EllenD
New member
- Aug 20, 2016
- 3,979
- 68
- Parrots
- Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
Is Your Bird Screaming Or "Contact Calling" All Day? Thinking Of Getting Him A Friend?
I wrote this in response to a post started by a member with budgie that was screaming all day long while he was not home. He lives with his brother, who was getting upset about the bird's constant screaming, or what he described as his bird "Contact Calling" for him all day long. His budgie was kept alone in his bedroom all day while his brother and other people were out in the rest of the house. So his bird could hear a "flock" but not see it.
This member's potential solution for getting his bird to stop screaming was to go out and buy his budgie "a friend". This is a very common response to the problem of a screaming bird, but unfortunately it rarely stops the screaming (sometimes it actually doubles the screaming) and most of the time the person will end up with two birds that hate each other and cannot even be kept together.
So if you have a screaming bird that you keep alone in your bedroom, a spare bedroom, a back room, or that you keep away from the "Action" room of your home, please do not buy a second bird as a "friend" for your screaming bird, but read my explanation below of #1 WHY your bird is screaming and #2 what simple step you can take to make it stop.
"No, please do not get a second budgie (not unless it is 100% for you because you want another bird). It probably won't make a bit of difference with your current bird's screaming, and they may hate each other and never be able to spend time together, or they may bond with each other very closely and your current bird in this scenario may lose all sense of a bond with you. This happens quite often, a person bonds very closely with their bird, they get a "friend" for their bird, the two birds become a bonded pair (regardless of sex), and neither bird now wants anything to do with the person anymore. This is not the reason your bird is screaming to begin with. He's not contact calling you specifically, he's a flock animal and he's flock calling to the people he hears in your house all day long!!!
He is back in your bedroom alone and he is hearing everything that is going on in your house when you're gone. He's hearing people talking, normal everyday sounds, the TV, music, whatever is going on in your house..
BUT HE CAN'T SEE WHAT HE IS HEARING!
This is a very, very common issue and this is where I would start, even before addressing the possibility of his hormones going crazy. Whenever this problem with a bird screaming during the day when their main person is not home comes up on here, the common denominator with all of the posts is that the bird's cage is not in the main living room of the house where most of the traffic is and where people in the house are just sitting and hanging out, but rather they always have their cage in a bedroom away from the main living room where they are alone all day and can see no one but can hear everyone and everything. And 99% of the time in these similar posts the screaming problem is remedied pretty quickly, like within a week or two, by moving the bird's cage to the main living room, den, TV room, whatever you want to call it, that the people in the house usually are in, and where the bird can see people going in and out of the door, people just sitting on the couch watching TV or reading, people sitting at a table eating, etc. It usually takes the bird a week to get used to the fact that the people walking around and talking aren't always going to come and get them out of the cage or pay attention to them, but once they get used to the new dynamic they absolutely love it and are finally content to be alone in their cages, playing by themselves with their toys, napping, eating, etc.
What most people don't understand is that birds are very intelligent and social flock animals. Flock animals are just that, they are animals that live with and desperately want to be in a flock. And where most people that bring a bird into their home make a huge mistake is by thinking that the bird will only be happy with direct interaction with them. That's just not true. It's not about the bird needing to always be with you because you are his bonded person or needing to always be directly interacted with by anyone for that matter. Sure your bird loves you and wants out of his cage as much as possible, he would rather be playing with you than alone, etc. But he's not screaming all day long because you aren't home and he wants to be out of his cage with you, he's screaming because he knows there is a flock somewhere in that house, he can hear it, and he wants to be a part of the flock and to be amongst it!!!
So basically your bird is lonely and bored and frustrated being locked inside a cage all day IN YOUR ROOM, alone, where he can't see the flock he can hear out in the house. And this frustration keeps him screaming for someone to come get him and bring him out amongst the flock. It also keeps him from playing with his toys by himself while he's in the cage and entertaining himself at all. He's bored, lonely, and frustrated. So how do you fix this and get him to stop screaming all day? Just move his cage out of your room and put it in whatever room or area of your house that the people living there spend the most time, walk past the most, talk the most, just simply spend the most time sitting near where his cage would be. At first he may (or may not) beg a bit to want to come out during the day, but typically what will happen is after you leave in the morning for school or work or whatever, he will know you're gone, but he will suddenly be able to see everything he was hearing. In short, he'll finally feel like he's a part of the flock. It also helps if everyone in the house just says hello to him while walking past his cage. Make him feel like they know he's there and he's a part of the flock. He'll quickly see someone sitting near him watching TV or whatever they are doing, and once he realizes that they aren't going to necessarily pay direct attention to him but they also aren't going to take him away from the action, he'll very quickly start to feel so much more secure and happy, and instead of screaming you'll soon notice him playing by himself with his toys (which he should have plenty of), eating, talking to himself (my 7 budgies are in a flight cage in my living room and they talk and play happily all day long while I'm doing whatever I'm doing in the same room), napping, etc. No more screaming flock call!!! Then whenever you get home you need to make an effort to give him at least 3-4 hours per day of out of cage time and direct interaction with you, whether that be just sitting on your shoulder while you're on the computer, watching TV, doing homework, etc. This is when he should be taken into a back bedroom with you for some quality together time with his person, not all day long alone...And then at his bedtime (he needs at least 12 hours of sleep each night for hormonal control) just make sure you cover his cage with a blanket or sheet that is dark enough to block out the light from the TV or whatever else is in your living room. The noise won't bother him, trust me, as soon as I cover my budgies they are out, and I watch TV for a few more hours right next to their cage".
