Female Ekkie Scream?

[Rani]

Hello Everyone!

Rani is a SI female Ekkie. She has been the most cool and calm and happy bird till now. What i have started to notice is that She screams for us every now and then. for example
If we come home from work. The minute the car pulls in she will scream. We come in the house and open her cage and talk to her first.
90% of the time she is never locked as one of us is always home. But she would just scream out of nowhere. And its a loud scream
Last month my sister was visiting us with a new born and we had a party in the house where we had to keep her locked down for few hours and she hated it. She screamed for about 3 hours constant wanting to get out.
I am trying to understand the scream pattern but its so random. She would be cleaning her feather or playing with her toys and all of a sudden she screams.
She calls us in the morning when we wake up but its the same intensity of the scream.

how can i calm this down. I have started to go near her and tell her every time she screams that we are all here and its not ok to scream in the house. Talk softly.

Is there anything else i can do?

Thank you

 

[Safira]

"If we come home from work. The minute the car pulls in she will scream. We come in the house and open her cage and talk to her first."

I think in many cases this can be one of the worst mistakes a bird owner can make. It's the same with dogs, or any other animal. You established a routine. You come home and immediatly go to her, so if it doesn't happen, she's going to scream about it. Just like a dog would bark about it. I never go to any of my animals when I first get home. I change, grab a beer or something, then I let the dogs out and the birds out, etc. This teaches them to wait. A routine isn't bad, animals usually thrive on a solid routine.. But make it one that doesn't revolve around the bird.

A not so easy fix: Don't give her attentiom immediatly, go do something in the house then come back to her. She'll scream when you do this, but don't let her out until she stops.

"90% of the time she is never locked as one of us is always home."

I know there are some people who do not agree with me on this, and that's fine we all have our own opinion and it can depend entirely on the person's living arrangements, but I don't believe in giving a bird free roam of the house all day, every day, for this reason. You've taught her to expect being out of her cage. It's not her fault she wasn't allowed out. A little cage time when you're home is not a bad thing for your bird, it teaches them to play independantly in them and be more patiant. This way when she needs to stay in there on the rare occasion,, its not a huge surprise to her.

The fix for sreaming is not easy. Your bird is going to scream, it means she's comfortable, comfident, angry, scared,.. or wants something (or any number of reasons a bird screams). The key is not to reward her screaming. It is very important if she screams to not give her any attention. She will learn quickly that screaming means she gets attention. Leave the room when she screams, and wait until she makes a noise you like more (A whistle, a word, anything besides a scream.)

I can tell you right now you're making a HUGE mistake by going near her whenever she screams, and you will only make the problem worse by doing it.

 

[Rani]

Thank you!

I will start working on this with her from today.

Other thing that is a surprise is that she would be preening her feathers and just chilling on her own and all of a sudden she screams. We have noticed that even when she is playing and so busy trying to break a toy for no odd reason she would scream.

 

[Safira]

Yeah, that's pretty normal.

 

[MikeyTN]

Safira made a very good point above! They need to have a time where they can be alone. You can respond when she screams by talking to her, it is how they call their flock. If you could teach her to talk more, that would be easier to take then scream. If the screaming doesn't stop, just ignore her by letting her know you don't like it when she screams by walking away when she's screaming.

 

[Pedro]

I have just read through all your previous posts on your bird Rani & i also have to agree to some of what the above replies have to say. I would suggest you go back & read through all the old posts. There seems to be a pattern emerging. Also your bird is now matured & possibly looking for a mate & a nesting site.

That said a cool calm & happy bird just doesn't start screaming out of the blue so i would seriously think about a vet visit just in case she has a health issue. How to stop it will all depend on the reason she has started.

Site Name - Articles - Behavioral - Parrots and Noise

 

[c3honey84]

Haha I know exactly what you are talking about. I actually posted about the exact same scream. I have noticed that Roxy does it at strange times. For example, when I leave in the morning for work, she doesn't do it, but when I had a friend over and we left together, she screamed. Also, when my landlord was visiting and then she left, Roxy screamed. It's very strange. Also, when I used to live with my in-laws and Roxy was there, she would scream when she heard other people in the house in other rooms that she could not see. She also did it when her cage was covered in the AM but she heard people talking and walking around. Now that we have moved into our own apartment, it is very rare. She hardly ever does it anymore. I am assuming this is because I ignore it. You have to make sure that you are doing absolutely nothing to reinforce the behavior. I know sometimes answering her call may help, but if you answer her she will still do it when she wants to make sure you are still around. However, if you ignore the behavior you may get close to eliminating it. Anything can reinforce the behavior, even just seeing you look at her. So make sure that you walk away as soon as she does it. If you start walking back in the room and she does it again, immediately turn around and walk back out of the room. She will get the idea. You can also try giving her attention whens he makes a different noise and she will start to use that instead.

 

[Rani]

Thank you everyone!

I have noticed she has calm down a bit for sure. We moved her cage to the other room.
For sure she is much calmer compared to before. Lets see for a few days how she is doing.

 

[terry52449]

Having a lot of toys she likes will help keep her busy in her alone time.

 

[Julieanne4792]

Our (B&G Macaw) only screams to warn us if someone comes into our yard. We have a huge aviary made of a dog run. She is basically quiet unless we go out there to the pool, she loves it outside! She is a great bird, but she is my husbands bird, not mine! She stays busy with a swing we made for her, doing the 'Stevie Wonder' thing with her head to get her higher and higher LOL...it's funny. We have different levels of things for her to climb on and toys for her to stay busy, that is key with her. She's an awesome bird!

 

[Oedipussrex]

I absolutely love the people on this site. they have solutions for almost any imaginable behavioural problem:

My First Breakthrough with Rasta the Alexandrine Parakeet – Putting Happy on Cue

i would also have to agree with previous posts that you should not be 'reassurring her' when she screams. ignore her. but then give her love and attention at random when she is happily sitting by herself and not screaming - hence the putting happy on cue post above hope this helps.

 

[3parrots]

Start by picking a sound or whistle or musical series of words that she likes and will pick up easily. Do what you can to have her learn the sound or whistle or other word sound pattern. When she screams, do not respond but wait for a break in the action and repeat the sound as if her flock is answering her call. She needs to associate the replacement sound with getting a response from you. Replacement training is often successful to break the screaming habit, but you can't eliminate all of it. Our female ekkie is an excellent watchbird and will scream when she hears our car in the driveway. However, often we get chirps and whistles or "hello," "whoa," or "wow" repeatedly instead of screams during the day. We encourage that instead of screeching and squawking. She loves whistles and imitating whistles. Some say don't whistle to your bird or it will not learn to talk. However, we get whistles and words from our birds and have managed the irritating screaming from our two ekkies. Hope this helps!
3parrots

 

[Boysmom]

My female Ekkie would only scream ( i say scream, but really its not that loud, its more like a peacock call ) only when my sons would wrestle in the house. I realized she was either tattle telling or wanting them to stop. So whenever they would wrestle ( they are high school wrestlers ) and she would scream, I would enter the room and loudly and forcefully say stop it, naughty boys. Guess what Ruby says now when they wrestle ?" stop it, naughty boys". Now they stop because they are laughing so hard at Ruby. Win win for me !!

 

[PortaPerch]

What can I say?

 

[Lintini]

LOL ^^^^

Shoot.....I run to our amazon when she screams to shut her up!!! I am a bad trainer Thank you for this post, I have learned some tips!!!!