Hormonal behavior and screaming

[Rani]

Rani is about 3 yrs old female ekkie. She is screaming her lungs out for attention. We are training her to whistle and when she whistel's she can come out of the cage. This is only working when she wants to be nice. Otherwise she will scream all day long. My husband keeps her in his office and when he gets out to go the bathroom she will scream. We bring her in the dining room when we are all there and she is happy sitting on the chair till my husband decides to get up and leave. She constantly screams. We lock her down in a room and when she whistel's we bring her out. This worked for a few days but she is not understanding that her screaming is getting very annoying. Please advise.

Also we do not mind keeping her out of the cage but as soon as we take her out she flies under the sofa. Before we used to let her hang out wherever we were but now she constantly keeps flying on the floor. Also we have a crawling baby in the house and that makes matters worst. We are very scared she will bite him. How can i reduce this hormonal behavior.

 

[Peeker]

Does she require hands on attention or does she just want to be in the same room? With birds being flock creatures when they feel separated from the flock (like when hubby leaves the room) she will call out to make contact so he will come back. I don't know about putting her in a room all alone. I would think that would only make her call out more? I keep my birds in an area of the home where they can usually see me.

I would worry about the floor behavior. I know that my females will become vicious little pit bulls if they are on the floor and think they've found a nesting spot.

 

[Chikoo]

This is very easily explained. Your female is going through a hormonal phase. During this time, they become markedly more vocal, screaming when they usually were not, and so forth. If she is flying under your couch, then it is crystal clear what she is going through. She is searching for a nesting spot. Do not encourage this behavior. She will become very aggressive if you try to remove her from her nesting spot. Give her something else to do, and if she is out with you guys, then keep her with you, on you, near you, etc. Don't give her total freedom to fly under there again. Does she have enough wood to chew on? Enough toys to play with? One thing you can do is intentionally fly her back and forth at a good distance many times. Do this in the morning if you can, because that will let her burn off some energy. Less energy = less screaming. Take her outside too, changes of environment can calm a hormonal bird. Otherwise, just weather the storm....

 

[Soyajam]

Yeah I was going to suggest increasing her enrichment, and perhaps involving her in a bit of training to keep her focused (even if it's just lame tricks)

If she keeps flying under the couch, may it be possible to block her ability to get there? (Put some storage boxes or stuff under there that will stop her from getting under)

 

[Rani]

THank you everyone. I will post update on what works lol

 

[Boysmom]

I agree that it is hormonal. Try your best to keep her from going under the sofa, because it will be very hard to get her out. She is looking for nesting spots. We couldnt allow Ruby on the sofa at all while she was hormonal. She would back her bottom up to the corners of the sofa and start scratching around. She is 3 weeks out of her hormonal phase now and back to her normal self. It takes time and patience during this phase.