Screaming when I'm not there

Ok, I work during the day, and my mother in law works from home, so she is always there during the day. Well, she keeps telling me that Roxy screams and screams all day. When I am with Roxy from 7:30am-8:30am and then from 5:30pm till bedtime, she never screams once. (So I am assuming of course that she wants me there.) But I am nervous because I will be buying my own house soon, and I don't want neighbors angry with me!

This brings me to another issue. I am finding that she has not been interested in toys lately. It started out that I would give her a brand new toy and she would chew it until it was half gone, and then never touch it again. Now, it seems like she is barely touching any of her toys. I have tried all different kinds. I know that her playing with toys would cut down on the screaming, so I am not sure what to do.

Have you tried leaving the radio or tv on while your not home?

Not always, but most of the time the TV is on. Do you think keeping it on all the time would help?

I have never not left the radio on for my boy. He has a view to the outside and luckily the run of his inside and outside of his cage. I found as i was away for 4 months from home, he also started screaming alot and as soon as i was back after that period, he quiet down almost instantly.

I would however suggest that you dont keep a set pattern on Roxy, in mornings and evening handling, i would do it random. Parrots are birds of habit, and if they have a general set pattern, they become stressed if it gets broken.

With Kodie, I would in one busy morning just say hello, feed, water, and put on radio and head out. Other days, he would come kiss me, i would give him fresh fruit etc. Its not at all to confuse the bird, it is just to let him know, "mommy wouldnt always have an hour to spend with him everyday" but he knows the attention he recieves will be recieved again later.

Also you mentioned your mother is at home all day. Does she have interaction with your baby?

scrunch newspaper up and let her play with it that keeps mylah amused, and we always leave the tv on

Eclectica said:

Also you mentioned your mother is at home all day. Does she have interaction with your baby?

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She does have some interaction with her, will give her treats sometimes. However, I am not sure if it is a good idea for her to have too much interaction with her, because we will be getting our own place soon. I don't want her to get used to having someone there during the day.

I was just wondering about that, as I think you mentioned you got her from an older lady, which I atke was also at home during the day. Her routine might have consisted of her being with the lady most of the time, and now her hearing your mother is around but not always in few or handling her, she may be "searching" for her as she hears her throughout the day.


Parrots are of habit, they "search" by screaming at one another and then looking where the flock members are. You might want to practice some "punishment" for "positive" results. Sounds bad to mention punishment. But in not praising the behaviour, eg. She screams, mum comes to look, its a positve punisher, that gives negative reinforcement. Where if you switch it, by negatively punishing, eg she screams, nothing happens and she gets that nothing will happen, you get positive reinforcement.

This could take a while to get her used to, and probably won't happen that she screams all that less, but in not rewarding, coming to look and speak to her or treat her, is a sign to her that something isn't all there. She may well scream more for a while, but as soon as she gets into the habit of knowing you will return at the end of the day, she may well start playing and working on all her toys.

Good luck, my ringneck used to scream because of his obsessiveness over me, and it can become very overwhelming I know, lol.

Well, My Amazon did the same thing. He would scream for a bit while I was gone. He too, didn't have interest in toys--they scared him. I would leave the radio on for him. It gives him a variety of music and noise to listen to. Also try foraging treats. If your bird isn't interested in toys, perhaps make the bird a cone using a coffee filter. Put a treat of some sort in the filter, (a foot toy or an edible treat) and tape the filter shut. Also, make sure there aren't any drafts or too sunny/dark spots in the area the bird is at. Ricco didn't like a lot of light. So I would readjust blinds and curtains for him.

My Amazon and I used to live at home with my parents, and my mom works at home. She was quite the screamer. But now that it's just her and me, she screams much, much less - now it's an irregular thing, instead of a regular habit. She'll scream if she's not near wherever the action is happening. So if she's in a separate room that no one goes into during the day, but she hears people moving about and talking in other parts of the house, she'll scream because she feels left out and doesn't understand why they aren't in the room with her. I figured this was the case when my parents went out of town, and I was alone in the house. As long as I didn't make any noise walking around, my bird would be silent for hours. But then the second I made any noise, or my parents got back and started opening and closing doors and whatnot, she'd start right up with her screaming. Mind you, I wasn't neglecting her, I was just testing the theory!

Anyways, now that I live in a smaller apartment with fewer rooms and her cage is in the living room, she's much better. Is your bird in a different room as your mom during the day? If not, you may try putting either her cage or a play stand in the room that your mom works in. Knowing that she's where all the action is may be enough to get your bird calmed and quieted down.

Now, if your mom talks on the phone a lot during the day, that's going to be a bigger problem to take care of. My bird is still pretty bad about screaming, or at least being very loud, when I'm trying to talk on the phone. I'm sure there are people who've spoken to me on the phone who think I'm some kind of mad torturer or something, from all the noise. One thing that can help with screaming is covering the cage, but of course you want to be careful with this method. The primary method I use for getting my bird not to scream is to prevent her from screaming in the first place (by being in the same room as her, talking to her if I leave the room so she knows where I am, feeding her immediately after I wake up), but when that fails and she is really bad I'll cover her cage without saying anything to her or looking at her (don't want to reinforce the bad behavior with any kind of attention), and then I'll leave her covered for a couple minutes. That tends to take care of the screaming right away.

You guys are exactly right! My mother in law is always in her office during the day, so Roxy probably hears her typing or talking on the phone. Also, when I walk in the door from work, sometimes I run straight to the bathroom, and she will start that call/screaming because she heard me walk in. I make very sure that everyone in the house knows not to give her any attention when she is screaming. I definitely do not want to reinforce it.

On another note, Roxy started squeaking. It's kinda like a baby bird squeak, but sometimes she does it loud. It's the weirdest thing! And she only seems to do it when i'm around. Any ideas on that?