Still Having Problems With Paco Screaming Uncontrollably

[Paco]

Paco Is My 5 Yr Old Blue & Gold Macaw That we Rehomed, Because Of Behavior Problems!
We have Been Working With Him So Hard! Doing Everything You All Had Suggested in the introduction in the Forum Section!
We Have Had Him For 1 month & A few days & Sometimes He Seems Like Paco Is Getting Worse Than Better!
Any More Suggestions Are Gladly Taken! He Also seems that He Is More Attached To My Husband, But sometimes lets me kiss his beak!
The Screaming can Be Deafening and Nerve wracking!
Paco Is % and in His Height Of sexual Maturity! He Has a Great Diet fresh foods & Vegetables & some seeds. The Couple we got him from says He Has Regurgitated for 3 years every since he had Paco! How Can This Be. He does not look or act sick at all!
He acts like his been in the war and has terrible flashbacks. Because He Can be doing so well and acting like a well behaved parrot then just goes crazy sometimes staying that way the rest of the day! So we have to cover it!

[Wolf]

I am glad that you have got him on a better diet. Have you put him on a solar light schedule? If not you really need to put him on it. Briefly a solar light schedule is one in which he is exposed to the predawn twilight and gets up with the sun and is exposed to dusk and goes to bed at full dark. This is what sets their biological clock and resets their endocrine system which controls almost every other system in the birds body.
Now if this bird is hormonal and has been hormonal for this long then he is in tremendous pain which accounts for the screaming. Allow me to explain what happens that results in this type of pain.
When the bird reaches sexual maturity and goes into breeding mode the blood supply and hormones kick in and cause his sexual organs to grow larger and you need to understand that they are all on the inside of the birds body and when they swell it puts pressure on not only the sexual organs but on everything else as well. This includes lungs, heart , liver, kidneys, intestines and everything else. The problem with this develops when the bird can not get sexual relief and/ or remains in breeding mode after breeding season passes as the hormones and blood supply keep making these organs get larger and larger until it kills the bird in horrible agony.
This is what causes the screaming. There is no quick or easy fix for this as it takes a solar light schedule as well as a proper diet to control this. Now with as long as this has gone on I would take the bird to an avian vet and see if they can give him something that will help. I don't know what they can do but the only way to keep this from recurring is what we have said.

[Pajarita]

The only thing an avian vet would recommend is Lupron or an equivalent and I would NEVER recommend anybody using any of these products. They were created for mammals (dogs to be exact) and used as a contraceptive because it makes sexual hormone production soar so the body, realizing something is VERY wrong, shuts it off completely. The problem with it (aside from the fact that further messing up an already messed up endocrine system is not a solution) is that it doesn't work for all birds and, even for the birds that work, it doesn't work long term so, at best, you get a temporary palliative which doesn't really solve the problem at all, it just makes the symptoms disappear for a while. The only way to do it naturally and long term is to put them on a solar schedule. It's free and it works like a charm because it's the 'control' that nature set into the system. But it takes time because a messed up endocrine system (and that bird has it all messed up for sure if he has been regurgitating for three years!) takes time to go back in tune with the seasons. And I am talking months and months... I took in a screamer, myself. A Lesser Sulfur cockatoo so I well know the pterodactyl screams you are talking about - and it took me ten months to stop the torture. And this implied not only a fresh food diet (good for you and better for your bird that you have accomplished this!) and a solar schedule but hours and hours of keeping him company until he could be put in the birdroom where he now lives cage-free with other parrots.

Now, people will tell you the solution is to absolutely ignore the screams but, personally, I think that's a terribly cruel thing to do to a poor animal which is physically and emotionally suffering. Does it work? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't but, even when it does, it does not solve the bird's problem, it simply taught him/her that no matter how much he/she screams for help, it will not be forthcoming. Not a good commentary on the 'love' we say we have for them, is it?

[Paco]

Thank You For All Your Help! I am worried now about his pain he is in! What makes parrots get so messed up on this hormonal problems in the 1st. place? What would cause him to have it for 3 yrs.? I was wondering where I could get more information on this Hormonal problems? We got Paco from a young man. I would say in his mid 20's. I cannot seem to get much information on Paco from him. He said he Got him from a man when he was 2 yrs old and he has had him 3 yrs. I asked him what was Paco's name when you got him from the man? He says I don't know I named Him Paco? I just thought that was very odd and nothing more said about the other man he got Paco from,what kind of life he had no history.

[Wolf]

While I am not sure that I believe the young man, nothing can be done about that. But to answer your question about what causes this, first is a diet that is too high in proteins and fats and possibly sugar, combine that with a human light schedule, ie., exposure to artificial lights after the time when the bird would normally be asleep thereby fooling the birds system into thinking that it is breeding season long after it is over.
I don't have the links to give you on this computer, but if no one has given you any by the time I get to the other computer, I will post some for you.

[Pajarita]

Read through this and, if you have questions or doubts after, please feel free to let us know.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12386&hilit=photoperiodism