At my wits end

[BluenGold_Congo]

Looking for advice as I am not sure what do to anymore.


I've had my blue n gold for a little over 2 years now...she was about 6 months old when I got her, very challenging to handle but still somewhat behaved while in her cage in her room.


For the first year and a half she was clipped, (i had got her clipped a couple of times after the initial purchase). I decided not to get her clipped anymore because I wanted her to fly which she has been doing short flights around the house.


Well since the whole pandemic thing started (and I don't know if this coincides with springtime since it both started around late march.), I've been working from home and I cannot get her to stop screaming.


She shares a room with my african gray, shes in her own big cage with multiple toys in a room with a tv on with cartoons playing for atleast 4-5 hours during the work day and all she wants to do is hang off the cage bars that face the windows and scream all day. Her cage is not directly next to the windows but about 10 feet away, enough for her to see the pond, grass, etc outside. I'm not talking about a few squawks here and there, she literally just hangs off the cage bars with her beak screaming constantly. The only time she doesn't scream is when I have her out on my shoulder but I don't want to do that during the day because I have to eventually go back to the office and it will just create another problem. She'll even scream when I have her out and if I leave the room or area for a few minutes.



My normal routine when I was at the office has always been taking her out (along with my african gray) when I got home from work which was around 4:30-5 PM and keeping them out until 9 PM during work days and during weekends having them out from 1/2 PM to 9 PM.



I cannot stop her from screaming now unless I cover most of her cage (side facing the windows) with a blanket during the day and I really don't think that's the best situation.
I've tried putting it on for an hour to quiet her down if she starts her whole hanging off the bars while screaming routine and it stops and then taking it off again and she goes back to doing it again.



I've been trying to harness train her so I can take her outside again but it's

not going too well and she just refuses to have it go around her neck.



I really can't concentrate on work with her screaming constantly either, I'm honestly just frustrated and annoyed. I spend so much money and time on food, treats, toys ...like last night after I got done with everything and my chores I was baking birdie bread until 1 AM...etc only to be screamed at the entire day lol.


Not sure what do anymore I have a feeling people are going to start complaining soon and my HOA is going to come down on me.

 

[noodles123]

NEVER cover the cage during the day--period. This is a bedtime only thing--their light cycles matter and you can't use them to curtail behavior safely.
When you say, "can't stop her from screaming", what is your strategy and do you time periods of silence in between the screaming? How long have you waited without doing ANYTHING and staying out of sight (once the screaming starts)? To be clear- birds sometimes scream to communicate, so if your bird is in too small of a cage, isn't eating properly, isn't getting out, isn't getting attention like it needs etc, then ignoring isn't the answer, as it is screaming in the way that a baby cries...BUT, assuming your bird has structure, sleep, a schedule and is healthy, then it could be behavioral. ..Also-- no dark or shadowy spaces in or outside the cage--- these are triggers for behaviors (so no boxes or shelves etc).

When I got my U2, there were times when she screamed AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS for 2+ hours ...shook the house (all of her needs were very well met and she had already proven her independence while I was at work etc--this was more willful and flock related---not saying it was unnatural, but it intensified when more people were in the house and she wanted us all in one room with eyes on her). The thing is, when the screaming started, no one went in when it was happening--not to yell, not to cover, not to do a dang thing. We did our best to prevent it ahead of time by talking to her if we walked out of the room (BEFORE the screaming) but once it started, no one could enter the room or talk to the bird UNTIL there was a 10 second window of solid silence. At that point, we would run in and say, "thanks for getting so quiet" (in quiet voices). YOU MUST TEACH independence and play before you just leave your bird alone..but you need to praise the quiet and ignore the loud.

If the screaming starts and 10 s is too much, start with 5. Do what you can to prevent it 1. by making sure your bird gets 12 hours of sleep nightly on a schedule, 2. plenty of time out of cage each day, 3. teach it to play with toys by modeling, 4. REWARD independence.

IF YOU ARE SURE THAT YOU ARE MEETING ALL OF YOUR BIRDS NEEDS IN TERMS OF CAGE-SIZE, SLEEP, DIET, FOOD ETC....then here is what you can do if your bird starts screaming---if you are in the room, leave. If you are out of the room, stay out. You may need some earplugs during this initial period of time. You say nothing---do not talk about it, do not look at the bird, do not walk past the bird. NO ATTENTION.

