Repetitive warbling squawk

Hey everyone. It's been a few weeks since I got my 8 month old female eclectus and things have progressed FAST! She went from hard biting of fingers anywhere near her, to stepping up and down, to cuddling, to flying to me and back to her perch on command in under 3 weeks! From what I've read on how eclectus parrots can act, I really consider myself very lucky - although I have been putting in a lot of hard work, too.



That said, I have noticed some peculiar behaviour the last week. I only feed her a teaspoon or so of seeds once a day, and I only use sunflower seeds as treats for obeying commands like step up, fly, and perch. But lately when she takes the sunflower seed from me she nuzzles her beak in to my forefinger and thumb and does a kind of baby-feeding motion where she jiggles her head back and forth like a baby being fed by its mother. I've been doing my best to give her the seed and take my hand away before she can do it.

This is coupled with a rhythmic, repetitive squawking sound she has started doing whenever I pay her any attention. If I put her in her cage and let her play around in the branches and toys, she is almost silent with only the occasional trill or coo to let me know she's enjoying herself. But the moment I say hello, or interact with her she starts that squawking again.



I spend at the very least 2 hours a day with her out of her cage doing training and playing and just relaxing with her, and she has been very moderate with her sounds. But now, she does the repetitive squawking sound whenever I have her out. I show her food and water, or toys, or new flowering branches and if she is interested she will interact with them but STILL do the repetitive squawking - like clockwork, every 4-5 seconds. Same goes for training, she will step up, fly, and perch just as well as ever, but doing that squawking the whole time.

Is there any way I can temper this squawking without any negative effects? I understand parrots are just loud, but is there are way to curb the behaviour a little? I love having her on my shoulder, but really don't like heinously loud squawking in my ear.

Thanks in advance!

I have no advice but I have a 5 month old male doing the same exact thing. If I'm not bothering him he is in his cage quiet as a mouse except for the occasional coo or squawk. But when I bring him out he does this constant loud noise that is almost the same each time. It doesn't matter if I'm giving him attention or if he's eating or what. I can't tell what the noise means either. Let me know if you figure out what it means so I can figure out how to get him to make a more pleasant noise.

Hey Paco! Just thought I'd let you know that I changed Coda's diet and that completely stopped the squawking. She was eating what I gave her, but apparently only out of necessity - apparently she'd gotten sick of what I was feeding her and I just didn't understand the signs. One of the things you only learn by experience, I guess.

I switched up her food, apart from her favourite - she's a snap-pea fiend - and the squawking stopped that day and never returned! I switched her to snow peas, snap peas, red lettuce, pumpkin, orange capsicum, parsnip, corn, pear, and a mix of berries; with a teaspoon of mixed seed sprinkled around the dish.

Not sure if it will help you, but I thought I'd share! Hope it's somewhat helpful.

The head-pumping has gotten a little better. She really pumps her head right in to my fingers, so I've started just letting her lose her balance instead of giving her a solid surface to pump in to and she's only doing it about 50/50 now. I think with a little more time she'll get over it.

On a side note, I've now taught her to spin in a circle and wave