Questions about Green Cheek conures

BridgetTracy · Jun 29, 2016

Hi!
I am getting a male green cheek soon, and I have never owned a bird. I have heard about the hormonal stage? Like they get nippy and scream?

1. Do they all go through this stage? (im assuming so)
2. When they start screaming, do they eventually go back to being quiet birds, or will they screech for the rest of their life? (if they were originally quiet)
3.Is there any way I could make this stage easier for me and the bird?

Thanks!

MonicaMc · Jun 29, 2016

I have heard about the hormonal stage? Like they get nippy and scream?
They can, but not all do.

1. Do they all go through this stage? (im assuming so)
All parrots go through hormonal stages. It's not just one. When a bird does go through a hormonal stage, they aren't always nippy and scream. It can vary from bird to bird. Some birds don't really react, others may become extra sweet. (not good!)

2. When they start screaming, do they eventually go back to being quiet birds, or will they screech for the rest of their life? (if they were originally quiet)
That depends on you. Their environment. Their enrichment. Their training.

3.Is there any way I could make this stage easier for me and the bird?
Big cage with lots of enrichment! Not just toys, but foraging toys, too! Lots and lots of positive reinforcement training! Don't spend a lot of physical time with your bird! Too many birds become dependent upon human companionship, then a lot of issues arise! If you raise a bird to enjoy human companionship, but is still an independent bird, you'll have a happier, better adjusted bird! So be sure to highly reward independent play! Reward, reward, reward desired noises!!! Don't "ignore" behaviors! Try to prevent, distract and redirect them instead!

The best way to stop a behavior is to prevent it from occurring in the first place! If you set the bird up for success in the beginning, you'll have far less issues down the road!

snowflake311 · Jun 30, 2016

MonicaMc said:
I have heard about the hormonal stage? Like they get nippy and scream?
They can, but not all do.

1. Do they all go through this stage? (im assuming so)
All parrots go through hormonal stages. It's not just one. When a bird does go through a hormonal stage, they aren't always nippy and scream. It can vary from bird to bird. Some birds don't really react, others may become extra sweet. (not good!)

2. When they start screaming, do they eventually go back to being quiet birds, or will they screech for the rest of their life? (if they were originally quiet)
That depends on you. Their environment. Their enrichment. Their training.

3.Is there any way I could make this stage easier for me and the bird?
Big cage with lots of enrichment! Not just toys, but foraging toys, too! Lots and lots of positive reinforcement training! Don't spend a lot of physical time with your bird! Too many birds become dependent upon human companionship, then a lot of issues arise! If you raise a bird to enjoy human companionship, but is still an independent bird, you'll have a happier, better adjusted bird! So be sure to highly reward independent play! Reward, reward, reward desired noises!!! Don't "ignore" behaviors! Try to prevent, distract and redirect them instead!

The best way to stop a behavior is to prevent it from occurring in the first place! If you set the bird up for success in the beginning, you'll have far less issues down the road!

What about Ignoring screaming? Don't you think that is one behavior Ignoring works for?

I am dealing with a nippy baby black capped conure. He is amazing and very quite but nippy. His nips are not that bad more annoying. We are working on getting to know each other. I need to learn what his triggers are. I have figured out many in the 3 weeks of having him. It takes time to work with a bird. You can't get frustrated you have to work at their speed. Don't push them. Take your time. Figure out your birds favorite things.

I now am keeping all training Short and sweet. This way he does not feel the need to nip. In the morning we do step up training with his Favorite treats. He did great this morning. BUT I did run out of treats and he was on my hand and gave me a nip. He nipped because he wanted more. I figured that out fast. So I said no bites and just put him down calmly and went and got more treats so we could end on a good note. I had him step up he did great got his treat and that was it.

Birds just like all animals do everything for a reason. You just have to find the reason and problem solved most of the time. Once you know the reason you can avoid it. At first with my little guy it seemed like he just would nip for no reason.

I still can not let him on my shoulder he gets all crazy and nips my neck. I wish he would not be like that. We will work on it slowly.

