screams mercilessly. We have all been doing remarkably well training each other since he came to live with us several years ago & have made great strides. However, for the past 3 months he has started screaming even when we are in the room with him. We’ll all be watching TV and night and he just breaks into screaming fits like when I leave the room and he doesn’t want me to. Nothing has changed in our daily lifestyle, we have not gone on vacation or even gone away over night.

My 1 year old Yellow Naped Amazon, Filomena, is awfully loud at certain times of the day. I know the loud talking in the morning or at sunset is normal, but sometimes in the afternoon when the television is on, she will get very loud and either scream or just speak very loudly. I don’t want to discourage her from being vocal, but is this normal too?

Hi, Chet! Well, to start off, screaming has never been an issue with my 2 Cockatiels, Ruby & Leo, but one thing I can suggest is that if a bird screams for attention, it could be that the owner either doesn’t spend much time with the bird, or, if the bird is attached to its owner, the owner may be giving the bird too much attention. In other words, I think giving a bird just the right amount of attention just might work!

I have a greater patagonian conure Oliver who screams her head off in two situations: 1) when I’m talking on the phone and 2) when I’m trying to hold a more than 10 sec conversation with my mom in person. The phone thing has gotten so bad that I have to go to my walk-in closet and shut the door to get her to stop. It starts as soon as she hears the beeps when I’m dialing the numbers. My senegal Scooter on the other hand just imitates the beeps. As for the mom situation, I just don’t get it. Oliver has no qualms when my mom comes to visit but as soon as we want to have a serious discussion, always somewhere in her line of sight, on comes the ear-piercing screaming. I usually wind up yelling “OLIVER!” sternly at her which quiets her for a few seconds but then she starts ups again. I realize that yelling at her is not good, but I’m at my wit’s end. Otherwise, she is a absolute sweetheart, as is Scooter. BTW, both cages are in the dining area(my family room/dining room/kitchen are all one huge room and my house is small), so moving the cages isn’t an option. Please help!

I think my bird (Cockatiel) Charlies’ main problem is anxiety with people coming and going (especially me). Whenever she hears a door open or close (even if I’m holding her) she starts screaming. We’re tried leaving the room and ignoring her until she stops or throwing something into the room (not at the cage) to get her to stop and then entering the room but nothing seems to work. She will scream in the morning when she hears me first moving around in my room, and she won’t stop sometimes for an hour and half. During this time I leave the cage covered up. I won’t uncover the cage in the morning until she is quit and the same goes with ANY attention. I won’t give even a glance unless she is quit, and then I mush her up. But she still screams ALL the time! It’s really putting a strain on our relationship. I even tried getting her a budgie, to keep her company when we’re not home. She just ignores him and now she is teaching him her bad manners. I’m running out of patience, if I can’t find a solution, even though I love her to weeny bits, I’ll have to get rid of her. Her constant screaming is making our home (for me) very stressful.

I hope you can help us, as I said before I love her very much and I want our home to be peaceful and happy again.

Thank you for all your help

Jenny Dewes

Hi Chet!
I have a cag, b&g macaw, and a sun conure. The conure is the main problem. He screams any time the dogs bark or if he sees someone in our yard. It sets off the dogs, my b&g screams, and the cag to begins yelling “be quiet!”. I think if I can stop the sunny, I may be able to have a little peace and quiet.
Kathy

I have recently recieved to cocketeils…and they both have come along way.The female is pretty friendly while the male will draw blood, tho less frequently now. However, my problem is about 10 am every mornig if i am not already up, they scream loudly.if they hear me coming down the stairs they scream, but once im here they shut up. If the alarm clock goes off…screaming, phone rings, screaming,talking on the phone…more screaming. and 80% of the time when i leave the room we all are in, they scream.They scream about my husband too, when he comes and goes or wakes up, I cant even seem to get them to make nice sounds, they do occasionally, but i cant get them too,and i have been rewarding with attention and treats when they are “being quiet” (not silent but making acceptable noise level). These birds are not a breeding pair, I got them at different times, but they now share a cage, as it was their choice, the female just stopped goiing to hers, so i put it up for a while. Anyways, The screaming really doe make my birds a little less enjoyable…any help would be great. Ive tried spraying them, also along with rewarding quiteness…At witts end.

Kelly is a Senegal Parrot, given to us by a neighbor who had bought her 4 months prior. She screamed too much and would bite, so she asked if we would like a bird. I think then she was jealous of the other bird, but that’s not a problem at our house. Sometimes she’s perfectly amiable, like if she’s bored out of her skull. Often when mom, the chief caretaker, comes to change her food or just looks at her, she gives her ear-piercing screams. She will talk to herself sometimes, especially in the morning. Dad is her favorite, she is content just to be with him and eyes anyone suspiciously who approaches. She used to tolerate the boy well, he could pet her and turn her upside down in his hand like dad, but his sporadic movements make her nervous now. She bites mom mostly, the last time right through her thumb nail into the quick. We’re not sure what all her issues are.

I have a amozon that was rescued for a aviary in a out door public park in Cheltenham England I have had him for over 6 months now and he’s not very trusting but getting better. He (we think he) according to books WILL SCREAM FOR APPROX 25-30 MINS IN MORNING AND NIGHT TIME, unless my parrot cant tell the its more like all day and not at night he has got worse sine Christmas and I am pulling my hair out he is fead, watered, bathed and I feel well treated but it is getting to the point where my wife want’s rid of him I do not want to do this but I dont know how much longer I can put up with it for. I hope you can help please!!!