If squawking stops, start a count 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3, Mississippi etc....If your goal is 5 seconds, and your bird squawks at 4 mississipi, then you have to start back at one. You do not start counting until the squawking stops, and any noise between 1-5 (or 1-10) seconds restarts the clock. You only run in and praise for being quiet after a SOLID 5-10 seconds (pick one and stick with it initially). Once the bird masters 5, increase the quiet time to 10.

This is more on you than on the bird because you have to have a will of steel and so far, the bird is doing what is natural and winning your attention. If covering the cage stops the screaming, consider the fact that the bird may be 1. confused/more messed up in the future because of hormones and light issues and 2. ENJOYING the cage covering...

 

[BluenGold_Congo]

Thanks for the response...it's likely not a CAGE-SIZE (7 feet high x 4 ft x 4ft), SLEEP (8 PM - 8 AM), DIET/FOOD (Pellet and a variety of carrots, sweet potatoes, pasta, bean mixes, birdie bread), plenty of toys to play with, wood to chew on, rope to chew on ETC...TV with cartoons on for at least 4 hours of the day while I'm at the other side of the house working...and she'll still scream at least a few times every hour even if I completely ignore it and do not make a sound in the house. I feel like I have to tiptoe around my own house not to trigger it.

I just don't know, if I reward her for being quiet with a treat once I leave the room, door closes and shes done with the treat she'll go back to her scream routine.

It's almost impossible to work with the noise in the background, and I just feel sorry for my african gray who's in the same room taking the brunt of the noise.

At this point I'm seriously considering re-homing for my own sanity and for my african gray's sanity. Almost every night I'm going to sleep with a huge headache lol.

 

[BluenGold_Congo]

Just for reference...here is a picture of their room...Its really anything outside that sets her off along with any sounds from outside, so I've had to leave the curtains closed as such with varied results and be a tough guy for the last couple of days which i really don't want to do.

 

[noodles123]

It's lovely, but my first impressions are 1. that it is too dark in there, and 2. that you are likely her would-be sex-partner (given the time-frame and behavioral shift). If you closed the curtains, you are making it even worse- you are wrong about what you think is setting her off. The last thing you want is to screw with her hormones and immune system by making her spend time in a darker place (when that room was already too dark and could have been contributing to the problem already). YOU need to tough out the screaming etc because you put her in a dark room which likely made her hormonal, which likely made her very interested in the birds outside or at least in protecting her space....

Give it time and PLEASE stop making it darker, you will lead her to self-destruction

 

[mica21493]

My blue and gold will scream bloody murder if I do not keep the drapes shut as well. To compensate, I have numerous lights in the room (6 lights!) and keep them on all day long as well as play the tv all day long. It’s a quirk he has had since he lived with my parents and I never heard of anyone else in a similar situation. The screams he does when the drapes are open are also his scared screams not his happy to be alive screams he does occasionally at other times.

 

[noodles123]

My blue and gold will scream bloody murder if I do not keep the drapes shut as well. To compensate, I have numerous lights in the room (6 lights!) and keep them on all day long as well as play the tv all day long. It’s a quirk he has had since he lived with my parents and I never heard of anyone else in a similar situation. The screams he does when the drapes are open are also his scared screams not his happy to be alive screams he does occasionally at other times.

He probably sees stuff outside that scares him. Parrots are prey animals, so they can get freaked out if they feel insecure...They also don't often like change, so if they drapes are shut and then they are opened, that alone could be upsetting if he is used to them being closed (think about how much that would change the look of a room).
I do think your bird could be taught to be less fearful of the drapes being open though.

You might try giving him a favorite treat the second you open them (while saying "I'm opening the curtains") , (open + treat) then close them before he finishes eating and can scream. If he's genuinely scared, he probably won't want the treat, but it would be a good way to build positive associations if it is more of a preference than a fear.

 

[mica21493]

Hi noodles, yeah, I really did try to work on this with him when he first came to me. I had no success. He will absolutely not take treats when he is that upset. The hard part for me is it’s not the actual opening of the curtains but the shadows that occur depending on time of day, cars/people/animals going by. So I can open the curtains, he can take a treat and be fine but when a shadow comes he loses his mind. I don’t know how to fix that behaviorally. So then I tried to let him tough it out but I’m not strong enough. He got so upset he panted and I cannot even describe how horrible I felt for upsetting him that badly. I know it’s probably the wrong thing to do but I gave up on it.
He has been doing lovely with target training though and is much less cage aggressive than when I first posted about him here on the forum. He even recently stepped up on my arm off his cage for the first time since I got him and I was really excited about that

 

[noodles123]

Have you tried repositioning his cage in relation to the window?
He does sound genuinely scared, which was why I suggested testing it with the treat (like I said, a super scared bird won't be interested in their favorite snack-sound like he is concerned about the shadows more than the window).

