Conure is lazy about foraging

[Greenhouseparrots]

Has anyone got any ideas to get my conure to forage more without screaming?

At the moment, if anything is too difficult she just screams. This morning there's some leftover seed in the cage from yesterday but to get it she has to look for it and find it as it's sprinkled on an artificial grass mat. She knows it's there but she's just spent 20 minutes screaming at me for food before finally going and finding and eating it and now she's making her happy noises because she's eating. She regularly screams at me for simple things like this and I'm not sure how to get her to stop. Is she just exceptionally needy? We already did some training with sunflower seeds as treats this morning, and I won't give her breakfast until I go to work which happens everyday so I'm not sure why she has to scream for 20 minutes at me when she knows the food is there and she just has to work a bit for it. Even if it's in a bowl she'll still scream at me for 20 minutes before eating.

 

[kme3388]

My sun conure can be this way. He hit a glass door really hard when he was a baby. He’s a little different. He doesn’t have the “flight” mentality of a typical parrot. I’ve had a lot of difficulties with getting him to forage. My jenday is a chainsaw on legs, and will destroy anything she can get her beak around which is what I’m used to. Nutri-berries, and avicakes is how I started to get my sun to forage. It’s the first time I ever seen him playing with something, or looking occupied. Then I moved it up to putting a sunflower seed in a soft toy I got at the store. I have finally got him chewing on popsicle sticks.

Both of my conures scream throughout the day. It happens more in the morning, and when I first get home from anything. I’m pretty sure they scream just to scream. I don’t notice it myself but all of my guests do. Also everyone calls me after 8pm, or sundown as they don’t want to hear the conures screaming during phone calls. Toys, and distractions help some.

 

[kme3388]

For little parrots they sure do have a loud scream!

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

My sun conure can be this way. He hit a glass door really hard when he was a baby. He’s a little different. He doesn’t have the “flight” mentality of a typical parrot. I’ve had a lot of difficulties with getting him to forage. My jenday is a chainsaw on legs, and will destroy anything she can get her beak around which is what I’m used to. Nutri-berries, and avicakes is how I started to get my sun to forage. It’s the first time I ever seen him playing with something, or looking occupied. Then I moved it up to putting a sunflower seed in a soft toy I got at the store. I have finally got him chewing on popsicle sticks.

Both of my conures scream throughout the day. It happens more in the morning, and when I first get home from anything. I’m pretty sure they scream just to scream. I don’t notice it myself but all of my guests do. Also everyone calls me after 8pm, or sundown as they don’t want to hear the conures screaming during phone calls. Toys, and distractions help some.

You might be on to something with your conure being a little different. When I got Tequila, she was four and I know nothing about her life before me. The shop I got her from lied about her age and she was in very poor condition when I got her. She also has a scar on her head which I assume is from an injury so maybe something happened to her that makes her behave like this.

I don't mind the screaming when it's just conures being conures, but the sound she makes isn't just being noisy because it's fun. The noise she makes is distressing and demanding and she gets really happy if I manage to figure out what she was so unhappy about. I've had her scream at me for 20 minutes and then picked up her water bowl and then she's got really happy because she wanted a drink but didn't want to go in the cage to drink. Also with foraging, she knows the seed is there, she just doesn't want to work for it and would rather scream at me instead of go and find it. Most of the time I have no idea why she's screaming, or she just wants something she can't have at that moment. I feed her breakfast when I go to work but she often can't wait for it even though she's already eaten and she knows I'm going to feed her soon. If I feed her breakfast when she demands it then she won't go in the cage when I go to work and she needs to be in the cage when I'm at work unfortunately.