Debbie’s calling

thegars

Active member
Jul 21, 2018
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Florida
Parrots
4 1/2 years old now CAG..got her at 14 weeks...Debbie is still clown! Now almost 4 1/2....never a dull moment!
Our 2 year old CAG has the bad habit of “calling” either my wife or I whenever one of us leaves the room...we do our best to ignore her....it works if we are both out of the room....I think she figures we have left ( if we’re quiet )...and settles right down...but if she hears us ...it’s on! I know she’s spoiled, working on it....don’t want her to become a plucker....strange part is...we can leave for hours and she entertains herself quietly.....have a camera so we can watch her...any ideas?
 

ChristaNL

Banned
Banned
May 23, 2018
3,559
157
NL= the Netherlands, Europe
Parrots
Sunny a female B&G macaw;
Japie (m) & Appie (f), both are congo african grey;
All are rescues- had to leave their previous homes for 'reasons', are still in contact with them :)
With 2 years old, she is becomming an adult, so maybe she is just trying to test how far she can go?
(Puberty is always fun)


Everything you do not want your parrot to do: ignore and do not react.
(One of mine just adds "doeiiii" ("bye") if you leave.)
 

EllenD

New member
Aug 20, 2016
3,979
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State College, PA
Parrots
Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
This is actually quite a common issue that people have with their parrots, of all species, and sometimes it is a matter of where you have their main-cage located within your house, in fact this is the cause in probably 50% of the cases of this issue, where your bird knows you're at home but can't see you...I don't know where you have your Gray's main-cage located within your home, but if it's not located in the "main room" of your house, meaning the room where you and your wife spend most of your time when you're at home, then this could be the solution to your problem...Usually the "main room" of the house where people spend most of their time when they are at home is the living room, family room, TV room, den, etc. It's typically the room of the house where people watch TV, have conversations with eat other, read, play video games. board games, etc., eat meals while watching TV, and also the room where most visitors to your home spend their time when they come over. A lot of the time people put their bird's main-cages in a room away from the "main room" of the house, such as a spare-bedroom, or a room that they designate "The Bird Room", which can work-out well IF you have more than one bird and they both live in that room and have each other to talk to and see (if they like each other, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and the same issue exists)...But if you have only one bird and their cage is not located in the "main room" of the house, then that means that your bird is frequently in the situation where he knows you're at home, he can hear you, hear the TV is on, etc. but he can't see you...

****Something that you need to keep in-mind if this is the situation in your home is that it's not actually the fact that your bird can't "see you" that is causing his screaming...He is screaming because he feels "left out", and that feeling in birds is extremely intense and extremely frustrating, as well as being an innate feeling or "drive" that all birds possess because they are Flock Animals. You and your wife (and anyone else that lives in your home) are your bird's "Flock", as as such he has a desperate and innate want to simply be with you when you're at home where he is. There is something to be said here for simple Passive-Interaction with your bird...To your bird, that Passive-Interaction whenever one or both of you are at home is something that he equates to being a "Flockmate". So it's important to stress here that it's not that you have to be constantly playing with him, petting him, holding him, talking to him, etc. His screaming isn't at all about wanting you and/or your wife to "directly interact" with him at all, but rather about him just being in the same room with you guys whenever you're at home...And just as your bird considers himself, you and your wife as a "Flock" and you and your wife as his "Flockmates", he also considers your house his Flock's "territory". So from his natural, innate point of view, whenever his "Flock" is at home, they should be together, interacting in at least a passive way. So quite often when this particular issue/behavior starts, the solution is simply for the bird's cage to be moved into whatever room of the home that the people who live in the home spend their time in. So when you and your wife are at home watching TV, talking, eating, playing games, reading, even just taking a nap on the couch, their bird is in the same room with them, and his own, personal "territory" or "safe place/area", meaning his cage (or even just his "stand" if he's a bird that doesn't have a cage but rather just a stand) is also there with he and his Flock...Not only does this typically stop the screaming pretty immediately, but it also brings such a sense of comfort, security, and satisfaction to the bird that they also learn to love entertaining themselves inside of their cages with their toys and foraging activities, because they know that they are there among their flock doing their own thing, and their flockmates are there among the flock doing their own things. That's what birds do in their flocks, they stay together in the same place with their flockmates, either interacting with each other or simply doing their own things, like preening themselves, feeding themselves, etc. But they are always together among their flocks/flockmates.

