Ear piercing scream

[Naydne]

Hi everyone hopefully someone can help me with Venus my 5 yr old cag. I've had him for about a month now and he's been great started talking in front if me a week ago and is more comfortable with me now, so our friendship is growing. A couple of days ago he started making a ear piercing like scream I don't really know how to explain it but it's painful to the ears I'm getting headaches and he's doing it more often now without anyone saying or giving any positive reinforcement. He usually will do it if anyone walks in the front door, if my husband comes in any room he's in, anyone talks loudly, if he's on me or away from me and also in the morning when I remove his cage cover and sometimes randomly. What could be the reason and what can I do?

I also was wondering to he doesn't really seem interested in his toys he will randomly chew or touch them but mostly just seats on his perch on his cage and talks comes down for his food and water and a couple times came over to see me in my chair. Is that normal or should he be more active?


I might be overreacting just want to get some insight from people that have a cag and what's the normal for them and I can't seem to find anything that fits my situation. I thought maybe he is still settling in and getting use to everything?

 

[Julianna]

I don't own an african grey, but I may still be of some help to you. It's great that you want to use positive reinforcement - that tends to work best with parrots. There are a couple of possible solutions you could try that I know of. One is to ignore the screaming. Identify the reinforcer of the scream (a response from you, entertainment, etc.) and make sure that the reinforcement stops. For instance, make sure you give absolutely no response to the screeam, and this could include turning on the sink or making the floor squeek, or provide different entertainment or rewards for noises that you like, such as talking. Another solution could be to put a cue on the behavior of screaming, and then never give the cue. In other words, teach him to scream when you tell him to, and then just don't tell him to. You can also train him to make a different sound on command (like talk) and cue this sound whenever he starts to scream. Sometimes parrots scream because there is a real problem though, and you also need to be aware of this. If your bird is screaming, there could be an issue. This link will hopefully help you to determine why he is screaming: https://companionparrotonline.com/screaming_reasons.html

As for the toys, I've found that the best way to get Pippi interested in something is to play with it myself. After all, if I have it, she wants it. Things might work the same way for you and Venus. Otherwise, try providing all different types of toys - rope, paper, shreddable, plastic, wood, etc. - so that he can try everything out to see what he likes. Also, since he is older he may not be accustomed to playing with toys. If parrots are not shown at a young age that toys are fun to play with, it's sometimes difficult to get them interested. Sometimes you have to actually teach them how to play.

Hope this helps and good luck!