My rescued M2 Kiki is 10 years old and was considered unadoptable beacuse of her screaming. Thanks to tips I have read here and elsewhere she now mostly screams in the evening. I let her scream for a few minutes at sunset but do not tolerate any other screaming. One thing that really has helped is using the flashlight. I say “big mouth” and shine the light on her after a few seconds if she doesn’t stop. Most of the time she stops without having to shine the light. I also learned that she needed a bigger cage and that she cannot be allowed to stay up late as she becomes a terror if she stays up past 9 pm. I live in a second home mountain condo on the weekends and I’m afraid of what she does related to screaming when I’m not there. So far the condo has been closed up because of winter and there have been few people there but will be opned up again since I don’t have air conditioning. I recently got another M2 that is a very well behaved male Ipokanue age 7 that was only in one home (the owner died). I hope that Kiki will learn to model some of his gentlemanly behaviors and not the other way around. She is very sweet and loving otherwise and is learning how to play by herself. I give her a lot of attnetion but also make her paly by herself. As long as she is with me and getting her way she does not scream.

Hi Chet! I have an Africian Grey–BABY– Although she was brought to us and nurtured by my oldest son, Hunter the summer he graduated from high school. He lived at home until he got a place of his own but they would not allow pets so Baby stayed with me and has been here since 1997. She (we think–I’ve never had her tested and was told that I shouldn’t because it could change the way we feel about her- I doubt it but I really think she is a HE because she’s never laid an egg and she is going to be 11 here soon–) Baby LOVES my 3 older boys–Hunter, because he was her mamma and daddy, and then when he moved out, Drew became her object of affection and then Patrick when Drew moved out. (each of these 3 sons are 3 years apart) She says their names all the time. My 4th son (Parker- 14 years old) she has never taken a liking to and I think it’s because he was small when she was growing up and one of Patrick’s friends hit her when she was flying to him once. It scared him and that’s why he swung at her- from that time on she would never go around anyone that size.In 2001, Drew was in a horrible accident that almost cost him his life. I lived at the hospital the entire week he was in critical care. I came home Sunday morning, long enough to get a shower, change clothes and go to a prayer vigil we had at church that morning. When I came into the house and Baby saw me she said “Where’s Drew?” with concern and love in her voice. I know that these birds are said to “just be repeaters of whatever they hear” but I honestly know they are just like human family members!! We moved in 2003 and I had everything in place before Hunter and Drew moved Baby (and her home) in. Hunter brought her cage over and Drew carried her on his shoulder. This house does not have a garage, like the one we moved from, and I was so worried that Baby might fly away. (She did get away from us one time- our house was being sprayed for bugs so I brought her cage outside for some sunshine and fresh air) Drew had to climb up on a neighbor’s roof (3 stories high) and tuck her into the inside of his jacket as he carefully climbed down. Baby will give this annoying scream when she knows I’m in the house somewhere but have not let her out of her cage yet. She doesn’t scream when she’s out. The only thing now is that she likes to sit on top of a door (usually in the same room where I am) and has started chewing on the door frame. I put pieces of cardboard up between the door jam so that she now chews on the cardboard (she was afraid of it at first) now all I have to do is clean up her mess. But when I go to get her down, she’ll lift her leg as if she’s going to get on my hand but then she’ll bite me and fly off (usually to her cage) She doesn’t bite Hunter or Drew or Patrick….just me–and I’m her only caregiver. I don’t understand this. They tell me to spank her and I’ve swatted her but she’ll just squawk before I even make contact and then sometimes she’ll make a snapping sound as tho she’s snapped her fingers at me!(sounds just like it would if she had fingers-ha!) She will fluff up at me and run at me but never does it to the boys. (Parker doesn’t go near her unless she’s in her cage–he was bitten once and has no desire to be bitten again) When I’m on the phone (she knows when I’m on with my mother (we call her WaWa–and so does Baby) Baby will say “It’s WaWa” and then goes into a song they always whistle together–Andy of Mayberry song. Baby will sing a few notes and then stop and wait for mom to finish or vise versa. It’s really funny to listen to. When I’m on the phone with anyone else, she never says “it’s WaWa” only when I’m on with my mother. And the only time she acts up is when I get on the phone. She doesn’t scream, she just gets into stuff. Like I said, it’s like having a small child in the house again. But I love her! Diane Rodriguez

We have two babies cockatiels ( Romeo and Juliet) Romeo screams really loud when my 11 years old son starts running up the stairs. Well, this is the only time he screams. Screaming has never been and issue with Juliet. Do you think male cockatiels scream more than female?
Betty

I very seldom have trouble with Sebastian screaming, except first thing in the morning when he awakens, and want everyone else to do so! He will joyfully scream until someone gives him some attention to start his day off happily.

my african grey george was a abused parrot he is not tame but will take treats from my hand, i relise now this was not the best option thinking back. i have had him since november e did not talk when i first got him e says a range of words but he has started to scream when i try relax on a nite maybe watch tv or a film even if i let him out he carries on. he also does this when i am on the phone. he wont stop no matter what i do. he gets alot of attention and time but always screams and will not let me touch him please help.

My Quaker Parrot screams when anyone enters and or leaves the room, but mainly entering. I am thinking that she is happy to see someone and or wants out to move around as she pleases, which is cute to me, but annoying to others. Also when you hold something in your hand and move across the room with it. She also screams when the vacuum cleaner goes on and when there are noises outside, like machinery(hedgeclippers, lawn mower etc. And when others(like my son especially) are trying to converse. Its like that commerical with the jack hammer and on vacation. He ends up putting her outside just so he can talk.

I have an African ring neck who is not only a second hand bird, but handicapped as well. She has only 1 leg. She has a cage that is set up to accommodate her handicap, along with toys. Her favorite spot, however, is playing on the floor. She seems to have adjusted to her handicap quite well, but at times, I wonder. It used to be that she would scream when in the cage, but not when she was in her playhouse on the floor. Now she screams almost non stop where ever she is. I have other birds also. She is not only driving me crazy, but the rest of my household as well. And as you know, as soon as my stress level goes up, so does the stress level of all of my other birds. So they begin to yell too.
The only real change I’ve made since I’ve had Kirby (2 years now), was that I got a baby Eclectus 9 months ago. Kirby’s bad behavior has been present far before I got the baby, though.
I wonder at times if her screaming is a result of frustration involving her handicap or if she just likes to hear herself scream. I got her just after she had recovered from whatever happened to her leg. I have lived with parrots for over 20 years. I have tried everything that I know and have gotten to work with all of my other birds. Nothing has worked with Kirby.

storm (4yr old , umbrella cockatoo, male)screams when his room lights are turned off for the night ,to get whom ever(person or pet) to leave his room, to have his room door shut, to call for the person he has heard and wants their attention.

hey chet.
I adopted a quaker parrot from a rescue a couple months ago and just recently he started screaming whenever i leave the room. this lady i know who owns four quakers suggested that i paid more attention to him, wich made things worse. the more attention i give him the sooner and louder he starts to scream when i leave the room. please help!