If your bird's cage is already located in the "main room" of your home, and you're talking about your bird screaming any time you simply leave that "main room" to go to the bathroom, or to go to your bedroom, or to the kitchen to cook, etc., the same basic idea/principles that I just described still apply, he's still screaming for the same reasons, and sometimes simply developing a "Contact-Call" with your bird that you call back and forth whenever you and/or your wife leave the room can actually bring comfort to your bird and stop his constant screaming for you...This is also what birds do in the wild within their Flocks, which are typically larger than the members in a human household, and the trees/areas where they live/stay are usually much larger than a living space/house. So they are constantly "Contact-Calling" members of their Flock back and forth throughout the days and nights, simply to keep track of where every flockmate is, whether or not they are still there, still okay, still alive, etc., and to pass-on any important information to flockmates, such as warnings about predators, letting them know about a food-source they have spotted, etc. So sometimes if you can develop a similar system within your home with your bird and develop different "Contact Calls" for different situations, this can curb the screaming.

Also, making sure that you always let your bird know where you are going and how long you're going to be gone can help tremendously...So if you're only going to bathroom, then you tell him "I'm going to the bathroom, I'll be back in 10 minutes", and he will quickly learn what that means and equates to time-wise, and this will keep the screaming from starting to begin with...And if you're going to be gone for an hour, tell him that you'll be gone for an hour, and he'll very quickly learn how long an hour is time-wise, and hopefully after he learns the different places you often go and just how long the time-periods you're telling him actually are, this will keep him from becoming nervous/anxious whenever you leave "The Flock"...
 
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thegars

thegars

Active member
Jul 21, 2018
83
Media
2
140
Florida
Parrots
4 1/2 years old now CAG..got her at 14 weeks...Debbie is still clown! Now almost 4 1/2....never a dull moment!
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #4
Thank you, Debbie is definitely just calling us....at times when she’s left in the room she’ll shout out...”I’m right here “.....our typical reply to her when she yells when we leave her presence... her cage is in the living room, and she is pretty much out and about all day, just want to share our relationship with her...and of course our pleasures..
 

noodles123

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2018
8,145
472
Parrots
Umbrella Cockatoo- 15? years old..I think?
I have often wished for an elaborate, house-wide ceiling perch system that is safe, but somewhat like a train-track or sprinkler system in its routing...then my bird could trot along the cords as she pleases without getting hurt/chewing the ceiling etc (granted, in my case, I am referring to my flighted cockatoo who dislikes flying and prefers waddling, stomping or being carried lol). She probably would ignore it if she had it :)
 
OP
thegars

thegars

Active member
Jul 21, 2018
83
Media
2
140
Florida
Parrots
4 1/2 years old now CAG..got her at 14 weeks...Debbie is still clown! Now almost 4 1/2....never a dull moment!
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #6
Debbie was only 14 weeks old when we got her...she had clipped wings...her flying, no, her landings were terrible so she has always been a climber too....we work daily with her flying back and forth from my wife to me...she’s getting braver and seems to be enjoying getting around by herself....if she’d just figure out where and when to land...lol...
 

EllenD

New member
Aug 20, 2016
3,979
65
State College, PA
Parrots
Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
I have often wished for an elaborate, house-wide ceiling perch system that is safe, but somewhat like a train-track or sprinkler system in its routing...then my bird could trot along the cords as she pleases without getting hurt/chewing the ceiling etc (granted, in my case, I am referring to my flighted cockatoo who dislikes flying and prefers waddling, stomping or being carried lol). She probably would ignore it if she had it :)


One of the Youtube parrot vloggers that I can't stand but does have her entire house devoted to her birds, has this kind of set-up using large tree-branches that she collected outside and somehow having them attached so that they go all around and across the rooms of her house...I'm trying to remember how she did it, but I've blocked her out of my memory apparently, lol...But I remember thinking it was a really cool idea, and her birds seemed to love it, that's where they always are in her videos taken from her house...

Actually, I think I do remember, she put up shelves around the top of each wall, like the small, portable wall shelves you'd buy at any home store cheaply, and then once they were anchored-into the walls she attached the long tree branches to them...She cut-off some of the accessory branches from the branches, some she kept so they'd be able to cross over on them from one branch to another...pretty cool system actually...
 

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