Need advice from fellow bird lovers

[RonySun]

I have a 2 year old Sun Conure who I love to death. I live with 3 other family members who are not so on board with having him around. However when we first got him they were. Now it seems like they are just sick of him. He is the sweetest most intelligent bird.

When he makes a lot of noise they yell at him, they don't have patience with him, they don't understand that when he starts to bite he is tired, hungry, or needs to use the bathroom since he will only go when he is in the cage. I dont want to keep his cage in my room because I am not always in there, mostly in the living/dining room and kitchen. His cage is located that he can see all 3 of those rooms.

I dont think there is a way to get my family on board with having him around. I am only 19 and don't plan on moving out any time soon but I hate the way they are constantly yelling at my poor bird. No matter how many times I tell them that yelling at a bird is not going to help the behavior, if anything it will make it worse and change his personality.

My question is what exactly will yelling at a bird harm in terms of behavior, personality, etc?

The other thing is I NEVER would think of rehoming him, but I hate him being around the rest of my family who doesn't like him. Is this something I should consider to give him a better life?

Any thoughts/answers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Pedro]

For starters yelling will only encourage him to yell back louder. They tend to compete with noise, the louder the better. With my conures i whisper when they are making a racket usually that works because the can't hear what i am saying they shut up to listen. I have 7 Sun Conures.

The trouble your facing is your family needs to work with you if this noisy bird is to start behaving.

Steps to Stop Birds from Screaming

 

[ruffledfeathers]

Depending on how the yelling is, sometimes they see it as a game of sorts. It becomes entertaining to see people get all fired up. (unless they are actually scaring the bird.....) Sometimes they make more noise as part of the game. (My Georgie did it at dogs who barked at her. She continually squawked to get them to 'play with her' and go crazy barking at her.)
I wonder, if you did make a point of keeping him in your room and just having him out with you, on your shoulder or something, or on a playstand when you are in the living room area, it would help?

 

[MonicaMc]

Here, this may help some. Posted it up for someone else with a younger sun.


Living With Parrots Cage Free: Search results for screaming


I'm pretty young myself (well, not much older than you! lol), and thankfully, my family was able to learn to accept the noise of parrots as I grew up with them as pets! (Since I was 12 years old) Then again, most of my birds that I had when I was younger were quieter species!

 

[KnaisGuy]

You will hear and see a lot of people say yelling at the birds doesn't work or will make them violent, etc...but that is simply not true in all cases. If you can teach your family the proper way it can actually work great. My sun conure will get screaming because my grey makes little whistles till the conure screams. I can be in another room and yell, not angrily but very sternly "Turd, HUSH!" and she stops. Every time basically. She doesn't scream more and she generally will stop making any noise once you tell her to hush.

Also another thing most people will tell you not to do is squirt them with water. While I agree some birds that like it shouldn't be taught it is a bad thing some birds react quite well to it. I mist my Amazon and my Grey but my Sun has always hated any form of sprayed/misted/falling water and I give her a few little squirts in the butt if she is getting really out of control and tell her very firmly "Turd, HUSH".

Now don't confuse what I just said with screaming at the bird while being a dick and squirting them in the face (water in the nose/ears is bad). Just 2-3 little squirts on the butt and a firm "Turd, HUSH."

Not something for every bird, but I've used this on my sun for 3 years and she is still as lovely as ever (Cept she has been nippy lately randomly whenever my hand is above her eye level) and will fly to me immediately once I open her cage even if she's just been squirted. I'd definitely not use it as a #1 go to method but it can be helpful if you have a bird that already dislikes the water streams.

Now she basically only yells when we leave or come home and most the time she doesn't yell then if you just say bye to her and hi when you get in. She doesn't even do a morning or evening yell unless the Grey gets her going or someone is in the shower (all 3 of them yell when people r in the shower, I'm not sure why, lol, since none of them enjoy the shower at all.)

At this point she will flap her wings or click her beak or head bob the cage to get attention instead of screaming and after seeing hundreds and hundreds of birds in pet stores and other peoples houses as well as my own and my families I can safely say she is one of the best trained and most well behaved conures I've ever seen and is hands down the quietest Sun and one of the quietest birds I've ever had or seen.

 

[RonySun]

Thank you everyone for all your help! I really appreciate it!