Activities for an Obsessive Parrot

[Nolgi]

We’ve had our parrot for a year now and he is obsessed with us to the point where he is not happy unless he’s physically with us. It’s sad to see, and it’s become a strain on our ability to function well and enjoy our time with him. It doesn’t matter if he’s out for 8 hours a day, the moment he’s put back in his cage for a rest, for food, for whatever reason, he immediately going back to “begging” to come out. He frequently calls while we’re not in the room, not what I’d call a full on “scream”, but not a happy noise. It’s exhausting and frustrating, and it’s started to make us dislike having him out. Its a horrific situation during hormone season, where he’s either sitting in his cage all day shrieking when he sees us, or *constantly* trying to mate with us and getting angry when he reject him.
The point is that he needs a life outside of us. Attachment issues aside, we think more enrichment can do nothing but help at this point. He has toys but that’s just not cutting it. We’re planning a small outdoor aviary for him that sits right outside of an unused side door (about 4’ length, 4 1/2’ width, height to be determined) and we’ve bought a bamboo plant to be grown in a pot so we can harvest some for him to play in and chew later on. I’d like to identify the trees around and hopefully heat sterilize some safe branches for him to tear into. I’d like to know your ideas, both for enrichment activities he can do alone and other ways to remedy the attachment issues. Just to be clear, my goal is NOT a parrot that I can just leave in his cage all day, I know that is neither healthy or feasible. I want a happier, healthier relationship for all of us.

 

[kme3388]

By the profile photo it looks like you are having issues with an Ekkie correct? I just want to make sure before I start commenting.

 

[Botsari]

A parrot for your parrot is the classic solution, or rather one it bonds with. They are social animals that evolved to spend most of the day with others, and humans can only provide part of that. It's one extra bird, but more satisfying for both, so something less that 1 birds worth of extra worry. But it requires patience allowing a new equilibrium to develope.