Chet,
We have a three year old Sun Conure that screams (calls us) in the morning when he is ready for some attention. He also loves to scream to get picked up. I found that if I cover him it will quiet him down but I’d rather have an alternative method to calm him without having to pick him up. We’ve tried the clicker but I travel quite a bit and haven’t been able to spend the time with him that is required to train him. He can be a lover but when he screams it is frustrating.

His other frequent scream purpose is screaming anytime our dogs bark. Talk about an orchestra of sound, when the dogs stop barking he gradually stops screaming.

I haven’t ordered the DVD yet but I am sure it is one my wife will want for sure.
Take care,
Steve

Petrie has a very annoying chirp. It’s very high pitched and we want him to stop. He does this mainly at night. He’s a green cheeked conure.

Hi Chet,
I am enjoying the DVD and CD’s that I have recieved from you and I am looking forward to putting the information into practice when I get my baby Eclectus in a few weeks time!
I had a Black Headed Caique for 12 years until last novermber when he tragically died one night . He would scream like a smoke alarm to get attention as he knew we would come running for the smoke alarm! Mostly this would be for a titbit from the dinner table when we were all sat down as his cage was in the dinning room.He would also announce the arrival of my mother when she pulled up in her car outside my house. She was the only other female that I could trust him not to bite! I think he may have loved her more than me! He would bite me if I tried to take him off her shoulder and he nver bit me at any other time!

We have a sun conure. We have tried the training of leaving him alone when he is screaming and enter the room, reward when he stops. Currently after 2 months we are staying out of the room for 15 minutes down from 30. The problem is he has separation anxiety from my wife. She is with him more than me and when she leaves the room he goes into the house alarm mode. Not bored, plenty of toys to play with just does not want to be left alone at all. He stays in the main part of the house. Still trying.

my cockatiel tends to scream when he is annoyed, like when i try to put him back into his cage or take him out when he doesn’t want to. he also tends to scream just for the pleasure of screaming (he doesn’t tend to do this too often) but for the most part he screams at random.

Hiya Chet

Thank you for all your emails to date. I have a female orange winged amazon. We have lots of issues but I will deal with matter in hand for an eagerly awaited cure.

Ruffles really only seems to “scream” (very very loudly) when its either morning (so the curtains don’t get opened till I can deal with it) or dusk. She sits on her cage and just lets rip for 10-15 mins and nothing (except shutting the curtains) will quieten her.She is generally aggresive – or independant, as I like to call it! – so paying any her any attention during these episodes is pointless – if not damaging to the ear drums!

I guessed its because she is in the bay window at the front of the house (out of direct sunshine) and her view is of lawn, trees and open fields – yes, lucky her. However we have flocks of rooks, pheasants, wild garden birds and pigeons that all come in to roost in the trees at dusk. So I always give her the benifit of doubt that shes just trying to join in and is excited by their activity.

Any ways I can at least try to communicate with her to be quiet would be very much appreciated. Or even to let me know if I’m on a hiding to nothing!

Thanks again. Your amazing

Hilary

I have an Eclectus, Peter. he is now 2 1/2 years old and he used to scream whenever I left the room. After much persiverance he now shouts ‘what you doing?’ a lot easier on the ears lol

My situation rings true to all others. My Sun Conure, Bella, screams if I am not paying 100% attention to her. If I am holding her, she will fly back to the top of her cage and scream for me to come and get her. (This can go on and on). She screams when I leave the room. She screams if I am not standing in the front of her cage when she decides to take a bath. It’s hilarious, she wants an audience! She screams when I am on the phone conducting business, and she screams and bites when my husband picks up the remote. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Chet; Our U2 is a wonderful bird but has some bad habits. We have five dogs, four small breeds, and one great dane. When the little dogs go out, our U2 barks in a high pitched voice like a small dog yipping and doesn’t stop until they come back inside. When the great dane goes out, U2 will scream like a banshee until he hears the door shut and is pretty much okay until the big dog comes back in. Our poor dog is not able to spend quality time with the family because the bird carries on so badly. The people I got him from used to spray him with a water bottle but I like to mist him with it and don’t want him to associate the spray bottle with punishment. The other thing is he runs us off to bed at night because he is tired and so we should be too. I know cockatoos are the neediest of critters and loud to boot, but I want to be able to hear in a few years. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

I have 2 cockatiels and a Senegal. I’ve had Iggy the Senegal for 6 months and I am his 3rd owner that I know of. I think he is about 11. Iggy has a number of issues that I hope to help him with. Fear is one of them. The screaming has improved quite a bit but when something upsets him, he lets me know it. He is in a sun room with the other birds – all their own cages. I found that he screams when he is upset. Nothing odd there! He is situated in a corner with the back of his cage about 18″ from the wall. An adjacent side of his cage looks through a window. I found that he can get spooked from something outside. I can’t always tell what upsets him but I think the last time it was a few boxelder bugs on the screen. That is all I could see besides the landscape. I have started to leave his cage partially covered with his night drape during the day. This creates a cove at the back of the cage where his perch is. He can hide back there and be closer to a “wall” but still come out and look outside when he wants. This seemed to help him. When he really seems to be bothered by something outside, I pull the shade and that helps too. He does the occasional scream when looking for me. I’ll call out to him and tell him “I’ll be right back”. This helps somewhat.