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
I wrote this in response to a post started by a member with budgie that was screaming all day long while he was not home. He lives with his brother, who was getting upset about the bird's constant screaming, or what he described as his bird "Contact Calling" for him all day long. His budgie was kept alone in his bedroom all day while his brother and other people were out in the rest of the house. So his bird could hear a "flock" but not see it.
This member's potential solution for getting his bird to stop screaming was to go out and buy his budgie "a friend". This is a very common response to the problem of a screaming bird, but unfortunately it rarely stops the screaming (sometimes it actually doubles the screaming) and most of the time the person will end up with two birds that hate each other and cannot even be kept together.
So if you have a screaming bird that you keep alone in your bedroom, a spare bedroom, a back room, or that you keep away from the "Action" room of your home, please do not buy a second bird as a "friend" for your screaming bird, but read my explanation below of #1 WHY your bird is screaming and #2 what simple step you can take to make it stop.
"No, please do not get a second budgie (not unless it is 100% for you because you want another bird). It probably won't make a bit of difference with your current bird's screaming, and they may hate each other and never be able to spend time together, or they may bond with each other very closely and your current bird in this scenario may lose all sense of a bond with you. This happens quite often, a person bonds very closely with their bird, they get a "friend" for their bird, the two birds become a bonded pair (regardless of sex), and neither bird now wants anything to do with the person anymore. This is not the reason your bird is screaming to begin with. He's not contact calling you specifically, he's a flock animal and he's flock calling to the people he hears in your house all day long!!!
He is back in your bedroom alone and he is hearing everything that is going on in your house when you're gone. He's hearing people talking, normal everyday sounds, the TV, music, whatever is going on in your house..
BUT HE CAN'T SEE WHAT HE IS HEARING!
This is a very, very common issue and this is where I would start, even before addressing the possibility of his hormones going crazy. Whenever this problem with a bird screaming during the day when their main person is not home comes up on here, the common denominator with all of the posts is that the bird's cage is not in the main living room of the house where most of the traffic is and where people in the house are just sitting and hanging out, but rather they always have their cage in a bedroom away from the main living room where they are alone all day and can see no one but can hear everyone and everything. And 99% of the time in these similar posts the screaming problem is remedied pretty quickly, like within a week or two, by moving the bird's cage to the main living room, den, TV room, whatever you want to call it, that the people in the house usually are in, and where the bird can see people going in and out of the door, people just sitting on the couch watching TV or reading, people sitting at a table eating, etc. It usually takes the bird a week to get used to the fact that the people walking around and talking aren't always going to come and get them out of the cage or pay attention to them, but once they get used to the new dynamic they absolutely love it and are finally content to be alone in their cages, playing by themselves with their toys, napping, eating, etc.
What most people don't understand is that birds are very intelligent and social flock animals. Flock animals are just that, they are animals that live with and desperately want to be in a flock. And where most people that bring a bird into their home make a huge mistake is by thinking that the bird will only be happy with direct interaction with them. That's just not true. It's not about the bird needing to always be with you because you are his bonded person or needing to always be directly interacted with by anyone for that matter. Sure your bird loves you and wants out of his cage as much as possible, he would rather be playing with you than alone, etc. But he's not screaming all day long because you aren't home and he wants to be out of his cage with you, he's screaming because he knows there is a flock somewhere in that house, he can hear it, and he wants to be a part of the flock and to be amongst it!!!
So basically your bird is lonely and bored and frustrated being locked inside a cage all day IN YOUR ROOM, alone, where he can't see the flock he can hear out in the house. And this frustration keeps him screaming for someone to come get him and bring him out amongst the flock. It also keeps him from playing with his toys by himself while he's in the cage and entertaining himself at all. He's bored, lonely, and frustrated. So how do you fix this and get him to stop screaming all day? Just move his cage out of your room and put it in whatever room or area of your house that the people living there spend the most time, walk past the most, talk the most, just simply spend the most time sitting near where his cage would be. At first he may (or may not) beg a bit to want to come out during the day, but typically what will happen is after you leave in the morning for school or work or whatever, he will know you're gone, but he will suddenly be able to see everything he was hearing. In short, he'll finally feel like he's a part of the flock. It also helps if everyone in the house just says hello to him while walking past his cage. Make him feel like they know he's there and he's a part of the flock. He'll quickly see someone sitting near him watching TV or whatever they are doing, and once he realizes that they aren't going to necessarily pay direct attention to him but they also aren't going to take him away from the action, he'll very quickly start to feel so much more secure and happy, and instead of screaming you'll soon notice him playing by himself with his toys (which he should have plenty of), eating, talking to himself (my 7 budgies are in a flight cage in my living room and they talk and play happily all day long while I'm doing whatever I'm doing in the same room), napping, etc. No more screaming flock call!!! Then whenever you get home you need to make an effort to give him at least 3-4 hours per day of out of cage time and direct interaction with you, whether that be just sitting on your shoulder while you're on the computer, watching TV, doing homework, etc. This is when he should be taken into a back bedroom with you for some quality together time with his person, not all day long alone...And then at his bedtime (he needs at least 12 hours of sleep each night for hormonal control) just make sure you cover his cage with a blanket or sheet that is dark enough to block out the light from the TV or whatever else is in your living room. The noise won't bother him, trust me, as soon as I cover my budgies they are out, and I watch TV for a few more hours right next to their cage".
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
