CAG high pitched screams

Hello,

Our CAG is about 2 years old and has a nasty habit of screaming (very high pitched screams that cause our ears to ring for more than several minutes, which probably isnt very good for us).

This has been an ongoing issue since we have gotten him, and we arent sure of how to make him stop (or at least lessen the amount of times he does it).

He's very bright (speaks all the time, picks up sounds, words, and sentences very quickly) he even answers questions (ones that arent even directed to him, and completely throw us off guard when he does it with the right answer). He's healthy, has great food, plenty of toys that we change up frequently, and basically is never really alone (since I work from home and he sees and interacts/plays with me all the time).

The screaming issue .... they arent related to anything we can determine (like boredom, illness, happiness, etc). He just does it at completely random times and doesnt stop for good duration of time. The screams also are different than his happy/excited/playful screams. They are more intense and seem to be done on purpose. We've been ignoring the screams (so not to link it to a action-response type behavior) but its getting to a point where its getting ridiculous.

Has anyone else experienced this type of behavior? Or found a solution we can try?

Without a recording, I can't be sure, but it sounds like the "why aren't you paying attention to me?" scream Greys are good at. IMHO, it is the result of "cute baby syndrome", where as a baby, they get fawned over all day long, and don't develop the ability to entertain themselves for reasonable periods of time. It's not natural for flock animals, so it really has to be fostered. Plus, it's just very hard to ignore a cute baby parrot for more than 5 minutes.

It's the same sort of the thing pretty girls have to deal with.

Oh, by the way...not to depress you, but I never found a way to make Gandalf stop doing it. He was spoiled rotten, and that's that. I just got used to it.

Oddly enough, Bitty is very good at entertaining herself. She plays quietly most of the day, chewing her toys to splinters. I think this was the result of growing up in an environment where attention was not lavished on her. I'm not saying it was better that way, obviously not....but she is pretty quiet.

Hi Doofi,
This sounds very familiar to me...and the #1 key is patience. Sometimes, with such excessive screaming you can't get your head around what they want or trying to tell you. Fortunately, a parrot doesn't scream for no reason, so a solution to your problem will be found .
*Ignoring the screams is a good start, but try praise your bird when he is behaving good. They are intelligent birds and will eventually get the idea that "happy/excited/playful screams" = praise/treat (subtle "manipulation" on your behalf )
*Maybe rotating his toys weekly will help...or giving him new ones.
*My aunt has a funny case on her hands...if she moves her birds cage 1inch, the bird goes nuts until she moves it back. The thing there is change...try moving or changing his position in the room, or even moving his cage outside...sometime it works and sometimes it doesn't. Most definitely works for mine...a change of scene does them wonders and keeps them entertained for hours .

Good luck with your patience and good luck the screaming

I'll try to get a recording if I can. He's wise to electronics, so he literally "statues" (freezes, no movement or sounds until he knows for sure its gone or off).

In in the begging I thought maybe it was a "pay attention to me" behavior. But its not. If he wants attention he says "come here", "I want out", or "play time". The other reason I dont think its an attention getter is because he also does it when he's on our shoulder (which is like getting hit with an LRAD next to our ears), playing, or interacting with us.

you could try some foraging toys, they usually keep my lot quiet for a while! x