CassMarie
New member
Hello all,
As the title of my post suggest, I am in desperate need of any sound advice that those of you with experience might be able to offer me.
I have a an African Grey who is 1yrs 8mo. Every single day, she screams for attention. Non-stop for hours and hours and hours. This mostly effects me on the weekends, as I am home from work for an entire day. I am really at my wits end with this, and I'm not really sure how to start to correct this behaviour. I feel like a prisoner in my own house at this point in time. I can't go anywhere to get any relief.
Unfortunately, I do know how this screaming began. It's my fault. Prior to the house that I am living in now, I lived on the middle floor of another house, with other people above and below me. As soon as she would start to get vocal, I would pay attention to her every single time because I was afraid that I would start to get complaints. I've since moved into a house of my own and don't have that same issue with anyone else in the house ... but as you can imagine, the behaviour is still there. I've been reading online about how to correct this and the answer is to ignore it, then reward her when there is silence. I have a few questions about this method, because I am a bit confused:
1. How am I supposed to ignore her when I have another parrot in the room with her? My other parrot is quiet and doesn't scream for attention. Should I go into the bird room, completely ignore my grey, and just take out my other bird?
2. She usually starts up any time she hears any kind of noise in the house. How am I supposed to ignore the behaviour, and more importantly, how is she supposed to stop making noise if she hears noise in the house?
3. How is she going to associate my ignoring her with her needing to stop screaming? I've read that negative reinforcement doesn't work because the bird doesn't associate the negative reinforcement with what they are doing "wrong." If that's true, then how would she associate her being quiet with being ignored?
4. Of course, my birds will make noise when I come home from work to greet me. That's totally fine. I get home from work around 6:30 every day and I will go up and spend a few hours with my birds before I put them to sleep for the evening. Will my cag associate my going into the bird room with her making noise and still be rewarded for making noise? Additionally, if I am supposed to wait until she quiet ... if she screams for hours, then that would take up all the time that we have together before she goes to sleep during the week.
5. Please tell me there is hope!? Is there an average amount of time ... months? Where you will start to see improvement? Anyone who has had a similar experience, can you share your story?
Sorry for the long post ... but I would really appreciate some help. Please and thanks
As the title of my post suggest, I am in desperate need of any sound advice that those of you with experience might be able to offer me.
I have a an African Grey who is 1yrs 8mo. Every single day, she screams for attention. Non-stop for hours and hours and hours. This mostly effects me on the weekends, as I am home from work for an entire day. I am really at my wits end with this, and I'm not really sure how to start to correct this behaviour. I feel like a prisoner in my own house at this point in time. I can't go anywhere to get any relief.
Unfortunately, I do know how this screaming began. It's my fault. Prior to the house that I am living in now, I lived on the middle floor of another house, with other people above and below me. As soon as she would start to get vocal, I would pay attention to her every single time because I was afraid that I would start to get complaints. I've since moved into a house of my own and don't have that same issue with anyone else in the house ... but as you can imagine, the behaviour is still there. I've been reading online about how to correct this and the answer is to ignore it, then reward her when there is silence. I have a few questions about this method, because I am a bit confused:
1. How am I supposed to ignore her when I have another parrot in the room with her? My other parrot is quiet and doesn't scream for attention. Should I go into the bird room, completely ignore my grey, and just take out my other bird?
2. She usually starts up any time she hears any kind of noise in the house. How am I supposed to ignore the behaviour, and more importantly, how is she supposed to stop making noise if she hears noise in the house?
3. How is she going to associate my ignoring her with her needing to stop screaming? I've read that negative reinforcement doesn't work because the bird doesn't associate the negative reinforcement with what they are doing "wrong." If that's true, then how would she associate her being quiet with being ignored?
4. Of course, my birds will make noise when I come home from work to greet me. That's totally fine. I get home from work around 6:30 every day and I will go up and spend a few hours with my birds before I put them to sleep for the evening. Will my cag associate my going into the bird room with her making noise and still be rewarded for making noise? Additionally, if I am supposed to wait until she quiet ... if she screams for hours, then that would take up all the time that we have together before she goes to sleep during the week.
5. Please tell me there is hope!? Is there an average amount of time ... months? Where you will start to see improvement? Anyone who has had a similar experience, can you share your story?
Sorry for the long post ... but I would really appreciate some help. Please and thanks