Cockatiel Yelling for Attention

I really didn't want to have to post a forum about this. I've Googled everything I could to see if I could help this situation, but it still continues. This started 2 days ago.

My 7 month old cockatiel (gender is unknown) Niko keeps yelling every 3 seconds (not quite screaming, but he does scream at some points) for my attention when I'm in the room with him. I don't give him any attention when he does. I don't look at him, talk to him, no kind of attention. He continues for hours. He's doing it now, running across the bottom of the cage back and forth yelling and I'm not sure what to do. This is new behavior.

Especially when I leave the room, he starts screaming like crazy, then stops after a couple of minutes. One he gets a glance of me when I enter the room, he SCREAMS IMMEDIATELY, thus I can't reward him for being quiet. The only time he is most quiet is when he's eating, but still lifts his head to yell after each mouthful he gets.

I've tried covering the cage with a blanket and he still does it. It doesn't make a difference.

When I wake up I take him out of the cage (he usually doesn't scream the first time I take him out in the morning) and spend some time with him, maybe 30 - 45 minutes. If there's EVER a chance where he's quiet, I'll let him out for a while, but it's rare that he's quiet now. He has many toys he can chew on, play with and all that. I change the cage around every week or so.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't EVER want to get rid of him, I just want to make him happy and figure out what I could do to make him stop doing this. It's stressing me out

What size cage does he have?
What kind of toys...

Have you trained him to entertain himself?

In the wild Birds are never alone... ever. So you leaving him alone in the cage; or alone period causes an instinctive reaction hence CALLING for you.

I for one am not partial to single bird households, and always have a pair of budgies that I keep tame enoughto nadle as a flock for any other birds I might have in the house.

But for this you can leave music on.. get him a stuffed animal bird and put it in a cage where he can see it... and train him to play with toys while you are gone.

jugoya said:

What size cage does he have?
What kind of toys...

Have you trained him to entertain himself?

In the wild Birds are never alone... ever. So you leaving him alone in the cage; or alone period causes an instinctive reaction hence CALLING for you.

I for one am not partial to single bird households, and always have a pair of budgies that I keep tame enoughto nadle as a flock for any other birds I might have in the house.

But for this you can leave music on.. get him a stuffed animal bird and put it in a cage where he can see it... and train him to play with toys while you are gone.

Click to expand...

He has a cage that is 25 L x 21 W x 32 H inches. He has wood chewing toys I put all over the cage, a cuddlebone, a few hanging plastic toys that are rings he can turn and play with. Some have bells and he plays with those too. He plays with everything, then takes a break to start yelling.

I always have the music on for him, including when I leave the room.

I might rescue another cockatiel and have them get used to each other by putting the cages side by side, I was planning on doing this before I got him because I know they can get lonely, but I am right by the cage and he is still yelling and I am always in the room he is in.

I'll try getting a stuffed animal or bird to put in there and train him to play to see if it helps. Thank you for the reply

Another idea is clicker training, if he is only 7 months that could be also begging behaviors. It can take a baby several months to get out of the 'begging' for food idea and get used to the thought that they are fully grown birds.

Either way... gorgeous bird.

jugoya said:

Another idea is clicker training, if he is only 7 months that could be also begging behaviors. It can take a baby several months to get out of the 'begging' for food idea and get used to the thought that they are fully grown birds.

Either way... gorgeous bird.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice, Ill try these and probably get foraging toys too.

This is new behavior. This is not quantum physics, so every cause has to have an effect. You need to figure out what happened two days ago, and my best guess is the bird's calling to you to help-- a vet vist may be a very good idea right now.

Remember, most people don't even know their bird is sick until the bird is on the bottom of the cage. At least make the phone call to your avian vet to let them know about the change of behavior.

Something must have happened in those past few days if it has just been beginning. You might want to also give him some other new toys because he might be bored of the others. How long have you had him? How long do you spend time with him during a day? What kind of food do you feed him? It might be nice if he could get a friend, but your new bird should be in a separate airspace{or room} for at least 4 to 6 weeks in case it is hiding some illnesses.

Thank you for all the replies!

Sorry for the late reply... I figured out what it was. It was his food! I recently started to change his diet to pellets (starting as a quarter of the mix of his original food). I'm guessing he wanted me to take it out! He was still eating his seeds. Ever since I replaced it with all seed again, he doesn't do the screaming anymore. I feel so stupid... It's gonna be hard to get him into a pellet diet, but I'll keep trying.

On your profile picture, is that a more recent picture of Niko?? Are you able to post a bigger picture? From the looks of the picture I would say Niko is a girl.

They will keep screaming at you because of food issue. IF they're empty or nothing they would eat, they scream. I always do seed/pellet mixture for my smaller birds along with fresh fruits and veggies.