My male cockatiel Tuki was bought at the Humane society when he was 4. He is 6 now. He will step up when it suits him but has a habit of being nippy and will bite at any finger near the cage. He has recently taken to screeming/calling over large time periods during the day. I haven’t a clue why. Partially covering his cage quiets him for a short time then he starts up again. I do check his water and food to make sure this isn’t contributing. It is mating season. Maybe that has something to do with it. I can’t figure it out.

hi I have a myer parrot and he squaks I dont think he know how to stop when he gets going. mostly when I m not home or in the morning when he gets up or if he has no food or gets nervous. I also have a blue crowned conure the screams when somebody comes in the door or when my dog barks in the house. well I hope this helps you out

MY 2yr old african grey KUJO..
I think he’s seeking attention, if my family are sitting in the same room, ie using the computer he starts playing rough with his toys and screaming more like screeching so loud, drives you nuts, also if he hears my voice…..my husband suffers with titinus, please help

Hi, Chet.

My six-year-old sun conure has three different screams: The one he uses for attention, one where he tries to be louder than the human who is speaking, and a distress call that I think can actually break glass. Since he’s a “one-person” bird, we get to hear the distress call whenever anyone but myself gets too close to his cage. And if he’s on my shoulder when anybody else walks toward his cage, he flies there to defend it, screaming his little head off.

Gracie is our Umbrella Cockatoo hatched 8/5/05. We got her in early October of that year and hand-raised her with lots of hands-on love. The first word she actually said was ‘water’ when she would get one of her favorite treats, a glass of warm water to drink from. We would repeat ‘water’ every time and model by saying ‘water’ and giving each other the glass. Eventually, Gracie got the idea and regularly requests ‘water’ and is rewarded by getting warm, fresh water in her dish in her cage or in a glass if she’s out. We are rewarded by the peeping and head-bobbing she used to do when we were hand-feeding her bird-gruel when she was a baby.

During a period when her cage was in front of our basement door and I was doing a lot of work on our house both upstairs and down, I got into the habit of every time I passed by saying ‘Hi, Beakly’. When she wants to please us for about the last nine months, she will say ‘Hi, Beakly’, occasionally with very good diction, but usually with lazy diction, still recognizable to us.

Her scream, as any bird owner knows, can be quite piercing, even to the point of causing hearing damage in humans. Our cure has been a small, brightly colored squirt gun. At first if she screeched, we would pick it up and give her a squirt from across the room, turning our backs on her. Recently, we usually only have to pick it up for her to stop. She then sweetly says ‘Hi, Beakly’, and we reward her nicely with attention or a treat.

Hi Chet

I have 2 quakers, 1 is basically mine, (gerty) and the other is my wife’s (sugar). they live in seperate cages, but it seems like they love to scream at each other. Especially when I’m not in the room. Gerty will start and then Sugar will go. If I say something to them they’ll be quiet for a few minutes, and then they’ll start again. If I’m in the room, which is also my computer room, they seem to be ok, BUT every once in awhile, Gerty will sit on the side of her cage, we let them roam outside their cages all day, and start to scream if I’m not paying attention to her. She’ll stop if I turn around and look at her. but as soon as I turn away, she’ll stop. Right now they’re all quiet and content. Any Ideas?

My Slenderbilled Conure shreeks when I leave the room ( which is our bed room and all of our birds are in there) and when I return. She also shreeks when she leaves the room and enters the room. The only other time she shreeks is when she hears a dog with a high pitched bark. then she starts sounding like a puppy in trouble. Usually during the night. It doesn’t happen very often but when it does. I have to check to see whether it is her or a real dog. Since this only happens periodicaly, I haven’t found a way to stop it.

My pet bird has just recently stared protecting me a little too much.When I have him out,he’s fine, but if anyone gets too close to me,he goes beserk.He starts skwaking his tiny birde head off.

My blue & gold macaw, Jonah, has what I’ve chalked up to be abandonment issues. He’s ten years old and we bought him from another couple who had a lot of animals and didn’t think it’d be ok to keep him. He screams when we leave the house, when we leave the room (if we’ve ignored him the whole time we’re in the room he doesn’t, but if we have gotten close to the cage or said hello to him he will flip out if he’s left alone), and he’ll also scream because we aren’t paying attention to him (because we’re eating dinner or watching tv or talking to eachother instead of playing with him).

hi there
i have a green amazon who is constantly screaming and squawking
he comes out of the cage nearly all the time.i leave it open most of the time for him/her .he tends to scream a lot when i am on the phone or when i play the music.nothing i do will stop him at all.he has loads of toys to play with and he loves my boyfriend.he is always sat with him but he does not like me at all and will not let me go near him.this does not bother me as much as the screaming.he just does it anytime of day or night.i have tried to cover his cage with a blanket but he still does it.any help please !!!

Chet my blue and gold macaw screams when she feels tension in the home, or when the lights are too bright. She was stolen about 4 years ago, and I really never knew or found out how the thieves
treated her. Before they took her she would get really excited when I got home from work and would actually jump out of her cage land on me and hold on with her wings. Now I cant even touch her she avoids me alltogether only my girlfriend can touch her and scratch under her wing.
Any way I hope this helps with your vidio.
thx Eric Laxdal

Hello Chet,

Well the screaming I deal with is COCKATIEL “Flock Calling” and “flirting”. I have three boys, the two babies and then theres dad. Dad is about 2-3 years and the babies are a little over a year now. The problem is early in the morning they will call till I get up. Its a one note whistle and then late night when I am on the computer or randomly through the day they will “Flirt” really loud with their dad. The same whistles repeated and the volume gets louder, I’ve tried to ignore it, put a blanket on them, spray them and tell them “NO.” They spend all day with me and their flock so they get a lot of attention, they have seeds and a great brand of millet, (RowdyBush) that they eat, they also get fruits and veggies too.

