Senegal screecher

This is a big problem! Our Senegal has developed a screeching habit outside of normal morning and evening stuff. He lives in a large cage with our African grey. At first it was when someone went outside or came into the house, now he will do it all day long! We have tried a variety of things, like keeping his toys changed, covering the window in case he was calling to things he saw outside. - we try hard to ignore it but every now and again it gets to be too much and we have put him in a cage in another room. We have since learned that this can actually reinforce his behaviour - so back to square one. What would you do? we are at wits end.

This sounds like an interesting situation ... let me see if I can help at all. First question - when you put him into another room (in another cage) does he quite down? If so, have you tried putting him in that separate cage in the same room? It could be that he just wants his own cage and by screaming he knows that he can get it. I am a firm believer that each bird should have their own room (cage), especially with a size difference like a grey and a sennie.

If you could give us a little more information it might help us out a lot in trying to help you reduce your screaming issue.

:50:

Welcome to the forum.

Hopefully we can help out a bit, but as Tex said more info is needed. Kinda like going to a doctor, they need the whole background as one can never know which things will be relevant.

How long have you had each of them? How old are they? How much out of cage time do they get? How much sleep do they get?

Since you first observed the screeching as people came or went give some details about what happened during those times. Was he greeted when someone came in the house? How many people are in the household? Have household schedules changed recently? Any new pets or family members? Any loses of pets or family members?

What do they eat? Are their wings clipped and nails trimmed? Any recent visits to a vet?

Any other behavioral changes that came around the same time? Any change in feather condition?

Some of these questions may not be irrelevant - though we'd love to hear all about your feathered family anyhow. But people are often amazed at what factors are significant in understanding and changing a behavior.

There is no magic pill for a behavior, especially for birds. But with some more information and a little work and patience we should be able to get your Senegal to scream less each day rather than more.

Hmm- OK - we got chiku (the senegal) first. he was a year old when we got Tiki the african grey. We kept them separated by a plexi wall (our cage is really big -you can get a full grown person into it) until Chiku accepted Tiki. They now share the space and seem to get along. Chiku is now two. Tiki is kind of standoffish but Chiku will groom him occasionally. The screeching mostly started as calling when people came and went and we did our best not to respond to it. He did screech when put in the other cage and I would go in and get him when he was quiet. However -it was usually my husband who would put him in when he could not stand it anymore - so chiku was getting reinforcement that way - we now don't do the cage thing anymore. The birds get anywhere from 3 to 5 hrs of out time lots of attention and toys. Heck I just dropped another 150$ down the bird toy well the other day!