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Post by biteybird on Aug 6, 2014 3:22:37 GMT -5
I ended up creating a thread for this because something I thought wasn't too much of an issue has suddenly become A Serious Problem...
Bonnie is now about 8mths old and has been going well. She can say a few words & phrases and do the wolf whistle, etc.! And she's indescribably cute.
HOWEVER...whenever my husband is home on his own - he does not work full time - she has started squawking loudly every few seconds. This used to be just when she was in her cage (but knew my husband was around). But in the last couple of weeks she has started doing it non-stop, even when she is out of the cage and even when she is in her big food tray feeding her face.
When other people are also at home, she is much quieter than when it's just my husband. Also, when out of the cage in the presence of other people as well as my husband, she is reasonably quiet (or as quiet as parrots can be!).
Any thoughts/advice?
I wonder if the noise is just attention-seeking behaviour, but it's seriously driving my husband out of his mind! She can keep it going for hours on end, even when he tries to ignore the noise and not respond.
She was evicted to the garage for most of the day today...in between my husband yelling at her on and off. When I arrived home and brought her inside she was suddenly behaving as nice as pie, not a problem.
If we can't find a solution to this soon I fear she may have to become an outside aviary bird...we don't want to do that, but I guess it would be better than trying to rehome her. I've emailed the breeder for advice, too.
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Post by easttex on Aug 6, 2014 9:56:23 GMT -5
I don't have any great answers to this, but I do sympathize. Peppy is quite vocal, and it disturbs my husband much more than it does me. He is also home most of the time. It sounds like Bonnie is making contact calls. and she is more bonded to you. In some ways that's harder than screaming, where you might find a reason in the environment and address it. But I've seen flocks of Quakers in the wild, and that frequent and very loud contact-calling is very natural to them. Imagine the racket a few dozen of them can make! I'm sure you know that getting mad and yelling don't help, and may only serve to exacerbate things. However, I have not been real successful at getting my husband to realize this. (He's hard to train.  ) When I have to go somewhere, I always offer to leave Peppy and my grey back in what I call the Bird Room. It's a back bedroom where both my birds sleep. It isolates them for a while, which I dislike doing during the day, but I think it is better than my husband unwittingly undoing my training efforts, i.e., ignoring the behavior you don't like. I wonder if anyone here has any tried and true suggestions for the problem. I'll be very interested to read any. |
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Post by Sharyn and Mr P on Aug 6, 2014 11:33:28 GMT -5
Husbands, in general are hard to train, that is why I am happily unmarried...I find Mr P easier to deal with |
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Post by msdani1981 on Aug 6, 2014 11:34:46 GMT -5
When Chewy gets going and my hubby can't take it anymore, he covers the cage. Chewy goes into his happy hut and stays quiet until he's uncovered (usually about 10-15 minutes). Sometimes it keeps Chewy quiet for a long time, and sometimes he goes right back to squawking. In that case, the cage gets covered again.
Sometimes giving them a drenching bath can help, too, so they spend time preening instead of squawking.
I hope this helps a bit.
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Post by siobhan on Aug 6, 2014 13:18:32 GMT -5
It's really not that hard to fix this. Create a family flock call that's more pleasant than the squawk. She's just trying to get him to reply to her. In the wild, that's how birds check on each other's well-being. They call, someone else answers, they know the someone else is okay. She knows he's there and is calling to him. She'd really like for him to come talk to her and hang out, but if he can't or won't, then you need to create a signal that she will recognize as "I'm here but I'm busy right now." In our house, it's the first few notes of Beethoven's Fifth. Clyde squawks, one of us whistles that, he whistles back and he's happy for at least a few minutes. Yelling or worse yet, banishing her to the garage or basement is only making things worse. Yelling makes her think everything is NOT all right and she'll get anxious and only squawk more. Banishing her is punishing her for behaving like a parrot.
When she does her flock call squawk, say or whistle the same thing back every time. "I'm in here" will work. Or a piece of a song, like we do. Or both. After a while, she'll call again. Do the same thing again. Maybe go stick your head in the room so she can see you're okay and say something to her. She's lonely and it worries parrots to be out of sight of their flock.
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Post by Sharyn and Mr P on Aug 6, 2014 13:25:09 GMT -5
I actually taught Mr P to use a word he already knew to call for me. When I walk out of the room, he yells "baby" or "hey baby". Of course, I answer him back. We keep this up for a few minutes and then he's fine for a few minutes..and so it goes.
