The parrotlet curse

[BirdSquawk]

As I'm sure we all know, parrotlets have the charming quirk of HATING the sound of plastic bags rustling. Jack will start vocalizing as loud as possible whenever he hears it...as well as the sound of clothes rustling, paper crinkling, wrappers being opened, letters being opened, ect, ect, ect...I feel like I'm walking on eggshells whenever the rest of the house is sleeping and I'm trying to get dressed and out the door

Has anyone had any experience desensitizing their parrotlets to the sound? I'm sure I could live with it but it would be nice to be able to put my pants on without a small animal complaining about it

 

[Loz]

Fortunately, there's only one thing from your list that Dora isn't fond of is... the rustling of plastic bags LOL. I found this out when she nipped me and began huffing

 

[GaleriaGila]

Sorry (not sorry) but I had to chuckle at the idea of you tiptoeing around easing your clothes on, so as to avoid an early-morning circus!

Honestly, I'm never sure whether squawking means they hate a sound or love it!

You're asking a really hard (and eternal) question about how to quiet a parrot.

Maybe some parrotlet parronts will have more thouhts for you.

Good luck, and happy tiptoeing!

 

[BirdSquawk]

I'm thinking it's aggression because he raises his feathers and nips at me. Don't get me wrong, it's adorable and I really don't mind putting up with it, but I don't want to get him worked up and aggressive if I could help it.

The only thing that comes to mind is getting him used to the sound by rustling something, then waiting for him to calm down and rewarding him. Of course, he's been known to scream and carry on for several minutes, sooooo...might want to invest in some softer clothes and cloth resealable bags!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Parrots can be such a mystery to us... I mean, they aren't even MAMMALS! They hatch out of EGGZSZSZSZS!
I applaud your creative thinking. I suspect the only way to KNOW is to TRY stuff. I'd say, be sure to wait 15 seconds or so without noise before rewarding... you make sure you're not rewarding the squawks!
Onwards!

 

[LordTriggs]

of course outside of aggression he could be protecting you from the evil monster that's attacking! My conure did that to me once with a hoody I was wearing, feathers flared head waving round then chomp chomp chomp. Had no idea what it was until the next day

 

[AkridChaos]

Hmm... I suppose in my experience, the rapid chirping and flying around and head bobbing and spunky attitude and a general curious look, means bird is happy and wants to play with what I have. In my case it’s usually anything bell. Never got around to crinkling paper but knowing my bird if I did, she’d come flying up to it, tweeting away, expecting to play with it by either headbutting it or a quick peck or putting little birdie beak holes in it while tweeting away.

Now if she’s suddenly raising her feathers up, maybe going into a posture where wings are outstretched and beak starts to open, that’s anger, or “I’m threatened”. If your bird is doing this, and not tweeting around happily, then yes, your bird hates it. I don’t exactly have any tips on what you can do to get your parrotlet to accept such a noise. Maybe find a noise your bird likes (like a bell) add it to play time, then add the other noise too (in your case, clothes). See if you can coax your bird into realizing it’s ok and can be fun, instead of needing to go into attack mode on you. Can’t guarantee it would help. Just a thought. Won’t stop the tweeting, but it can change how your bird is expressing himself in the moment. Instead of flaring up to attacking, he’s whizzing around to play.

 

[tanyamitchellrn]

My Parrotlet freaks like that with the rustle of a package or bag or even my purse because he thinks he’s going to get a treat. The goofball looks like he’s on crack. I haven’t tried to stop it, but have noticed he stops when I take him out. Do you have another perch in the house you can take him to in the morning while getting ready? Our Ringneck is SUPER chatty in the morning and there is no such thing as sleep once she’s up. So.... the first one up takes her downstairs with them.


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[Inger]

I don't have an answer. Bumble gets worked up about any plastic bag, I think mostly because treats come out of them. However, her arch-nemisis is the spinach bag - if she's with me when I so much as reach into the fridge for it, the chaos starts. It's hysterical. I have been known to encourage it. And once I got a pretty hard chomp for my efforts. Of course, I live (almost) alone so it's not bothering anyone else. I keep meaning to get video of it, actually - Parrotlets are so relatively quiet that when she starts in on the spinach bag, and she's SO loud, it really amuses me.

I may be a mean parront.