These birds have SO MUCH energy I wish mine could fly but I just got him and he came clipped. No one bird is a like. You just need :green2:

MonicaMc · Jul 1, 2016

What about Ignoring screaming? Don't you think that is one behavior Ignoring works for?
No. Yes, ignoring screaming may lead to a bird that stops screaming... however, what you may not know is that the bird has simply given up. Is defeated. Is that really a healthy mind set?

Or there is the ignoring it until the bird is quiet. Once the bird is quiet, you go in and reward the bird. Say the bird screams for 30 minutes, then is quiet. You go in and reward the bird for being quiet. The next day, the bird screams for 35 minutes, then is quiet. You go in and reward. You're basically teaching the bird that they need to scream for longer and longer periods of time to get your attention. Guess what this leads to? Screaming all day long.

You see, simply ignoring a behavior is *NOT* a good approach to fixing the behavior. That's like putting air in a flat tire. It doesn't matter how many times you refill the tire with air, it's not going to fix that nail. Rather than trying to fix the symptom (re: air leaking out of tire), it's better to fix the problem (nail in tire). Once you fix the problem, it alleviates or even stops the symptoms.

So instead of asking yourself, "How can I get my parrot to stop screaming?", you should be asking yourself "Why is my parrot screaming?".

Birds just like all animals do everything for a reason. You just have to find the reason and problem solved most of the time. Once you know the reason you can avoid it.
And I just have to point this out..... and loop this back to screaming! LOL

See, ignoring the behavior also ignores the reason for the behavior.

Try to avoid undesired behaviors, distract the undesired behaviors if you see them occurring and redirect the behavior. If you see an undesired behavior, what do you want the bird to do instead of that behavior?

What can a bird do instead of screaming? What about playing with toys? Or talking? Or ringing a bell? And how can you encourage a desired behavior over undesired?

chris-md · Jul 1, 2016

Monica nailed it. Ignoring the bad only works if it's followed by rewarding the good. Ignoring the bad results in more bad.

Ignoring screaming is great example. Responding when he becomes quiet needs some shading though. He could be in the middle of a screaming fit; "quiet" here means a 3 second break before he starts his next scream. You need to respond immediately when you notice even a slight break in the screaming.

SassiBird · Jul 1, 2016

MonicaMc said:
What about Ignoring screaming? Don't you think that is one behavior Ignoring works for?
No. Yes, ignoring screaming may lead to a bird that stops screaming... however, what you may not know is that the bird has simply given up. Is defeated. Is that really a healthy mind set?...

I think the "screaming because my person left the room" IS the one time when you should ignore the screaming, especially with a baby. Doing anything while they are screaming IS the reward that reinforces the behavior.
I had a baby black-capped that would scream when I left the room. I did three things: 1-do not come back if she is screaming; 2-wait for her to make some other noise that I can live with and respond/reward with a whistle/contact call; 3-when I'm leaving the room for a few seconds, I say "be right back!". If I'm leaving the room for a long time (work, groceries, etc), I say "see you later". I'm not sure she really gets the third one, but it hasn't hurt.

Disclaimer: I am in no way as experienced as the others in this thread. This is just what worked for me. Monica, I would love to know how you handle this, since you have much more experience than I do.

Snowflake - I don't know if my conure is representative, but she is now 1 year+ and she rarely screams anymore - loud noises like the TV and lawnmowers are the exceptions that will still get her to scream. She eventually stopped the nipping. She now only does it if she's bored, hungry, or upset by something in the room.

chris-md · Jul 1, 2016

Sassibird,, you and Monica are actually saying the exact same thing. Ignore the screaming, reward the quiet or alternative noises as you may prefer

MonicaMc · Jul 1, 2016

SassiBird said:
I think the "screaming because my person left the room" IS the one time when you should ignore the screaming, especially with a baby. Doing anything while they are screaming IS the reward that reinforces the behavior.

Well, no..... not necessarily.

Instead of ignoring your bird screaming and calling out to you, you could instead engage your bird in a foraging activity or playing with a toy and heavily reinforce that behavior. It's hard at first as the bird may stop what they are doing and redirect their attention onto you the moment you go to leave, BUT you can teach the bird to remain calm and play independently and quietly leave like it's no big deal, thus avoiding screaming as you leave.