Hi Chet! How r u? I have the same issue as the other person that left a comment. My mollucan cockatoo (Bubba) screams so loud whenever he feels that I am not paying enough attention to him or whenever me or my husband r not in the room with him. And I try not to give him the attention when he starts this screaming because I feel like that will only make it worse. And that’s because when he screams if I show him the attention that he wants, he is getting exactly what he was screaming for therefore he will keep doing it. Thanx so much!!!
Amanda

I have a little corella or bare eyed cockatoo which ever you know them as. She is 14 years old and although i am in the process of sorting out her screaming while leaving the room by the use of yuor training techniques i am at a loss for one type. She screams every time i come home, she hears my car and starts to scream. I have ried waiting outside the house until she is quiet then going in after a few minutes of her silence but she still screams every time.

I have a sun conure and I know they’re known for being loud. I don’t mind it screaming in the morning or when it’s time to go to bed…

But he screams when we go into the kitchen. When someone leaves or comes home. When he knows we’re home and we leave the room he’ll scream. Also when we return to the room. Sometimes he’ll scream when we’re on the phone too.

He’s only 7 months old so I’m hoping it’ll be easier to fix. He’s well socialized and he’ll let anyone pet him. It’s just hard because I can’t take him everywhere I go in the house.

Honeydew, my double yellow head amazon screams loudly when my son comes into the room or goes near him. He even screams when my son gets up from the couch after sitting down for a while. I think Honeydew sees him as a rival for attention, not fear.

Honeydew also screams for my attention if I leave the room, but I am working on this by trying not to come back in until he’s quiet. I’m not sure if this is working yet as we just started it a week or so ago.

Hi Chet. I have a green cheek conure (almost 2 yrs old). Bandit is very tame, steps up with no problem, does a few small tricks. He has lots of toys, is in the room we spend the most time in, is fed pellets, fresh fruits and veggies and a small amount of nuts/seeds. Our problem is that I have a cough that is persistent (about the last 6 months) and Bandit absolutely hates my cough. It sets him off squacking and he doesn’t stop til long after my cough has subsided. My cough doesn’t seem to be getting better so I need help getting him to not react to it. Thanks.

I haave a yellow naped Amazon – Oscar. I have had Oscar three years coming in August. His former owner committed suicide (Gun) and his elderly father could not care for Oscar. We bonded instantly, and it has been very slow going, as we get to know each other.

For some reason, he HATES my 13 year old (who adores him and wants only to hold him and pet him_ Oscar draws his blood every time he tries.

In the past three weels he has started ripping to shreds the newspaper on the bottom of his cage. He has started SCREAMING. Ear peircing “RHAAAAA RHAAAA” OR “MOM…..MOM….. wonder where the hell he got that one )(I have 8 children withonly two left at home)

My husband gets this awful look, I know he wants to sack the bird. He is sometimes out of food, mostly I walked out of the room, If I walk up yo yhr cage and speak, he slides to the bottom and starts to dane…signifying I am to start singing.

Who is training who???????? Ellen Campbell

Hi Chet!!

ok, as i’ve said, i have a Double Yellow Head Amazon, her name is maggie. Maggie is really sweet but she’s SUCH a pain when it comes to screaming!

Well, when i come home, she greets me with joy by starting to talk alot and sing and stuff. But when i go in my room to do my work she yells and screams and makes such weird noises.
And BECAUSE she is really spoiled by me, she does it to get attention. I know why she screams, its for attention, but i just do NOT understand this. In the mornings like the weekends when i get to sleep in, im always awoken by her because of her screaming. her cage and my other two birds(cockatiels) are by the door in front of a window. On the other side of the house.
So we moved maggie’s cage into the living room with us so she could get the attenttion she wants, and it worked.

but i really really need your help on this. Now my two cockatiels are the ones waking me up. i mean…i just dont understand. and its not EARLY in the morning so they could greet the sun or the new day or whatever, because i dont know. But im starting to get really tired of it and cant stand it anymore.
So when i get dragged out of bed by their noise, i go check their cage and there’s NOTHING wrong. they have clean water, fresh food, cage clean. And i still just dont understand.

So please try to answer me on that and see if you know why they do that!
Thanks!!

I have a 6 year old mouccan cockatoo when he yeals it’s because he wants attention so i just ignore him and when he gets quiet that’s when I go over to him right away. He learns that the only way he will get my attention is to behave without screamimg, this takes time to work. If this does not work I glare at him for 5 to 8 seconds and when I go out of the room without speaking to him. For mango, I find what works the best is a time out in a separate cage in the bathroom I also tell him he is being naughty without yelling at him. He will go in for three minutes using a food timer that will ring when his time is up. Most of the time I will say you are being naughty he runs down the hall to the bathroom and puts himself on a time out and closes the door himself and after that he behaves for and long time. Good luck to all, it will get better. Bill

I’ve read a few responses and see I am no different. My son has a Sun Conure and he screams when you leave the room and he knows you are in the next room or somewhere in the house. Most of the time he only does it when he knows it is me or my husband, but not for my son. Not really sure why he only does it for us.

Hi Chet,

I read through some of the other comments and can relate to a lot of them. I have an 8 yr old Sun Conure and a 6 yr old Quaker.
The Quaker does its own version of screaming which sounds a lot like complaining or whate I call Quaker swearing and it can get quite loud. It happens when I pick up my Sun or when I am trying to put them all in their cages at night ( I also have a cockatiel) But the real problem is when my Sun screams and the Quaker tries to imitate not only the cadence but also the volume of the Sun which as you know can be extreme. The Quaker has a vocabulary of about 20 words but lately just raks ( that’s what it sounds like rack, rack, rack,)
They scream if someone brings something into the room they don’t like or are afraid of like some of the kids toys. That one is an easy fix. But they now scream when I am preparing food. ( They want some too and they want it now) Or they scream if I am just in the other room. That is the one that is the real problem. Its the scream for attention. I have tried not to go to them when they scream. I can wait it out but the rest of the family and the neighbours are not as patient or tolerant.
It was never as bad as it has been recently and the only thing I can come up with ( for the most part) is springtime and boredom . I don’t know what to do to solve that issue for them. I can’t relocate them for a change of scenery and toys either get shredded in less than an hour or last forever because they have no interest in that particular toy. Not chewable enough I guess. lol I do spend time with them every day but it would seem that its never enough. So, I have resigned myself to putting up with it and doing what I can. However, if I ever find myself in a different living arrangement like and apartment etc…we are in trouble. That could actually be a reality for me one day in the near future and re-homing my pets is not an option.

