Screaming for attention?

[Mist137]

Hello again,

Last Monday one of my Quaker parrots (the female) died and now I'm having behavioral issues with the male. They were brother and sister, so he has always had a companion and I don't think the behavior is linked to anything sexual.

But since she died, the male has started to scream for attention more than normal. If I leave the room, he will start to scream. If he's being quiet and I try and sit with him and he'll either scream (and I'll leave since I don't want to encourage the behavior) or not want anything to do with me. Tried giving him extra foraging toys but he isn't interested and has decided he doesn't want to go out of the cage when I open it.

It's a hard situation, since I've been trying to follow advice of ignoring the screaming and rewarding him for been quiet, but I end up not interacting with him for hours at times. When he is finally quiet, I count to 5 slowly and reward him with a treat and sit with him for a few minutes. I also tried leaving the TV or a radio on for him at a quiet volume, it just didn't help. He also doesn't let me handle him, so it makes things harder (although he is slowly getting more confident and taking treats from the front of the cage at times). Should I work on getting him to step up and get him use to been petted first? Should I have tried the TV/radio idea for more than a few days?

I work mostly on the computer in the room opposite where the cage is so he can see me, it was like this even when he was with his sister. I tried moving the cage into my work room, but he was still screaming and the room was almost in complete darkness for closing the curtains, as he gets scared of trees moving in the wind or other birds, since I don't have any blinds like on the window next to where the cage normally is.

I'm just at a loss on what to do. I don't know if getting him a new companion would be a solution since he might hate the other bird, although I wouldn't mind having 2 again. Then the issues is what gender, age and species (as some say you should get the same gender and species but younger than the existing bird while others say you should get a different species but a similar size?).

Thank you for your time reading all this.

 

[wrench13]

Welcome. First, my condolences on the loss of your other parrot.
Second, your tale is a quite familiar one to all here, but despite that, having more information on your parrots, you and living conditions and any other info that will help the members here offer advice.
How old are they?
How much time did you spend with them, outside the cage?
The pair must have screamed before, what did you do then?
How long have you had them?
Were the pair tame before the passing of one?
Do you have a contact call with the one left?
And anything else you can think of.

I would try and count more then 5 for him to be quiet, and continually stretch that out further and further. Vocal praise and a small treat when he does be quiet. Others will chime in here, I'm sure. Good luck

 

[Mist137]

Thank you for getting back to me along with the advice about counting.

He's about 9 or 10 months old
I try and spend at a minimum of 5 hours with him each day, just wish I had more hours in a day
I've had both of them for about 3 months
They was sort of tame. Breeder didn't spend much time training them or getting them use to people, only let them out of the cage. Female was much tamer than the male, would let you pet her, would step up, wasn't bothered by much and would happily wander next to you on top of the cage. Male isn't as tame, he won't let me pet him or step up and stays as far away from me as possible unless food is involved.
I don't have a contact call with him, any advice in creating one?
For living conditions, I live in a detached bungalow and the parrot has a big cage since I use to have 2 and gets around 12 hours of sleep. He's only let out in 1 room since he hasn't had any recall training just yet. I work as a graphic designer so I'm at home a lot, though I do work part time as a bike messenger during the week although I have to do the odd job out of hours.