Piper the pain

[Djbred18]

I have two green cheeks, one is a yellow bellied green cheek. Ever since I’ve had her, she goes into these long squeaking tirades that can last from 5 minutes to an hour. The sound is a single high pitch note done repeatedly every 2-3 seconds. She does it when she wakes up, she does it when I leave the room, she does it while I’m sitting in the room not paying attention to her, and she does it when I get home until I adress her.

My problem is sometimes there are times when I’m in the middle of something I cannot stop what I’m doing to pay attention to her. I am at my wits end with the noise . I don’t know how to get her to stop other than pick her up and let her poop all over me, which gets old too. And I have a feeling this is why the previous owner got rid of her is because she makes his high-pitched noise incessantly.
Any suggestions?

 

[syakti]

GCC are loud, it is given. But how you manage it is all up to you. I don't think "getting rid of him" because he is loud is a good option. All birds are loud.

What I do with my GCC when he gets loud is that I start calling his name softly from where ever I am. After he hears my voice, he starts repeating his name in soft way.

I think, when I am in another room (out of his sight) he wants to check if I am in danger. That's the reason for that high pitch scream. So, I let him know I am ok and he accepts it and decreases his scream to very low or none. I hope this works for you too.

 

[Djbred18]

Nothing works. I try repeating her name. Nothing works. Yes, I know they are loud. I have two of them, but she constantly needs the attention from me. The other one isn’t this needy. I need to know how to get her to stop with the schrill high pitched noise that doesn’t stop

 

[syakti]

other option is ignoring it. In the morning, when I am getting ready, my GCC starts screaming for attention. But then I realized that he stops screaming when he hears the door sound (like I am leaving the house). This led me to think that he knows after door sound (He doesn't see me leaving, he just hears the door), I won't react to his screams. He must have continued to scream for couple of weeks after I left the house and finally he must have learned that there is no reaction after the door sound. Did you try ignoring it? (I know it is impossible to ignore that scream tho)

 

[wrench13]

You need to establish what your personal flock call will be, use it when she can't see you. And reward when she is quiet, never when she is loud. Picking her up only teaches her to do it more. You have to be religiously constant in trying to change parrot behaviour, otherwise it's mixed signals, confusing her . This could take awhile, so patience is the word of the day. At least you know she wants you, right?

 

[LeaKP]

Yes, my gccneeded to speak with me and I spoke with her. She also enjoyed background noise, music, tv... my gcc was, unusually after time, my quietest bird ever. I miss her!

 

[LordTriggs]

that is 100% a flock call. It's not unique to you, that's what all birds do.

Wrench is 100% correct. My GCC quickly learnt loud shouts made nothing happen but if he started doing little chirrups and clucks he would get my attention. It will take time now that yours has established the loud flock call but give it time and patience.

Do remember too that when they're just about to kick the habit they will suddenly crank it up to 11 just to see if it works

 

[OneHorseRanch]

I;m always telling my daughter not to respond to the screams and screaming back at him only tells him that he just taught you to respond in the same manner. It's irritating! and to make it worse she will sometimes get him while he's screaming. So nothings really consistent on her end. I will only respond with the same kind whistles and chirps, but the screams get to be unbearable at times. Good luck with that. I use ear plugs

 

[snowflake311]

My Aunts Glodden Capped conure does this and he is REALLY Loud. He gets going and will not stop. He is a very hormonal bird.

We had a Cockatiel that learned annyoing screams got her attention and we never broke her of that habit. Your comment "I don’t know how to get her to stop other than pick her up and let her poop all over me, which gets old too." Makes you sound like you are not a bird person. How long have you had birds?

Screaming is very hard to break Trying everything you can not let it becoming a habit in the start. Where did the bird come from?

 

[MonicaMc]

What do you want your conure to do instead?

How can you teach her to do that behavior?


Could she... be foraging? Playing with toys? Learning new behaviors? Or?

Maybe it would help to give her frequent bathes?

Or perhaps it would be a good idea to recall and target train her with her flights grown in? That way, you could exercise her until she tires out?

 

[Djbred18]

What I would like her to do instead is to not squeal every 2-3 seconds for what seems like eternity when I am not in the room

 

[Sunnyclover]

Birds don't like to be left alone (or without you) if they KNOW you're home. We have a pet cam for Ollie and I know if I go upstairs without him he'll go insane but if I leave the house he doesn't make a peep. You just need to make spots for her in your house so you can always have her close to the you if that's what she needs. I have play stands, tree stands or a cage in the rooms I'm in the most so Ollie can come with me. Also, what's this about her crapping all over you? Birds crap...that's what they do. My Ollie is potty trained and it's wonderful, I haven't been pooped on in 6 months and neither has anything in my house. It takes some effort to potty train but is very rewarding for everyone! The play stands and stuff around the house help with the potty training because you'll have more places to set them down to go potty when they need it. Personally it wouldn't occur to me to want to leave Ollie in another room especially since he's be clipped and can't get to me on his own...he loves me and miss me like Piper loves and misses you!

 

[LordTriggs]

patience is the key here

correcting this kind of behavior can take months of consistent work. Give in to her once and she wins, and she will think "oh I have to do it MORE to get a response".

Yes birds poo, you poo, dogs poo, cats poo even fish poo. Welcome to life as a carbon based life-form. It's really not the apocalypse, I'd definitely prefer to have a little conure poo on me than many other creatures.

Ultimately these behaviors you're describing are a parrot being a parrot, you've taught her to go to the extreme of the calling but these are things that you should have been warned of/taken into account when researching. I get that after time yes it weighs on anyone's nerves to have a noise like that being made but it is your responsibility to change that behavior and mitigate it, not meaning to be mean here but that is the truth. Like I say it takes a long time to change a behavior and you need to be consistent. You've barely given her 2 weeks to alter a behavior she has known for what I assume to be months. It may take more time correcting the behavior than she took to ingrain it into her head. I get you're frustrated but seriously, deep breathe, go take a walk, whatever calms you down then you get back on the horse.

Of course as well why not when you're home just let her out of her cage so she can do her own thing. If she's clipped it may be an idea to let her flight feathers grow out so she can fly around and get where she wants to be, I don't know how my conure would have coped if he was clipped, most likely he would have gone to screaming for me so that could be part of it? If so until then why not make little "birdy highways" using bits of rope and stuff hanging from the ceiling so she can move around all she wants?

 

[Carl_Power]

My Quaker used to scream too for a while. I would ignore it or go out the room until it stopped and then come back in once he was quiet. It took some time but now he has learned he doesnt need to scream for no reason. He will get plenty of tlc anyway.

They are so smart, they will learn, it just takes abit of time and patience so dont give up and good luck x

 

[clark_conure]

I've found giving clark a signal that I'm just going for a minute can work, maybe a third of the time. Hopefully this will increase. Like if I leave the lights on he knows I'll BRB. If I turn the lights off he knows I'm off to work.

I also just talk to him and explain whats going on, he may not understand but he seems to kinda get my brb voice and I'm sorry I'm going for a while voice.

 

[LeaKP]

Nigel doesn’t like for me to be gone either. He won’t scream but he will be clingy. He will chatter and chatter when i return as if to give me a what for.


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