Hi Chet,
I take care of a pair of parrotlets. They scream so much especially in mating season, and I am around. I never know if it is attention they need or something else because as soon as I come home from work they scream and fluff up their feathers as if saying do not come near, I talk to them, try to give them attention but they just seem to want me out. I leave them alone, try to be out of their way, but they still see me because i live in a studio apt. and they still scream. Who says parrotlets are quiet? I am going to get kicked out of this place one of this days. Oh, and they also pluck. They are basically free to fly around the house; their cage is open, so they go in there to eat, I put pieces of nuts here and there in their big playground and hang millet in a tree; they have toys and ignore them all, and they pluck and scream. I just do not know what i am doing wrong. Thanks for all your tips and e-mails. They are great.

Dear Chet,
Our Amazon boy ” Cookie” is recently pulling himself backwards and upside down in his cage therefor ruffeling his feathers. He also chews his legs! It is horrorfying to watch.
When anyone goes outside he screams ” Hector” and ” What Doing”. The only time he breaks our eardrums with the smoke alarm scream is when we eat. We try and get his meal to him first but he wants what we have; or not. Covering him with his sheet is all we got. Jodi

I have 2 cockatiels and both scream both out blue when were relaxing and as soon as someone opens or closes the door. We cover them up which works as long as we don’t make any noise, but as soon as we do anything such as get a bowl from the kitchen or turn on the tv they start again. We’ve tried everything from putting them in the bathroom to putting them on the balcony. Any help on this subject would be great!

Chet, well Sam is usually a pretty good bird,naturally she screams at times all Goffins do.The only real screaming problem we have with her is the screaming when she’s out of her cage she loves being out,but after a bit the screaming and hysterical
flying, almost running into walls,furniture ect.. commence.She’s fully flighted since she very graceful(not) I’m afraid she’ll injure herself falling.She’s now almost 10,still doesn’t talk at all , has more toys than all 4 of my grandchildren and still plucks her feathers out under her wings and off her legs.I guess she ain’t french.

Shredder, my 7-month-old female military macaw, is generally a quiet bird… until she hears my voice in another room. My 2 parakeets make more racket than she does but she pretty much ignores them. She’s also identified the sound of the microwave oven and the closing of the refrigerator door with food. The microwave makes sense – I used to heat the water in it when she was still being formula fed. Nothing wrong with her hearing – she can be in her bedroom, at the other end of the house, with the door closed and her cage covered and she still can hear that microwave door closing no matter how quietly I do it. (Heaven forbid I let the thing beep!) No matter if she’s in her room or out in the living room on her play gym, and regardless of whether I or my roommate are the one who is rustling around in the kitchen, she lets out a series of very loud and demanding squawks. It isn’t as though every time we go into the kitchen she’s gotten food, either. The bulk of what she eats is at room temperature, but I think she knows that the chilled grapes, apples and oranges came out of the fridge – even though she hasn’t actually watched me get them out of there. Very smart bird!

So now I make a deliberate effort NOT to bring her anything directly from the kitchen to her playgym. Instead, I’ll take whatever I want to give to her into my office, wait a few minutes for the shrieking to stop, then take it to her. It seems to help quiet her down more quickly, but hasn’t had much effect on her shrieks when I’m in the kitchen, except when I stand within view she will stop… step out of site for a second and it’s on again. If we eat dinner at the table in the kitchen (out of site) and I don’t bring something out to her (before we sit down to eat) to keep her occupied, sometimes she’ll hop off of her gym and come cruising into the kitchen. Forget sitting in the livingroom to eat – unless you want a macaw practically jumping onto your plate. As long as she’s getting samples and doesn’t run out, she’s quiet and content. But what a moocher she is!

She also has an eardrum-shattering shrill shreak that she’ll let out just because…?! If she’s on my shoulder when she happens to do it it’ll make my ears ring. It’s hard to determine any specific cause or reason, but I suspect it may be a territorial thing with her because it seems to happen mostly when there is another human present in the room and she’s on my shoulder or my arm. Maybe a hormonal thing? She is going through her first moult now and has been exibiting some strange behavior; seems to be a bit more aggressive in guarding her cage; gets cranky and squawky for no apparent reason. (PMS?) LOL

Whatever the cause, I need to teach her to quiet down and soon! I plan on moving and may end up in an apartment where even an occassional loud shriek could really be a problem. I’m looking forward to hearing what you suggest, Chet. Thanks for inviting our input!

I have a wonderful, friendly patagonian parrot that screams literally all day even when being held we did the vet thing and he checked out fine, if your having a conversation he is even louder we give him lots of attention someone is always home {brother has m.d.} and cant handle the screaming so has taken refuge in his room all day i am afraid i will have to sell him, and i dont want to, but my brother has to come first. he also gets lots of out of cage time he doesn;t seem to be frightened of anything in or near his cage, help please before i have to give him up

My green cheeked conure Ducky screams hysterically when i go to leave the house or sometimes even at random. could he have picked up this antic from my partner and me having yelling fights sometimes? How can i get him to stop? please help thanks