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Post by msdani1981 on Aug 6, 2014 17:10:52 GMT -5
Our house is a very open concept, so unless we're in the bedroom, bathroom or office the birds can see us. Chewy squawks because it's what parrots do, and is good when we cover him up for a little bit. Most of the time Chewy talks, and we always respond to him. He's teaching little Pico to talk, now. I have no clue what Pico is saying, but he talks. |
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Post by Jan and Shah on Aug 7, 2014 0:02:28 GMT -5
I know the noise is driving your husband nuts but Shah often screams and the "I'm just here" doesnt work with him. So, for sake of peace, I go and spend a little bit of time with him either talking to him quietly while he is in the cage, or take him out and go and look at the cockatiels and have a chat about them. He settles for quite a while after this. The other thing that Shah screams about is if there is something amiss - like he can see a cat or people in the backyard or if I have forgotten something (like uncovering the cockatiels). And sometimes he just screams because he is a quaker. Good luck.
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Post by benegesserit on Aug 7, 2014 8:18:29 GMT -5
It's been my experience that birds become very anxious when they cannot see and/or hear their flock or people, and will then make more noise in order to elicit reassurance. With that in mind, we keep Happy in the busiest room in our house (the living room.) When we go out to do things, we leave the television or a radio on because the ambient noise is reassuring to her. (Silence in the wild means something dangerous is around and all the creatures are frozen and still, hoping to evade a predator's notice.)
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Post by easttex on Aug 7, 2014 8:54:41 GMT -5
As with Shah, Peppy often does not respond to "I'm here." I think frequently it is not a simple contact call, as he will keep it up long after he's gotten responses, and with all of us in the same room with him. And sometimes responding to him just makes him turn up the volume. He had two decades of training before he came to me, though, so I don't expect things to change quickly, if at all. I wish there was a simple answer, but sometimes the best you can do is to work around things. Especially when there are other humans involved. |
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Post by biteybird on Aug 8, 2014 4:25:02 GMT -5
Thanks for all your suggestions. I guess I'll have to work through all of them as we go. It's weird because Bonnie seems more bonded to my husband than to me when she is out of the cage (he is the one she wants to snuggle up to most and spend time with). Her cage is in the lounge room next to the TV, which is the busiest room in the house. She can see the lounge room and kitchen but not the bathroom or bedrooms. Actually, I feel that when my husband is home Bonnie thinks she should automatically be out of her cage and she's just making him pay for not letting her out  . |
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Post by biteybird on Aug 23, 2014 5:41:46 GMT -5
Hey everyone, good news, I think I've trained my husband to tolerate the squawking a little better! I'm using subtle mind techniques like saying "oh well, she IS a parrot and that's just what they do" and "she's been a lot quieter today, don't you think?" and "she loves you the most, that's why she makes more noise when you leave the room"...etc. First signs are promising - there's light at the end of the tunnel  ) |
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Post by biteybird on Aug 23, 2014 5:45:13 GMT -5
Oh, and the other one I use is "how lucky we are to be in Australia and not the US. Can you imagine 300 of these infernal little creatures all in a huge stick nest on the top of a telephone pole squawking at the same time? We only have one!" |
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Post by Laura C on Oct 27, 2014 18:34:09 GMT -5
Hello: We bought our Quaker as a baby and Max is now 12 years old. We always had lived in an open floor plan house, so someone was always within his view, and in the few years before we moved, someone was constantly in the room with him. He never chirped loudly or lengthy. We have since sold our house and moved to an apartment. I understand the chirping when someone is out of the room, and calling back and forth to him to reassure him, but now with my husband's new job, it just does not stop at all. Max is continually chirping very loudly every five seconds looking for my husband. Now, within the last few weeks, Max has begun screaming at the top of his lungs (like he is afraid of something), and we have tried everything to make him stop (covering him, putting him in the shower, moving him to a different area, etc.). We are now hopeless about this situation, and do not know what to do. My husband's new job is a truck driver, so he is away for days at a time. Max does "calm down" usually two to three days, only to have my husband come back home, and be mad at him, which starts the process all over again. HELP. Thanks for your suggestions.
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Post by brent wheeldon on Apr 24, 2016 16:05:02 GMT -5
us men are easy to train haha  ? ive got a 9 month qwacker parrot ronni x |
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) When I have to go somewhere, I always offer to leave Peppy and my grey back in what I call the Bird Room. It's a back bedroom where both my birds sleep. It isolates them for a while, which I dislike doing during the day, but I think it is better than my husband unwittingly undoing my training efforts, i.e., ignoring the behavior you don't like. I wonder if anyone here has any tried and true suggestions for the problem. I'll be very interested to read any.
.
)
? ive got a 9 month qwacker parrot ronni x