acainhurst
New member
- Feb 29, 2024
- 2
- 3
- Parrots
- Cockatiel and gcc
Hello. I have a four year old (assumed) male cockatiel named Percy, who I got in May of 2020, while I was working from home. He is absolutely obsessed with me. In August of 2020, received a very serious injury to his beak (don't use carabiners on your toys everyone...) and I think that exacerbated his attachment to me, as I was babying him during his recovery. He is now disabled, his bottom beak is split in two and both the bottom and the top require frequent trimming, but he is healthy and is able to eat, drink, play and preen without any issues. He does not pluck, either.
The problem is: since a few months after I got him, any time I am not in his line of sight, or if I am doing something he doesn't like even a little bit, he screams. Over and over. Sometimes it doesn't go immediately to screaming, and he lets out these quiet, nervous chirps and paces back and forth, but that usually escalates into screaming if I don't stop doing the thing he doesn't like. I have tried everything under the sun to try to calm him down.
I've tried:
- calling back to him to try to let him know I haven't left, that makes it worse.
- completely ignoring his screaming, or leaving the room entirely when he does. He keeps screaming, will stop after a few minutes of nonstop squawking, and then as soon as he hears proof of my presence (like me coming back into the room or walking around in a different part of the house)
- covering his cage to try to quell his anxiety, which kinda works if he's doing it because he doesn't like whatever I'm doing, but it doesn't stop the "you left the room" squawking. If I covered him every time he screamed, he would be covered for 90% of the day, and I'm not going to do that. I think going over to his cage and putting the cover on counts as interacting and rewarding him for his behavior, which I don't want to do
- getting him a cagemate. I got a very very sweet female tiel in 2022 in the hopes that Percy would bond with her instead of me, but he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. I gave them a nice slow introduction over the course of two weeks before I ended up housing them together, and it was so sad because she clearly wanted to be friends with him, but he would just hiss at her and try to drive her away, even from their food. They were in a big cage, so she could always get away if she needed to, but I ended up rehoming her later because he was so hostile to her.
- letting him see his neighbor. I was gifted a GCC, Roach, in 2022, and I try to let the two of them see each other in their cages. Roach also wants to be friends with Percy, but Percy also wants nothing to do with him. I guess it's good for Roach, at least.
- frequent outside the cage playtime. I try to give him a reasonable amount of interaction every day (something I can do consistently so he's not getting more or less on specific days), but when it comes time to return to my own activities and I put him away, the screaming gets really bad again.
- keeping his cage near me when I can't have him out. This results in him doing nothing but pacing back and forth for hours at a time, doing those little anxious chirps
- keeping his cage out of the room where I spend the most time in. Whenever I pass through the room he's in, he gets started all over again.
- giving him more toys and things to interact wtith in his cage. He doesn't seem to care for most toys, even when I get him the ones he does like, (loofah and tissue paper are his favorite because they're easy on his beak), he never spends long playing with them.
- playing music or other videos for him while I'm away. Hasn't seemed to do anything at all.
I am at a loss. I had a pretty bad anxiety attack yesterday because he just won't stop, no matter what I do. I can't drink around him (he screams), I can't sweep around him (he screams), I can't pour water around him (he screams), I can't pet or brush my cat around him (he screams), you get the idea. It seems like everything I do that isn't giving him 100% of my attention makes him anxious and I just don't have the capability to be at his side 100% of the time. I know he loves me, so I don't want to rehome him and worry others wouldn't tolerate his noise or his disability. He was abused by my old roommate (and his friends) who would shout at him and smack his cage when he screamed, so I worry others might be just as volatile towards him. I want to help him be less anxious and be able to exist comfortably on his own.
Any thoughts? Is this just how the next ten years of my life are going to be? Any and all help is appreciated. I love the little guy but he is driving me insane.
The problem is: since a few months after I got him, any time I am not in his line of sight, or if I am doing something he doesn't like even a little bit, he screams. Over and over. Sometimes it doesn't go immediately to screaming, and he lets out these quiet, nervous chirps and paces back and forth, but that usually escalates into screaming if I don't stop doing the thing he doesn't like. I have tried everything under the sun to try to calm him down.
I've tried:
- calling back to him to try to let him know I haven't left, that makes it worse.
- completely ignoring his screaming, or leaving the room entirely when he does. He keeps screaming, will stop after a few minutes of nonstop squawking, and then as soon as he hears proof of my presence (like me coming back into the room or walking around in a different part of the house)
- covering his cage to try to quell his anxiety, which kinda works if he's doing it because he doesn't like whatever I'm doing, but it doesn't stop the "you left the room" squawking. If I covered him every time he screamed, he would be covered for 90% of the day, and I'm not going to do that. I think going over to his cage and putting the cover on counts as interacting and rewarding him for his behavior, which I don't want to do
- getting him a cagemate. I got a very very sweet female tiel in 2022 in the hopes that Percy would bond with her instead of me, but he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. I gave them a nice slow introduction over the course of two weeks before I ended up housing them together, and it was so sad because she clearly wanted to be friends with him, but he would just hiss at her and try to drive her away, even from their food. They were in a big cage, so she could always get away if she needed to, but I ended up rehoming her later because he was so hostile to her.
- letting him see his neighbor. I was gifted a GCC, Roach, in 2022, and I try to let the two of them see each other in their cages. Roach also wants to be friends with Percy, but Percy also wants nothing to do with him. I guess it's good for Roach, at least.
- frequent outside the cage playtime. I try to give him a reasonable amount of interaction every day (something I can do consistently so he's not getting more or less on specific days), but when it comes time to return to my own activities and I put him away, the screaming gets really bad again.
- keeping his cage near me when I can't have him out. This results in him doing nothing but pacing back and forth for hours at a time, doing those little anxious chirps
- keeping his cage out of the room where I spend the most time in. Whenever I pass through the room he's in, he gets started all over again.
- giving him more toys and things to interact wtith in his cage. He doesn't seem to care for most toys, even when I get him the ones he does like, (loofah and tissue paper are his favorite because they're easy on his beak), he never spends long playing with them.
- playing music or other videos for him while I'm away. Hasn't seemed to do anything at all.
I am at a loss. I had a pretty bad anxiety attack yesterday because he just won't stop, no matter what I do. I can't drink around him (he screams), I can't sweep around him (he screams), I can't pour water around him (he screams), I can't pet or brush my cat around him (he screams), you get the idea. It seems like everything I do that isn't giving him 100% of my attention makes him anxious and I just don't have the capability to be at his side 100% of the time. I know he loves me, so I don't want to rehome him and worry others wouldn't tolerate his noise or his disability. He was abused by my old roommate (and his friends) who would shout at him and smack his cage when he screamed, so I worry others might be just as volatile towards him. I want to help him be less anxious and be able to exist comfortably on his own.
Any thoughts? Is this just how the next ten years of my life are going to be? Any and all help is appreciated. I love the little guy but he is driving me insane.