Like many others who have written in, my cherry head conure screams for me whenever I am not in the same room as her. She is a “rescued bird”, a feather plucker and has major control issues. I’ve had her five years, and from being a hysterical biter with the loud CAW CAWs that only a conure can vocalize, she has become a reasonably well adjusted, friendly bird. I work at home so she has me for company ALL THE TIME!!! She does not want to let me out of her sight. I’ve tried ignoring her, as sometimes she is too much of a distraction when I’m working, but my apartment is not that large and if I even shift in my chair, she starts screaming for me. She can scream for hours, although because I have a neighbour upstairs who doesn’t really like her anyway, I eventually give in (longest time was 1.5 hrs when I knew neighbour was out). I know this is just reinforcing her screaming, but I can’t see what other choice I have in the interest of community relations! My girlfriend tells me that when she is at my place and I’m not, Coco is quiet, and my neighbour tells me the only time she hears her when I am out is if the phone rings (really bad insulation between our apartments). So it’s just with me…

Hi, I can’t say TuKiLu is a screamer but whenever I leave the room he will began screaming HELP as loud as he can over and over for what seems too long .He is 16 months old and readly says lots of words.[not when I want him to]

My eclectus parrot screams usually three loud shrieks whenever our dogs are getting attention or when they come back in the house from being outside to potty. She will also scream when people come over that she does not know. I often take her to work with me, and she sits at the front desk on a tabletop stand. I work in a vet office, so strange people and animals are coming and going constantly, but she does not scream there, unless everyone leaves the room. She mostly does it when she is in her cage or on top of it at home.

Hello Chet! I have Three Exotic Birds and they all have issues (some more than others). We will start with Mr. Cheapers, he is a Green Cheek Conure and has this screaming issue when i am on the phone or i am talking to my family, he also like to pull on the cages bars making this loud and very annoying twang that drives everyone crazy.There have also been times that he wants your attention and gives all the signs of wanting to be held, but then turns into a blender with feathers as soon as you put your hand down for him to climb on.

Next we will talk about Jada he/she is a Red Throated Conure we adopted from a abused home and she was in such terrible shape and looked like she was about to die. We nursed her back to health and she is a vibrant green and red and very healthy looking. Jada has this little problem with not wanting certain people to hold her and proceeds to attack her foot and wings. I also cover all of my birds at night, i do this because i have had a bird in the past that died from fright, when my cat jumped on the table and knocked something over, Jada absolutely can not stand being covered, she screams and attackes the cover.

Now for my Blue and Gold McCaw Nekko, He is a little tyrant at times, He screams when someone walks by his cage and when strangers are here for longer than 5 minutes. Nekko also likes to bite everyone except me (unless someone else has ruffled his feathers then i get latched onto). He also likes to scream when i talk on the phone or anyone for that matter (feels like nails being driven through my spine when he does this). He keeps yanking his feathers from (just) his chest and his face turns blood red when he gets made at anyone. Oh taking him out of the cage ( he will not get out on his own) is like trying to put a cat into a tub for a bath, he hangs on to the cage with his feet for dear life and latches on with his beak so you can not get him out ( looks like peeling old wall paper, it just wont come off). We have attemptedto teach him to talk BUT the only thing he seems to want to say is redrum (ever see the shining?) which is just plain creepy when you go get a glass of water at night LOL. Lets talk about his hissing ( doing it right now) and no one is near him when he does this, so unless i have a bird with the ability to see ghosts i wish he would stop LOL. The only other ability he appears to have is cackling like a witch ( thanks to my daughter).

Well chet if you have any solutions to help out my delinquent crew of feathery friends, i would be sooooooooo grateful and i could cut back on my stock in excedrin.

Hi Chet,
Welcome Back!

I have a green cheek conure that i hand raised, she is 1 1/2, i have never had a problem with her screaming because i have taught her “hushie” since she was very little. I recently adopted a sun conure who is 6 months and contantly screams, often for no particular reason. Most noteable screaming occurs in the morning before food/cleaning and when i am pottering around cleaning the house going from room to room and when i am on the phone. Sometimes he will just yell “hello” to me and i will respond but he only does this rarely. cage covering isn’t really an option as my green cheek shares the cage and doesn’t scream at all (except when I come home from work and they both get excited). The screaming is becomming a problem as my new landlord seems to have a personal vendetta against them.
Any help would be super! Cheers

Hi Chet.
My cockatoo screams for no reason at all. She starts it the minute She hears me come in from work or outside. She is a wild caught bird about 20 years old. When she is out of her cage with me she is the sweetest, nicest bird ever. Only when she is alone in her cage even with me around she will scream her beak off.
My blue and gold is just fine , has not picked up any of her screaming, most of the time he tells her to “Be Quiet”

Hello,

I have enjoyed reading your emails. I have 2 indian ringnecks and I believe one is a male an done is a female they are about 18months – 2 years old now. My main problems is that the green one which I believe is the male as he is getting the ring around his neck, talks a lot but also screeches particulary in the morning unless I have covered him up the night before. As soon as he is covered he is quiet so i have got into a routine where i usually move both of them into a smaller night cage which I can cover easierly and then let them out when I wake in the morning this seems to work. The yellow female used to screech too but doesn’t seem to anymore howver this one wants to sit on me anytime I come near her and will however try and bite. So I usually handle them with a stick and they are very good at hopping on the stick and sitting on my shoulder and also coming out of the cage and walking around the garden. Am I doing the right things ? and is there something else I could be doing? I feed them parrot pellets which I believe has helped them to a certain extent. I also have a galah that we haven’t had that long so maybe they could be jealous of this bird?

Hi Chet,
My young male cockatiel, Tigger, has his good days and his bad days. On a bad day, he continuously screams for my attention to the point where my nerves begin to feel frazzled, and I have to remove his cage to a bedroom and close the door to get some peace and quiet.
My husband thinks that I spoil him – he thinks that I take him out of his cage too much and too often when I’m home. I guess part of that is because if I am working all day and he’s left alone in his cage, I feel obligated to have him out as much as possible in the evening when I get home. The problem with screaming usually occurs during the weekends when we’re both home, but busy doing housework, shopping, and other chores throughout the day.
When he’s quiet in his cage, I try to reward him with praise and a scratch around his neck which he loves…sometimes this works but sometimes it backfires and he starts in with the screaming once I walk away from the cage. He does knows some words but will often combine the talking with a high-pitched scream inbetween that hurts my ears.