Could you try sheer curtains to kind of expose him gently without freaking him out totally? or maybe some semi-transparent contact paper on the glass that would still let some light in?

If you cast a shadow in the room using a flashlight (not in the dark, but in the evening when the light is conducive), I wonder if that would freak him out as much, or if it's the fact that they are coming from the window...? Would be interesting to know.

It may be something where he will become more secure over time--sounds like he went through some stuff before you got him (or maybe he is just uptight lol),but by improving your trust/bond etc, I imagine you will start to see that he is a bit more confident over time. I don't think it was wrong to stop (or take a break anyway) if it was that upsetting to him, but once he is a bit more confident, I might try to gently start exposing him to new things if you can do it without sending him over the edge. Baby steps..

 

[mica21493]

Yeah, we tried repositioning him but my house has a lot of windows and he ended up by another one and the same thing happened. My curtains do allow some light through. They are not black out but they are not sheer either. They are a cream color that allows light in. I am so curious as to the flashlight now. I want to try to remember to do that and see if he screams.
Yeah, he did go through quite a bit before I got him. Definitely baby steps. He was cage bound when I got him and terrified of everything and horribly cage aggressive. He turned 27 in may and I think I’ve had him for a little over 6 years now.

 

[noodles123]

Yeah- you are doing great then!
If you do try the flashlight, I would maybe place it in the room a few days before you use it, and let him see you holding it (while turned off) or he might react to the flashlight itself (not the shadows lol)--You want to make sure that you can tell whether his reaction is to the device vs the shadows. It may scare him, so try pairing it with positive leading up to the experiment lol with the dreaded shadows. You could turn it on and off and make it a game once he is used to seeing the flashlight, but after all of that, then you could finally test to see if shadows anywhere scare him as much as those outside....A lamp could also work (in a dim room--to cast a shadow that is).

My bird gets so weird about new objects that it sometimes takes a chunk of time. I got a new computer keyboard after she threw her toy under my foot and caused me to break my toe AND spill my water all over the keys of my brand-new laptop (during a digital work day due to covid, btw ugh!) ...and that keyboard "upset the apple cart" for many days lol.

 

[fiddlejen]

I am wondering about your cartoons. Shortly after I got my budgies they had an absolute-panic terror episode due to background graphics in a YouTube info-style video I had been watching. For Months after, they would get Very upset if I watched any video where the fellow who had been speaking might appear. They would freak out.

Because of this, if I leave for a few hours, I put on an aquarium video with calming music. (Now that I’m home always, I play budgie-flock videos for Jefferson while I’m working in the other room.)

(If I leave all day, I turn off the TV, and play classical radio instead. This is because, cars going by or something can actually change my video to something else. And a lot of otherwise innocuous visuals could send my budgies into a Panic. For example, a landscape video, might pick up a flyby of a predator.! Sometimes I couldn’t figure it out until I backed up a video several times. Just a momentary shadow, which must’ve been of a bird of prey, and my budgies would go into panic mode.

Now, more than a year later, Jefferson budgie seems to finally have gotten the idea that what’s on the television is not Necessarily In the house. At this time, I don’t have to be quite so careful about whats on the television – but, I still put aquarium videos or budgie flock videos – when I’m out of the room for any length of time. The budgies and Sunny all seem to like this.

All this to say, you might want to try replacing the cartoons, which might be not-helping or he even could’ve developed a negative association – with some thing with calming music and calming videos. I suggest aquarium videos since there are NO bird-predators inside coral aquariums, and there Are interesting-but-calming colors and motion for the birds to watch.

 

[noodles123]

I am wondering about your cartoons. Shortly after I got my budgies they had an absolute-panic terror episode due to background graphics in a YouTube info-style video I had been watching. For Months after, they would get Very upset if I watched any video where the fellow who had been speaking might appear. They would freak out.

