Ori agitated in the morning

[clayman]

Hi all, once again I am turning to you for insight. For about two months now, when I let the girls out in the morning, Ori often appears kind of agitated, she makes kind of whiny noises and usually flies off fast while shouting very loudly when asked to step up. At 6:15 in the morning, in a block of flats, I could do without the screaming, which is probably the main, although not the only reason why I want to try to find the culprit of this behavior.

Understandably, she is not very cooperative in those moments. We have a morning routine we have been used to doing for over half a year, where the girls step on the scale to get weighed, get a treat for that, then the clicker training follows, again with rewards in the form of treats, then it's a bit of flying about to flex their muscles and then breakfast takes place in the aviary, with me continuing afterwards with my own morning routine of getting ready to leave for work.

I _am_ able to eventually calm her down through talking to her and make her work with me during the training.

Obviously, I don't have much of an idea as to what is going on that makes her so nervous (if it is indeed nervosity and not something else). Roughly at the time this behavior started, two things changed -- I started covering up their aviary for the night and the days have gotten longer so the daylight reaches them sooner and by the time I get to uncover their aviary, they are already wide awake. Could it be that she's nervous about the the birds chirping outside while she cannot see them? I do believe she looks at the window, feathers all close to the body and tall neck, eyes wide open.

The blankets I use to cover them are not large enough to cover the entire aviary, nor are they thick enough to not let any light through. I also use drapes to cover the windows for the night but they too are not thick enough to keep the light out completely.

I remember on one particular occasion that they went to sleep rather late and were still half asleep the next morning when I came to greet them and remove the blankets from their aviary. Ori was calmer as she usually was in the past.

That's about everything I can think of that could be relevant. Thank you all for your time.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

The season is changing..lighter earlier..m+ore "noise" from outside..Ori just might be waking up and welcoming the new day! Now remember,all birds have a time of vocalization,and morning time is one of them,and Amazon's can get quite vocal!

At times,in the morning,Amy can launch into some very loud vocalizing! When she see's/hears kids walking/talking to the bus stop for school ( I live on the corner of the main road,and the brats...errrr..CHILDREN like to cut through my front yard,and if Amy hears them,she YELLS out HELLO!! HOW ARE YOU??? WHAT'CHA DOING??? It's hilarious to see these kids stop in their tracks,to look around to try to figure where all the noise is coming from lol.



Jim

 

[Kiwibird]

It is perfectly normal for amazons to vocalize a bit in the morning, but if this is a new behavior, it would lead me to believe something 'new' has happened or changed. Has any furniture been rearranged? New decorations? Can you hear anything from outside or another neighbors flat that is new?

Also, depending on her age, she may just be testing her boundaries of behavior. That could be a little trickier to address since it would be natural behaviors and developmentally right timing for this kind of thing (she was born last year, I see by your avatar?)

 

[wrench13]

Sounds like hormones kicking in, except her sister is not experiencing it too. Hmmmm... Could be as Kiwibird says, testing boundries... She just may need some extra attn in the morning. How is her sister acting?

 

[clayman]

Thank you all for your responses.

I guess it may be just her welcoming the new dawn and I may be interpreting her behavior wrongly (it wouldn't be the first time ), but it does seem to me that she is somehow "distressed". She makes those quiet whiny "questioning" sounds, like "Hmmm?", as if she wants to say "I don't think I like what's going to happen". Yesterday, when I probably overdid it with treats a bit during the morning training, she was reluctant to return to her aviary for breakfast, and although she was relatively calm at that point, when I tried to get her to step up on my finger and move her to her bowl, she flew away with that characteristic scream. I get the feeling that when I let them out in the morning, she already knows they are not going to stay out for long and that's why she acts so agitated. One more thing that I think supports this theory is that when I let them perch on my shoulder, talk to them calmly, and go to the window for them to look outside, Ori gets calmer.

I have read on multiple occasions that parrots are often vocal during the daybreak and sundown hours, so it would be fitting for her to be louder, but it is her overall behavior that is puzzling me. The environment they live in is pretty much the same. Probably the most significant thing that changed in the last couple of months is the new splittable aviary they inhabit now, but this should not be the culprit. They have been living in this new aviary for about two weeks, but this behavior of hers goes back to March IIRC.

The boundaries testing thing I cannot rule out either. She does not seem to try and be dominant per se, but she does know how to stay outside longer if she refuses to step up to get back for breakfast. When they don't want to go back, I usually close them in the living room and go do my other stuff I do before I leave the house for work. That may take about a quarter an hour. I can hear them call me in the meantime and by the time I come back to them, they will have realized they are actually hungry and let themselves be moved in for the meal.

And as for the hormones, I guess that could be a possibility, too, although I believe they are still too young. One never knows, though. Tia is considerably calmer. She does make those "Hmm?" sounds, too, albeit to a lesser extent, but she certainly doesn't fly around while screaming loudly.

Thanks again to all of you for chiming in.

 

[wrench13]

Take a care that you are not training them to scream and fly around in the AM, if you get my meaning. And always look at any issue from the standpoint of It Is Not The Fault Of The Parrot.

 

[Kiwibird]

A little young to have hormones. Amazons won't hit puberty until 4-6 years old. Some other considerations- does the other bird get to come out first? Is there anything in the room she flies to she likes (perhaps a favorite place to sit, a window she likes to look out, a play stand, a TV or radio that's on, clear view of the kitchen etc....)? My bird, after eating in the morning, likes to immediately go to his swing by the window. He can become quite agitated if I don't move him over there to make sure the world didn't end while he slept.

 

[clayman]

Thanks for your replies, all.

@wrench13, no worries. When the girls are flying about this early in the morning, they are mostly quiet, save for the occasional short squawks accompanied by postures and a little head shaking, which I assume is their way of saying [ame="https://youtu.be/3juaQvrlsZw?t=31s"]"Come ova hea and say thaa'!"[/ame] as they try to poke each other from across the room and often start chasing each other. Whenever they become louder, I shush them to calm them down (this is probably the only time during the day that I do this). But as I have said in my original post, something has probably changed and now Ori begins her morning routine by flying fast around the room, often shouting as she takes off. I have to admit, though, that I watched her closely this morning and she seemed more excited rather than nervous. Yes, she screamed a couple of times, but it seemed that she was probably happy that she's out flying, because she was flying really fast. It did seem like she was relaxed after the night and couldn't wait to get a little exercise outside. Still, I could do without the shouting part.

@Kiwibird, well, she has a few spots she likes to land/perch on (a flat top of a shelf higher up and on doors), but I would assume those are ordinary spots in terms of what she can reach or where she can see. As I have said above, I got the impression this morning that she's just happy to be out after the night. I'll see if I can teach her to stop yelling or if she stops by herself.