Help! He won't stop screaming!

Hi Everyone,

I'm struggling with my Jenday's screaming. I've been trying to ignore him and turn my back until he stops but he usually doesn't. He is quiet if you are sitting right next to him in the room, but if anyone leaves the room, he doesn't stop. My husband was in the other room all day and he screamed the whole time! I just feel at my wits end. He has plenty of toys and we have a routine of when he gets out, gets fed, goes to bed, has a play date at work and things like that. He wants attention %100 of the time or else he is screaming! Help!

You need to ask yourself some things....

Why is he screaming?

What can you do to prevent him from screaming?


Will exercising him via flight training help? Will extra baths help? Will teaching him how to forage help? Will training him how to do tricks help? Will providing him things to do before you leave help? Can you take him along with you? Can you establish a contact call?



Here's some links that might help you with his screaming and hopefully give you something to think about!

Living With Parrots Cage Free: Does Ignoring Really Work?
What TO do | Learning Parrots
Use your words: Conditioning Sam to a new environment | Learning Parrots (please note, not recommending free-flight!)
Screaming | Lara Joseph



The more a behavior is practiced, the more that behavior becomes ingrained, and thus the harder it can be to change it.


Most people's advice is to "ignore" the behavior, which means "allowing" the behavior to continue and hoping it stops. I'm going to be different and tell you to see what you can do to prevent the behavior from occurring in the first place!

Monica has some good advice. I hate the article thing but that might be because I'm still in college and it feels like homework

I do both ignoring but I have set up a contact call that I find acceptable for mine and lots of toys. If they don't do the contact call I don't answer but they also know the contact call. For awhile I would answer my female or call her first with my call and when she did it back I would go see her and/or take her out. Does he like the toys you have provided him? Or do they just sit there looking pretty? My one male lets most of his toys sit there... I didn't notice at first but when I did I tried a couple different things. I found he likes paper hanging in strips in his cage and thin wood that is easier to tear apart. I think he thinks its evil when its not easy

Thanks! I'm working on a contact call. It seems to be helping so far. If I leave the room, I tell him I will be right back and he is liking that too. I just bought him a bunch of new toys and perches. So far he loves the coconut toy with ropes, beads and shells. He also seems Moore comfortable when I keep his rope toy close to him so he can snuggle it while he is on his favorite perch. Any suggestions on how to get him to stop screaming in the moment? Sometimes he'll just go off and I need to walk by him to get to the other room, but can't because I dont want him to think i'll come running at his scream. If he makes his soft cute noises, that's when I come to him. Maybe its just going to take time, but hopefully I'm on the right track.

Well I just typed up a very long bit on my Jenday and what we do for screaming and my Macaw decided he was going to help me type and somehow deleted EVERYTHING! So I will now try and type up the short side of things before I get an assist from a bird. gah!

My Jenday screams for a few reasons that I have noticed. They are all VERY loud but I have noticed a slight difference between the screams.

Fun- He is just a happy bird and being very vocal. I let my birds have scream times. They love screaming when the radio is on, the vacuum is going....Loud times are happy times and the birds LOVE IT!

Calling me- if I leave a room and he screams I respond, "hello, how are you, what chu doing" if he screams more, i whisper the same things... normally that makes him lower his tone to a chatter.

scared- My Jenday is terrified of balloons. Well I have kids so there are balloons from time to time. He will freak out, scream, bite, and try to get away as fast as he can. So something very simple can cause a screaming fit.

attention screaming- this is where I do try and stop him. I ask him "where do the loud birds go? do you need a birdy time out?" That normally prompts him to stop because he has learned what is next. If he keeps on then I wait for a loud scream then I swoop him up real fast and take him to his cage in the bird room. Put him in and walk out closing the door behind me. I will wait till he stops screaming for at least a minute, then I will re enter. If he screams I will turn around and walk out, starting over. If I get him back out and he screams I will put him right back and start over. This process use to take a very long time before I got him all the way back out and on his central play stand. Now it almost never makes it to round two.

If I walk back in and he is quite from the start I will whisper to him. "what a good bird, lets go play" or whatever this is where he normally returns my whisper with a whisper chatter of his own and we make it his play stand without screams. Lots of rewards head scratches and even a treat for being quite once returning to his stand.

No joke... it use to take me a good hour of this. Now its over just as fast as it started.

Treat them like you would a two year old child. Normally a good solid week of standing your ground and it should get better, or it did with my Jenday. ) good luck

Haha. I'm sorry he deleted everything! They sure like to get there little feet into everything!

Merlin is definitely attention screaming. Its really the only time he is screaming. If I walk to far away is when it starts. I have to watch him because he is pretty fearless. He is nervous around the dog who couldn't care less about him, but doesn't care when the cat is by him. The cat is learning that bird are off bounds, but he still needs close watching. Haha.

I will see if there is a way to do birdie time out. Its funny hearing him go through his array of noises to see what makes me come to him. Haha. He's pretty darn smart.