SCREAM...Help!

[Caitnah]

Hi to all. I have a problem with my 3 year old Pineapple. In the mornings, I sit with him for awhile while he eats breakfast. I usually work on my iPad or TRY to watch TV.
With the TV I have had to resort to using headphones since he reacts "negatively" to the shows that are on.
BUT, when sitting there with iPad, he will let out a blood curling scream that literally hurts my ears. He may do that about 5 times. He does this a lot when I'm typing (clicking sounds) or when watching a video.
He will also do it (occasionally) when I am in the other room and he hears me doing something. It's as if he is calling out to me LOUDLY!

For the last couple years I have tried to stop him from this by covering his cage for a few minutes, and/or leaving the room or just ignoring him. I also let out a firm "NO!" He will stop then. But when I re-enter the room and uncover him, he does it again. It's as if he isn't getting the message to STOP!

I want to emphasize that this ONLY happens in the morning hours. Afternoons and evenings...no problems at all. He doesn't do it at all. No scream or need for headphones.
I realize that they are most active in the mornings and he does talk a lot then also.

This may not bother others and you may say "...it's the nature of the bird."
But unfortunately I have sensitive hearing and it's like a knife going through me.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[itzjbean]

Sorry to hear he is causing some chaos in the morning with the screaming! It can be difficult to liv with, believe me, I had a Jenday Conure who screamed some.

What's your pineapple's diet like? They do call more in the morning, but a diet low in fat / sugar will help keep energy at bay -- things like fruits and breads / rice / seeds should be limited in the morning if your bird seems more wound up and energized after eating, so instead vegetables could be served, which are lower in sugar / fats but great nutrition.

Do they have a play stand they can play on?

 

[Laurasea]

Screaming is hard to take.

Mornings are special times for birds. There is a lot if contact calling to make sure everyone survived the night. Some rituals vocalization to re afirm bonds.

If you don't currently. I would spend a few minutes really talking to him and focusing on him as soon as you get up, before coffee or breakfast. Reassure him you are alive sbd well and that you guys are still close.

Some of the calls could be contact calls or alarm calls? Spring can see sn increase in vocalization to claim territory or call in a mate....

Trying to create rituals, patterns, and prevent screeching from getting started. Has worked better fir me than trying to ignore or stop it.

If there are times or things that are trigger. Try to set up beforehand, foraging for treats. Maybe fo a 5 min training session in the morning.

 

[wrench13]

SO parrots, most of them, greet the morning sun, and sometimes the evening sun, with joyous outpourings of sound. Its natural. Keep in mid that parrots do not understand punishment type training, so covering him is not going to really affect him positively. They do however react favorably to positive reinforcement, so you want to reward to positive things. Like if he is quiet for a period, he gets a small treat.

When you are out of the room and he vocalizes, that's a contact call. Parrots in the wild will shout out to their flock just to say "I'm here! Where are you?". Develop a short contact call of your own, to answer him when you are not in his line of sight. It will eventually reduce the amount of calls from him in that situation.

 

[Caitnah]

What's your pineapple's diet like? They do call more in the morning, but a diet low in fat / sugar will help keep energy at bay -- things like fruits and breads / rice / seeds should be limited in the morning if your bird seems more wound up and energized after eating, so instead vegetables could be served, which are lower in sugar / fats but great nutrition.

Do they have a play stand they can play on?

He has a pretty good diet. Apple is his absolute favorite and I was thinking that maybe I should stop giving him that in the morning. He also loves carrots but greens are a real hit & miss. Luckily he is back to eating pellets so he gets a good seed mixture and pellets also (safflower seeds).
He has a couple of massive playgrounds and of course he loves being out of his cage but I usually never let him out until noon. He has window and door perches also.

Screaming is hard to take.

Mornings are special times for birds. There is a lot if contact calling to make sure everyone survived the night. Some rituals vocalization to reafirm bonds.

If you don't currently. I would spend a few minutes really talking to him and focusing on him as soon as you get up, before coffee or breakfast. Reassure him you are alive and well and that you guys are still close.
Some of the calls could be contact calls or alarm calls? Spring can see an increase in vocalization to claim territory or call in a mate....

Trying to create rituals, patterns, and prevent screeching from getting started. Has worked better fir me than trying to ignore or stop it.

In the morning when I sit with him, he talks to me and I him. He makes different animal sounds and I repeat them. We do have birds outside that he talks to. When he does YELL I try to distract him by talking. That works for a little. Today he was realllllly bad. Constant yelling. But like clock work, at around this times, he stops for the day.

