Help with cockatiel noise please

Yorkiedave

New member
Mar 8, 2022
2
9
Parrots
Cockatiel
Hello everybody my first post here I found you all after some extensive googling .

We got our little guy about 3 months ago he's around 10/11 months old and is called Zazu . He is a lovely little guy with a big personality . When we first got him he wasn't very handleable however we worked on this and now he will happily have scritches and sit on hands . He is eating drinking pooping all very good and has a huge cage with lots of stimulation toys etc etc etc HOWEVER over the last few weeks especially, he has got into this habit of whenever I or my partner leave the room he just sits there shrieking over and over again. Getting louder and more high pitched . We live in an apartment and I'm Concerned about the noise i have spoken to my neighbours and they seem fine about it however my own sanity is also slowly slipping away .

It started off little and often but now it's a constant to the point I just despise the noise so much . We have been using the ignore him route but this just seems to make him more annoyed . I've seen conflicting advice some saying to answer the calls . I have set up a sound recorder for when I'm out of the apartment and he doesn't scream anywhere near the levels when I'm at home so I'm assuming it's an attention thing ? .

Can anybody give me some advice on how to combat this because it's truly pushing us to breaking point now to the point I'm even waking up hearing the scream in my head because it's happening that often .
 

Flboy

Well-known member
Dec 28, 2014
12,598
4,101
Greater Orlando area, Florida
Parrots
JoJo, 'Special' GCC, Bongo, Cinnamon GCC(wife's)
Anxiety over being alone! You can work on changing his contact call! While with him, mimic one of his pleasant noises, or have him mimic you. Work on this while moving out of line of site!
 
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Yorkiedave

New member
Mar 8, 2022
2
9
Parrots
Cockatiel
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Anxiety over being alone! You can work on changing his contact call! While with him, mimic one of his pleasant noises, or have him mimic you. Work on this while moving out of line of site!
Thank you for replying . We figured this might be the issue as he only seems to really do it when we are home . So it seems for attention or company . Do you think getting another Tiel would help? . We have been responding today with a noise he is familiar with so hoping we might see some improvement . He's a lovely little guy in every other way but boy that screaming can be deafening . What about sound absorption blankets are they recommended?
 

HeatherG

Well-known member
Apr 25, 2020
3,893
6,966
Hi, I wrote a long reply to the thread “my eclectus is making a new noise, and it’s awful”. I think it’s a noise and technique that a cockatiel would really go for because it sounds similar to one of the singing noises boy cockatiels make.

I had a Quaker who I taught to whisper when she was having a screaming fit by saying “(name) , whisper!” And then I made a pspspspsh sound and told myself “good whisper! Good bird!” My Quaker not only learned to make the whisper noise when i cued her (if she was screaming and worked up) but she began to ask the other birds, or me, to “whisper” when they got loud.

(I got the idea because my sister and I thought that noise was what “whispering” was when we were very little girls. It’s a fun noise and it worked marvelously for Lucy. I used to make that noise when I babysat a toddler who was having a tantrum and it worked with those little kids, too!)
 

Eudie

New member
Apr 9, 2015
7
8
Hello everybody my first post here I found you all after some extensive googling .

We got our little guy about 3 months ago he's around 10/11 months old and is called Zazu . He is a lovely little guy with a big personality . When we first got him he wasn't very handleable however we worked on this and now he will happily have scritches and sit on hands . He is eating drinking pooping all very good and has a huge cage with lots of stimulation toys etc etc etc HOWEVER over the last few weeks especially, he has got into this habit of whenever I or my partner leave the room he just sits there shrieking over and over again. Getting louder and more high pitched . We live in an apartment and I'm Concerned about the noise i have spoken to my neighbours and they seem fine about it however my own sanity is also slowly slipping away .

It started off little and often but now it's a constant to the point I just despise the noise so much . We have been using the ignore him route but this just seems to make him more annoyed . I've seen conflicting advice some saying to answer the calls . I have set up a sound recorder for when I'm out of the apartment and he doesn't scream anywhere near the levels when I'm at home so I'm assuming it's an attention thing ? .

Can anybody give me some advice on how to combat this because it's truly pushing us to breaking point now to the point I'm even waking up hearing the scream in my head because it's happening that often .
He is calling you. Do you have a tv in the room? Put on the cartoon channel they like the activity. PBS is a good one with calm cartoons.
you spoiled him when you got him, so he wants to be with you and calling is what birds do. If it bothers you to much,give him away to somebody who would love the attention. You should have a cotton sheet covering a corner of the cage. A peaceful place for the bird to go. Keep it there all day long and around 7pm cover the cage so it will go to sleep.like a b in the wild Weill do. They also nap midday.
 

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