Instead of directly leaving, you can be in the area, within view, then leave for just a moment. Come back, reward bird, hang out within view, disappear again for a moment (a minute or two), come back, etc. Essentially teaching your bird to play independently and not be worried about you leaving.

So you see, you don't *NEED* to ignore screaming if you can instead reinforce a *DIFFERENT*, more *DESIRABLE* behavior.

Aquila · Jul 1, 2016

I try to give my birds a treat before I leave the room, either a tablespoon of seed mix if I'm just going out of the room, or some muffin, birdie bread, or something more elaborate if I'm leaving the house and going to be gone for a while.

My Sydney is the only one who's really a screamer when I leave, but he's super attached to me. He's also older, and quite stuck in his ways, but he'll only usually scream for a minute or two after I leave the room. If it's longer than that, I check if he needs anything like a fresh bowl of water (god forbid there's a speck of dust in it!)

He's not one for toys, though he chews everything until it falls on the floor of his cage, so I'll usually throw one of those cardboard 12-pack boxes in there for him to destroy which he loves to do, and that'll keep him occupied long enough to forget I left the room!

If he's yelling at me while I'm paying attention to the other birds (even if it's just changing food and water) I usually ignore it, finish what I'm doing, and then go to him. He'll stare at me and make kissy noises. We do whistle back and forth but it's not always what he wants to do!

My conures I've been lucky enough that they're independent enough to not "need" me around, but they've all been a few years old at least when I've gotten them, so I would say there's a bit of a learning curve. Routine is important I think when dealing with "bad" behaviors, so they know what to expect. When I give the good treats, I'm not only leaving on a positive, but they learn to expect something good when I do leave.

snowflake311 · Jul 2, 2016

MonicaMc said:
What about Ignoring screaming? Don't you think that is one behavior Ignoring works for?
No. Yes, ignoring screaming may lead to a bird that stops screaming... however, what you may not know is that the bird has simply given up. Is defeated. Is that really a healthy mind set?

Or there is the ignoring it until the bird is quiet. Once the bird is quiet, you go in and reward the bird. Say the bird screams for 30 minutes, then is quiet. You go in and reward the bird for being quiet. The next day, the bird screams for 35 minutes, then is quiet. You go in and reward. You're basically teaching the bird that they need to scream for longer and longer periods of time to get your attention. Guess what this leads to? Screaming all day long.

You see, simply ignoring a behavior is *NOT* a good approach to fixing the behavior. That's like putting air in a flat tire. It doesn't matter how many times you refill the tire with air, it's not going to fix that nail. Rather than trying to fix the symptom (re: air leaking out of tire), it's better to fix the problem (nail in tire). Once you fix the problem, it alleviates or even stops the symptoms.

So instead of asking yourself, "How can I get my parrot to stop screaming?", you should be asking yourself "Why is my parrot screaming?".

Birds just like all animals do everything for a reason. You just have to find the reason and problem solved most of the time. Once you know the reason you can avoid it.
And I just have to point this out..... and loop this back to screaming! LOL

See, ignoring the behavior also ignores the reason for the behavior.

Try to avoid undesired behaviors, distract the undesired behaviors if you see them occurring and redirect the behavior. If you see an undesired behavior, what do you want the bird to do instead of that behavior?

What can a bird do instead of screaming? What about playing with toys? Or talking? Or ringing a bell? And how can you encourage a desired behavior over undesired?

Oh you are good. You are right that is how you need to look at it.

For me it all comes to dog training.
The few times I have used Ignore with my dogs it is always followed by a reward. Example Dog barks to get me to throw the ball. I will not trow the ball I ignore the bark until the dog is quite. That is when I throw the ball. Your right that is the only time ignore works. When you think about it you are not really ignoring but just waiting for the behavior you want to reward.

Questions about Green Cheek conures

BridgetTracy

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SassiBird

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MonicaMc

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Aquila

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snowflake311

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