SO parrots, most of them, greet the morning sun, and sometimes the evening sun, with joyous outpourings of sound. Its natural. Keep in mid that parrots do not understand punishment type training, so covering him is not going to really affect him positively. They do however react favorably to positive reinforcement, so you want to reward to positive things. Like if he is quiet for a period, he gets a small treat.

When you are out of the room and he vocalizes, that's a contact call. Parrots in the wild will shout out to their flock just to say "I'm here! Where are you?". Develop a short contact call of your own, to answer him when you are not in his line of sight. It will eventually reduce the amount of calls from him in that situation.

Yep, am not a fan of covering him and thought he might make the connection but he hasn't. He has many different calls but it's only that one particular SCREAM that goes right through me. But as mentioned above, at this time of day he usually stops.
When he is upstairs and I am down, he will call to me in a certain "whistle". It is definitely a "where are you?" call. I always answer him back with the same whistle or words.
Like right now I am in the room next to him typing this. After a couple minutes he did that screaming. I reassure him that "I am right here" but he keeps doing it for awhile and then stops.
Very tough to figure out.

The one consistent thing is he ALWAYS does it when typing on the iPad or laptop. He also imitates the clicking (which is funny) but then the scream comes out. He does it other times also BUT ALWAYS when he hears the typing...but only in the morning.

 

[wrench13]

You have to be extra patient and ultra consistent for anything to take effect with parrots.
Their rate of change is glacial when compared to our quick monkey brains. Most things take weeks or months and yes even years, for some things. We see some many threads that go like this " My parrot hates my spouse, but after changing so that they are the only givers of the favorite treat, the parrot finally accepts him. It only took (weeks, months or years). " They are certainly creatures of habit!

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

When I first got Skittles, I soon became a "major enabler" of his bad habits and misbehaviors and it actually wasn't until a friend pointed out my lack of boundaries that I began to realize just how bad I let it get.

Skitty is a master manipulator, there is no denying it. It used to work like magic. But when I realized his tactics were much more deliberate it became much clearer who was pulling who's strings.
Re-training him was exhausting and VERY hard on me emotionally, BUT, he is now like night and day. He still tries to manipulate me on a daily basis. I won't lie, thats one of the most aggravating things about him. Always having to be on guard with him, but its no different than having a toddler or infant.

Timeouts worked wonders for retraining him. "Treats" work wonders for distracting him and redirecting him.

What I will say is this- at least as far as Skittles goes- he has NEVER 'screamed' for no reason. That is a good thing to me, because once I address the cause, it stops. I've learned about his different calls. Some of his calls are cute, the low-pitched "screech,screech" or the "swooping screech". But he has another 'swooping screech' that is really a 'warmup' to his alarm calls. Often times its cause he sees something he doesn't like or thinks could be a threat, but is not quite on alarm mode yet.

IF I wanted to be funny, I could say buy him his own iPad, or maybe he doesn't like your choice of tv programming. But I won't. My advice is simple (my post is long to balance it out). Finding the cause of the screaming is the best way to address it. The problem is, the cause isn't always easy to find and sometimes the solution is even harder to find. But my guess is, there is something going on in the AM that is causing this. Unfortunately, its going to take some creative experimentation to find it out. But its always worked for me.

One of Skittles biggest alarms was "big packages" I receive in the mail. I found an easy solution to that by accident. lol. I used to "try" to open my packages when they'd arrive and he's crap a brick. So one day I decided to just set it aside and wait til after I put him to bed. I ended up getting a lot packages and had empty boxes the following day. If the item is already in the room, he's fine. If it arrives after he enters the room, he's not. So he's fine with the empty boxes. Then I began to move the boxes and he'd be fine for the most part.

Now, I can open my packages while he is still out. I just set it aside for a short period so he deduces that its not a threat. Then I am able to open it. He will act up a bit, but nowhere near as badly. I used to scold him but that never worked. So I started saying "its okay, it's alright sweetheart" and his head feathers would rise and then he'd make kissy noises and settle right down. Scolding him for warning me doesn't work. Reassuring him does. The key is finding the difference. I have found that the more I try to read him and understand him, the better we get along.

I don't just remove the threat, I study him and the 'threat' to find out why he thinks it was a threat. I actually find his behavior and instincts quite fascinating. I've not been able to find the answer to a lot of them, but I at least have found solutions to end the threat.