I plan on having Tiggs around for many years and don’t want the screaming to get worse. Any helpful tips would be appreciated.

Pat

We have an 18 yr. old female Yellow Nape and an 18 yr. old Eclectus male. (raised together) He screeches if he does not get the attention he wants (he would prefer to be handled all the time) It is so loud and startles the Y.Nape she flys and hits a wall or window. I’m afraid she will get hurt. He also will get down on the floor and chase me. Otherwise, if we pick him up from his cage and hold him he’s very gentle and only gets mad when we put him down…growls and snaps. He is not agressive while he is being held.

I have a conure, a small brilliantly colored female.
She has super acute hearing, and when she hears that I’m up in the mroning she strats screaming. Also when she hears my opening the outside street gate, which is about 40 feet froom the house, but she hears it already, she starts her screams, calling me, letting me know that she wants my attention!

My Molucan cockatoo, Capers, is 30+ years and I have had the screaming problem almost all the time I have had him at home -14 years – but in the last number of years has gotten worse. He screams when anyone visits me the only way I have found to stop him is to have him on my arm while I am talking the the visitor. Otherwise we go into another room and shut the door. Should I be on the phone I also go into a rom and shut the door, unless we happen to be in the garden then I guess he is too busy chewing the deck and other things on there. Should he be out in the house when I am on the phone I have to keep an eye on him as I am likely to be attacked on the feet and ankles. He is always in his cage while I am working in the house as too much damage has been done to the house, so will scream for my attention but now I just shut the door. He has the TV to watch but does not always like the program. ( He is a spoiled boy I guess). The screaming I get when I come home is an excited one I think but carries on until I let him out. Usually when he is screaming the dog starts to howl to. There are times when it is legitiment as he will sound the alarm when there is a bird of prey in the sky. He also does this when one is on the TV.

I have a 30+ Moluccan cockatoo which I get from the local zoo, I have had Capers at home for 14 years and for the last number of years his screaming has been getting worse.

He screams when:
- people visit
- I am talking on the phone. for both of these I usually go into a room and shut the door. If we are in the garden he is quiet. Usually chewing the deck and whatever is on there In the house I have to watch him on the floor as he is lickely to attack me feet.
-working in another room after a while the screaming starts even though the TV is on.
- This one is allowed to an extent, when a bird of prey is in the sky, He has even screamed at one on the TV.

If I am not actually with him he is not allowed out now as there has been too much damage done to the house, this could be one of the causes for extra screaming.

Hey Chet,
I have 4 parakeets. They like to be petted and like to be held, but only when they are out of the cage. Anyways, every time I try to take them out of the cage they scream. They don’t fly around, or make me chase them, but they start screaming at me only when I try to take them out of the cage.

I have a few screaming problems:
1. My guys (especially my yellow crowned amazon, Oliver) scream for attention even after just having been given plenty of it.
2. My red lored amazon, Winston, screams when he is excited either by many guests, hanging upside down and attacking a toy,being in the bathroom while I’m showering, etc. I do have to give him credit, he understands when I tell him not to scream and clearly tries his hardest, but I would like advice on how to teach him to make a different, more pleasant, sound to express his excitement.
3. I have occasional screaming-while-on-the-phone bouts (usually Winston).

I have a 35 week old Sun Conure, he was hand raised and I got him from a shop when he was 22 weeks. He screams at three different times:

1) He scream’s in the morning until I give him a peice of fruit
2) He scream’s when he see’s (or hear’s) that there is someone inside the house, or if they come outside
3) When he is inside he screams if we leave him alone for a moment

My family thinks that he is bored – but when I put in toys in his cage he chews and destroy them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hey chet,

Our allexandrine parrot hulk has a small sreaming problem. We have benefited greatly from all techniques in dvds that we have previously purchased from you. Hulk does tricks by hand commandments and talks she is a really obedient bird!

She is never caged and lives on a large stand in our house however she occasionally screams to try and get what she wants or if someoneor something is making her feel nervous. She does a large cheap and sometimes does up to 20 or so at a time.

I have tried in the past to ignore her when she does this and reward her upon return we she speaks again! this however didnt stop it i then tried to capture this at the time it happens and reward her to see if we could fase it out with positive reinforcement but have had no luck with that as well.

Hopefully you can give some more insight as im sure you can!!

Hi,
I live in Australia in a bushland setting and my Alexandrine, Matey, screams every time a flock of native parrots (or Magpies) fly by. Matey used to go outside on the deck but due to an attack by an eagle I have to keep him inside now. I don’t know if this has made the screaming worse or just that I am more aware of it. Matey shares his cage with Jimmey a Rainbow Lorikeet who seems to take no notice of the other birds.
Hope this is useful & you can come up with a solution.
Cheers
Erik

Hi Chet,
I live in Australia in a bushland setting and my Alexandrine, Matey, screams every time a flock of native parrots (or Magpies) fly by. Matey used to go outside on the deck but due to an attack by an eagle I have to keep him inside now. I don’t know if this has made the screaming worse or just that I am more aware of it. Matey shares his cage with Jimmey a Rainbow Lorikeet who seems to take no notice of the other birds.
Hope this is useful & you can come up with a solution.

We have a Senegal, about 3 years old. Everytime my husband leaves the room he screeches, sometimes just when he moves to a different area in the room. He keeps screeching until hecomes back. If he sees my husband outside he will screech. At times he will start screeching at me when we are just sitting in the same room.

My Blue & Gold, Raucus Beauregard (aka Raukie), screams when he hears me loading or unloading the dishwasher. He can be in his room at the other end of the house, and I am being as stealthy as possible, but he hears and begins to scream. He does the same thing if he hears me at the washer and dryer, or hears the coat closet open (this one seems reasonable to me….he has figured out that we leave the house….but he screams even if