Post by rachaeleo on May 30, 2016 9:29:37 GMT -5
I am a new poster here. I have a quaker parrot named Murray, who was 18 when I got him and now is 24. I unwittingly managed to teach him to scream, and I am working on the process of un-training him to scream at me. Since I run across this question all the time online, I wanted to share what I did, and what I'm doing to get him to stop.
So, Murray is pretty particular about things. I'm a night owl with no particular schedule, and Murray has deadlines to keep. Around 11 p.m. most nights, he would start screaming because he wanted to sleep. So I would turn off the light to calm him down. Well, he figured out of he screamed, I would turn out the light. So anytime he wanted to go to bed, he would scream at me incessantly until I turned the light off, and I finally realized a couple of months ago that I was the one who taught him that. He's also cage-aggressive, and screams every time I try to give him food or water.
Since quakers firmly believe in correlation as causation, I'm using this to re-train him. Murray likes to go to bed at 11. So now, before he gets a chance to start screaming, I tell him 'Bedtime! Lights off!' and turn the light off. I'm hoping that repeating the same words every night with the same action will get him to start saying 'Betime!' or 'Lights off!' instead of the screeching. And, for the cage aggression, I have started asking him 'Want some?' and offering a treat before I even touch the cage. Being a greedy gut, Murray is not willing to scream at me and risk losing his treat while I'm changing out his food and water (still a little growly and grumbly, but that at least doesn't pierce the ears). This has actually been working really well. The two times when I have forgotten to treat him before touching the cage, the screaming was much less and for a shorter duration, and I have no doubt that as long as I continue to distract him before he gets a chance to start, this should cure him of his new favorite hobbies.
I hope this helps some of you out with your Quaker Parrots: The Original Angry Bird.
So, Murray is pretty particular about things. I'm a night owl with no particular schedule, and Murray has deadlines to keep. Around 11 p.m. most nights, he would start screaming because he wanted to sleep. So I would turn off the light to calm him down. Well, he figured out of he screamed, I would turn out the light. So anytime he wanted to go to bed, he would scream at me incessantly until I turned the light off, and I finally realized a couple of months ago that I was the one who taught him that. He's also cage-aggressive, and screams every time I try to give him food or water.
Since quakers firmly believe in correlation as causation, I'm using this to re-train him. Murray likes to go to bed at 11. So now, before he gets a chance to start screaming, I tell him 'Bedtime! Lights off!' and turn the light off. I'm hoping that repeating the same words every night with the same action will get him to start saying 'Betime!' or 'Lights off!' instead of the screeching. And, for the cage aggression, I have started asking him 'Want some?' and offering a treat before I even touch the cage. Being a greedy gut, Murray is not willing to scream at me and risk losing his treat while I'm changing out his food and water (still a little growly and grumbly, but that at least doesn't pierce the ears). This has actually been working really well. The two times when I have forgotten to treat him before touching the cage, the screaming was much less and for a shorter duration, and I have no doubt that as long as I continue to distract him before he gets a chance to start, this should cure him of his new favorite hobbies.
I hope this helps some of you out with your Quaker Parrots: The Original Angry Bird.
