Could use some advice..

Hey all, Joey our 5 month old Brown headed parrot has been doing great with us since we got him 3 months ago. He's eating everything we give him..his weight has been consistently 134g, and he's talking tons

Now I work Mon-Fri 8-4. My wife is at home most of the time so Joey has become accustomed to someone being around 24/7. If he cannot see someone, he will screech nonstop. 80% of the time, he is out of his cage. We live in an apartment, so we must be careful with the noise level. So once he gets extremely vocal and starts calling over and over, we place him in his cage with a firm NO and roll the cage into the den. (neighbors cannot hear him in there). He will call for about 20 minutes and soon give up. Once he's quiet, we open the door to the room and greet him with a treat and let him know that he's a good boy as we take him out of his cage.

We've been doing this for over a month with no success! It doesn't seem to be working... There are times where we have to simulate leaving the apartment so that he can relax and quiet down. (He stops calling when he hears the "beep beep beep" tone from our alarm system... he also uses this to greet us lol)

I've also made a 5x5 net with supplies from Home Depot and interlaced toys within it to keep him busy...but he just finds his way around everything to get to us. He's got tons of toys which we circulate within his cage aswell...

Other than the calling issue, and wanting to be with us 100% of the time, he is great!

Any advice? Am i missing something?

Thanks all,

Boman

Bird are very social animals, and should ideally be with you, whenever you're at home...

I roll Max's cage into which ever room I'm going to spend some time in.... When I'm on the computer, he's in the office... When I'm reading or watching TV he's in the lounge room.

If I just go into another room for a minute he'll call for me (or fly after me). He's really good, when I've been on night shift, and let me sleep for as long as I can...

When I come home from work, he'll start calling as soon as he hears my car, which is way before my dog hears it.

Yes, whenever possible, I would try to keep him with me. Sometimes that's hard if you're doing laundry or something. I taught my Nanday to say "Hey, hey" instead of use her screech for a contact call. Since he talks, you might want to go to using a word for a contact call instead like I have. It's much nicer to listen to and your neighbors probably wouldn't hear that.

also his only a baby, but i do agree with placing cage where he can see what your doing

when you are out, leave tv on on low

when he knows your about, but cannot see you it makes him anxious, its not in there nature to be on there own, even with my nut, she would rather be with me than on her own, an i'm not the fav person. so try to put perches for him to play on in other rooms of your house, and just move him about, when he relaxes an starts playing with toys on his perches,

Thanks a bunch for the replies

We're going to slowly teach him to call our names rather than use the high pitched screech lol. It could also be the fact that he is still so young and less independent than he will be later on. My wife just gets annoyed when she's trying to study etc and he's constantly trying to climb all over her.

Boman said:

Thanks a bunch for the replies

We're going to slowly teach him to call our names rather than use the high pitched screech lol. It could also be the fact that he is still so young and less independent than he will be later on. My wife just gets annoyed when she's trying to study etc and he's constantly trying to climb all over her.

Click to expand...

Maybe a parrot wasn't the best choice of pet in your (wife's) situation? As I said, parrots are very social...

Max is happy as long as he's in the same room as me.. He has been taught to love his cage - there are always new things/foods to explore - Also I make a point of him having cage time, even if it's not needed... He had to learn to love his cage, since I'm often doing night shift, and I can't have him calling out to me, while I'm trying to sleep...

So... when the house is quiet, he is quiet... I think that's the way it works in the wild as well.... They can't have a someone calling as it could lead to predators.

No, they just want to be with their flock. Trust me, he will still be calling you as he gets older. My Nanday is almost 12 and still calls to me constantly when she can't see me. If I tell her I'm going outside she doesn't, or if she knows I'm leaving. Instead she says, very pathetically, "Be right back?" She starts as soon as she sees me putting on my shoes, lol!

Yes the are really sociale and like to be with the flock all thge time, but in my case I trie to have some time on my one

Make sure he has enough to do when he's alone - toys and other enrichment is really important. I'm still trying to find the things that Finn (my Brown-head) really likes so that he's occupied when I'm away. I always leave the radio, CDs, or the television on, too, so he doesn't feel alone. He gives his contact call sometimes when I leave, but then settles (I think). Other times, he's fine with it. He also calls for me when I'm in another room he can't get to (i.e., in the shower), but not all the time. I'm trying to ignore the contact call in favor of his words, which I always respond to. He now uses those more often than his screech, but we're still working on it.

When my U2 is in the house, he is happiest in the same room as us. He has his bedtime cage in one of the bedrooms and his daytime cage in the living room. He'll spend his living room time on top of his cage, (unless there is someone in the house that he doesn't like), then he is inside his cage. He's terrorizing my son, who is home from college, at the moment!