Help stop contact calling in a young conure

[tacomagal]

Hello,

I need help training a 1.5yr old painted conure to stop or at least calm down on the contact calls when I am in another room.

I have had him for 6 months. A friend decided she could not care for him properly, so I decided to try with him before she just handed him off to anyone (I have had a couple GC in the past).
He is so sweet and VERY quiet but as soon as I go to another room he will contact call endlessly. I live in an apartment and while I have permission to have him, he needs to learn to stop that when I am in another room or neighbors will complain. He is quiet when I actually leave the apartment- for some reason it's only when I am in the bedroom or bathroom that he does this.

I have tried calling back to him, and also waiting for him to be quiet (even for a second) and coming back out to reassure him. It has not helped. Advice? I do not want to give up on him and I know he's young. But, circumstances are tight for me here. Thank you guys.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Is there some reason you can't mostly stay in the same room? Or move him when you move for more than a short while?

 

[tacomagal]

Is there some reason you can't mostly stay in the same room? Or move him when you move for more than a short while?

I work from home, he cannot be with me for a variety of reasons, as most people need. I don't think this is unique. Besides; when the stove is on or there are things going on, he needs to be in his area and not with me. He is out and with me for up to 6 hours a day, there is no reason I can't go to the bathroom or be in a meeting, he needs to learn that 100% of the time is not possible

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I understand. Just asking because it may be easier than training not to contact call. That's what birds do when their flock is out of sight.

 

[rheashard2]

Unfortunately this can be a problem. My CAG yells for me too. If you must be in another room for long periods of time can you try distraction. TV, streaming, audio books (dramatized and regular), music etc. Vary the distraction. Audiobook w TV or streaming muted, etc. When my CAG was young, I had two bird voice training devices. If I remember on automatic playback they triggered every 10 minutes. So 1 was going off every 5 minutes. It was a functional distraction with my voice. And hopefully teaching her, name, adress, phone #. Read about it in BirdTalk magazine. It worked as a distraction but failed every thing else. Noone told me CAGs have self interpretation. Moving numbers around, changing adress, inserting words, sounds. Those devices were still available on Amazon the last time I looked. Make sure they're well out of reach! The screw that holds batteries can be removed by a parrot who is interested in disassembly.