Because of this, if I leave for a few hours, I put on an aquarium video with calming music. (Now that I’m home always, I play budgie-flock videos for Jefferson while I’m working in the other room.)

(If I leave all day, I turn off the TV, and play classical radio instead. This is because, cars going by or something can actually change my video to something else. And a lot of otherwise innocuous visuals could send my budgies into a Panic. For example, a landscape video, might pick up a flyby of a predator.! Sometimes I couldn’t figure it out until I backed up a video several times. Just a momentary shadow, which must’ve been of a bird of prey, and my budgies would go into panic mode.

Now, more than a year later, Jefferson budgie seems to finally have gotten the idea that what’s on the television is not Necessarily In the house. At this time, I don’t have to be quite so careful about whats on the television – but, I still put aquarium videos or budgie flock videos – when I’m out of the room for any length of time. The budgies and Sunny all seem to like this.

All this to say, you might want to try replacing the cartoons, which might be not-helping or he even could’ve developed a negative association – with some thing with calming music and calming videos. I suggest aquarium videos since there are NO bird-predators inside coral aquariums, and there Are interesting-but-calming colors and motion for the birds to watch.

I did once read a study that implied that TV could actually have negative impacts on parrot anxiety etc...so that is another thing to consider.

 

[BluenGold_Congo]

Well finally as a last resort I got her clipped again as of a couple of days ago and ever since then she is much calmer and well behaved.



As far as lighting is concerned I already have 2 of these in the room with the appropriate bulbs one over each cage on a timer to go on between 9 am and 4 pm:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006L49LHC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Along with a regular incandescent lamp that I turn on and off depending on the amount of light in the room/time of day.



As far as the sheer curtains being closed, it was definitely people outside walking their dogs, having their picnic umbrellas open, sitting outside etc. setting her off which I cannot control so I'm not sure if opening them is a good idea.



Someone had suggested putting something up on that side of the cage to block her view.



I've changed the youtube cartoon singalongs to a calmer

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQRDv3HtmUA"]Relaxing Music and Underwater Scenes 🔴 24/7 Calming Music - YouTube[/ame]


I've also been taking her outside for at least an hour a day without the struggle of the harness which she absolutely refuses to use.


Now that she can't control where she gets to go in the house, she stays on her perches playing with her toys quietly.

 

[tfw]

Someone had suggested putting something up on that side of the cage to block her view.

I was going to suggest something similar. We have one of those folding partitions that let light in but blocks the view. We didn't want to cover her cage so we opted for a partition that we use only at night so she can't see when someone walks past her cage. We don't even use it at nap time. Just at night.

 

[1oldparroter]

If the bird is (or has been) petted anywhere but above the neck area, they are very likely to become hormonal and think of you as a sex partner. Imagine, if you can, a 4 to 5 year old; with early teen sex drive. OMG ! NOW, you understand your birds' predicament. Anything that promotes hormonal feeling or behavioral conduct is to be avoided and removed from the bird. As discussed above, there are other triggers that cause screaming and they too, should be addressed. Firstly is dietary requirements, secondly is timed routine and last is training. Interaction goes along with all those things. This is an eveyday thing too. You're the owner and opted to have the bird in your life, so step up and be the owner. It is your responsibility to do the RIGHT THING. Coming here, is a 1st step, lol. Thanks jh

 

[BluenGold_Congo]

Someone had suggested putting something up on that side of the cage to block her view.

I was going to suggest something similar. We have one of those folding partitions that let light in but blocks the view. We didn't want to cover her cage so we opted for a partition that we use only at night so she can't see when someone walks past her cage. We don't even use it at nap time. Just at night.

That's a great idea, I'm going to look that up and decorate it with some vegetation. :33:

 

[BluenGold_Congo]

I just read some other info and I'm guilty of feeding her zupreem fruit blend pellets...this is probably contributing to her energy levels spiking off the wall.



Anyone have any recommendations on what I should switch to or how?

I'm thinking maybe switching to intune natural pellets?

 

[noodles123]

Harrison's has a program for weaning birds over to theirs, but even though it is considered quite good by many, corn is the first ingredient for many pellets (just saw that recently). Tops has a bunch of really good stuff...
You could try Zupreem's more natural stuff...
You DO NOT want to do anything cold turkey, so don't just per your bird off what its used to-stubborn creatures, as you know...

 

[Ira7]

I heard those lights are horrible for them.

I read it here after I bought mine and never used it.