Hello members, need help

Hey everyone, I'm not new to forums, but I am new to bird forums.
We have a beautiful Jenday Conure that is almost 2 years old, he/she is a very sweet bird, very loving.
Problem is that he squawks when your not paying attention to him (we call it him, but don't know if it's girl or boy) Mostly he is attached to my wife, and if he hears her in another room, he squawks, or if she just gets home from work, or thinks she should be getting home from work.
We are both at our wits end, we love him so much, but can't stand the high pitch loud squawk.
We paid about 600 for him, but are just about ready to give him away to a good home, but are scared that someone else will have the same problem, or he won't be taken care of.
I just don't know what to do:17:, I'm not the type of person to get animals and then get rid of them
Anyone with conures have any suggestions before we find him another home

WOW, I'm overwhelmed by the welcomes and support
Guess nobody has any suggestions or wants to help?

Oh, sorry, I got caught up fending off some spammers and forgot to come back to this.

Could you tell us a little more about the daily interaction? How much is he out of the cage? or how often is he left in the cage when people are home?

Conures are very social, they want to be with the family. What you describe sounds like it's on par for conure behavior. They do scream to great you when you come home, they do scream to get attention if being ignored.

They can certainly be trained to play quietly on their own at times, but you have to establish habits and patterns of when they will be with the family and when they will be on their own.

Auggie's Dad said:

Oh, sorry, I got caught up fending off some spammers and forgot to come back to this.

Could you tell us a little more about the daily interaction? How much is he out of the cage? or how often is he left in the cage when people are home?

Conures are very social, they want to be with the family. What you describe sounds like it's on par for conure behavior. They do scream to great you when you come home, they do scream to get attention if being ignored.

They can certainly be trained to play quietly on their own at times, but you have to establish habits and patterns of when they will be with the family and when they will be on their own.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply
Unfortunately my wife was out of work at the time when we got him, so he really bonded with her, now she is back to work with Walmart, and her schedule varies, as does mine.
We try to interact as much as possible, and he has a huge California cage, with a Grape Vine play stand next to it with ropes attached, we leave his cage open all day when we are home or as soon as we get home, he has plenty of toys and a heated perch.
I'm really thinking we need to move his cage to the spare bedroom, and black out the window, cause even though his cage gets covered at night, in the morning when the sun comes in, he starts to scream, and I know that's normal, on days when it's overcast and not so sunny, he doesn't scream and wake us up.
I guess we just need to pay a little more attention to him, but you know how it is, life, got to cook dinner, mow the grass, he really screams when we go outside, or if he hears a bump or knock, he thinks my wife is home, he goes nuts, kinda like a guard bird.
Anyway, we are up for any suggestions, we don't want to rehome him, and then the same thing happen to him again.
Here are a few pics

He screams even when he is out of the cage?

Pay attention to your responses. After this description (and particularly if he screams out of the cage too) this sounds more like a learned behavior than the normal conure vocalizations.

It is a learning process for them to realize that they can play on their own. With that play stand next to his cage he should have plenty to keep him occupied. He just needs to learn that screaming will not get him anything else (ie attention).

I can tell you about one thing that does keep Auggie occupied, but I don't know if it is just him or if it will apply to other conures. When I moved here (with Auggie) he got his own room. His cage is in the "office" room next to the computer desk, but everything else in the room is his: a play stand, lots of bird toys, and the entire room is bird-safed. When I need to do something around the house I can leave him out of his cage in this room - he's only locked in his cage when I go away to work. When we moved here I packed a lot of Auggie's toys and treats in a big black plastic footlocker which sat in the corner of his room when we first arrived - I was too lazy to unpack all at once. Just by chance one day the top to the footlocker got propped open a couple of inches by something getting stuck in the way. Auggie flew right in and made himself at home. I've peered in there a couple of times though he frantically panics when I do, he has to be in his cage for me to look in there; so most of the time I respect his privacy - the footlocker is HIS space. He seems to have shredded a cardboard box that was in there and he's made it into a bit of a nesting area. He diligently works on his bachelor pad whenever he gets time in the hope that one day some conurette will find his work suitable. Now whenever I'm not with him I close him in his room and he goes to work on his footlocker. When I look in the room he peaks his head out, and if I come in he'll hang out with me, if I leave he goes back to work.

How can this be relevant or helpful? I'm not sure if it can be, but it stands out to me that most if not all of your conures out-of-cage toys and play areas are visible to him while he's in the cage. Auggie has had very little interest in his out-of-cage play areas and play stands that can be seen from in his cage - but the mystery of the footlocker has him hooked. It's an area that is only accessible even to see when he is out of the cage.

You could try offering a similar area. Again Auggie's box is just an old footlocker propped open a couple of inches - just enough for him to squeeze in - filled with random items: a cardboard box, some rags, a few non-perishable treats (which I think are gone now), a couple toys...

I think he learned to scream when the dogs bark, cause he thinks someone is home, as soon as my one dog heads toward the back door where my wife comes in, he screams.
He has pleanty of toys inside and outside his cage, he really like the paper covered woooden toys, he beats them up pretty good, or just give him a napkin fron a fast food joint and he shreads it.
We are going to move/or buy another cage, and put him in his own room at night, with the window blocked out, just so we can sleep in on the weekends, or when one of us gets up early to go to work, and the other is sleeping, he won't scream, cause he'll think it's still night

Nibis, We are new at the bird sceen ourselves...Have you tried to leave on a TV or Radio on while you are out? It may help. Your bird might just be glad to see your wife and just needs a little reasurance when she comes in. You may also want to try to cover her cage if it gets too bad. When she calms down uncover him say good boy and give treat. I know your pain because I am on line searching for answers to our Corella that purrs (cries) whenever my husband is around. It is not a nice sound. I think that she is in love with him and it is her way of love talk.
There are many different theories on the screaming. Some say to reward the good behavior. ie if you come in and he is quite you say good boy and give treat. and if he screams you overlook it. Some say to cover the cage until he is quite. There is a good bird DVD out called the insider secrets of Parrot training pro's from www.Birdtricks.com. We have just started watching them. It covers everything from biting to getting your bird to play dead. I have to say that we are lucky because we have a Galah as well and both birds are not big screamers.

Hmmm, teaching a parrot to play dead huh? Could be problematic: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Lq771TVm4]YouTube - Dead Parrot[/ame]

Sorry couldn't resist.

Yea this video started the whole thing. My son loves this bird.