mitred conure behaviour

[nuffz]

hey guys,
i have a redheaded mitred conure approx 12 years old , iv had him for about 3 years now. i rescued him from somebody that didn't have much time for him. Charlie was a very aggressive parrot when i 1st acquired him. His previous owner said nobody had ever handled him before as he was so aggressive, it took me about 6months of hard work to befriend him and now i cant leave the room without him going crazy. I can handle him without a problem iv tought him to play dead, a few words and whistles. I can lift his wings to check him etc. However he constantly screams when i leave the room and i have no idea how to stop it, i am in desperate need of help as i now have a baby on the way i cannot have him screaming and squawking everytime i leave the room. Has anyone got any advise for me i would greatly appreciate it. Also he has a very large cage and he is seldom locked in it. he spends most of his time on the top part and has many toys to play with.

[Pajarita]

This is a very, very, very common problem with parrots. We want them to love us but do not realize that their love for us has a price and I am afraid there is actually nothing you can do about his worrying about you and missing you (which is why he screams). He mate-bonded with you and nature decreed that mates should be together ALL THE TIME and, to a parrot, that means 24/7/365 because that's the kind of relationship nature evolved them to have with their mates. People will tell you to ignore his screams and only go back into the room when he is silent but, to be honest, it doesn't really work and all you are doing is frustrating him even more because they cannot unlearn an instinctual response. It's hardwired into their brains. Nature decreed that bonded parrots are with their chosen one all the time and your not been there will be resented after a while... and he might not forgive you for it (he will consider it a completely betrayal of your mutual love).

One thing you can do is make sure he is not hormonal because sexual hormones will make the situation worse so a good, fresh food diet with low protein, a strict solar schedule and lots of flying as well as strict routines (because, this way, you can time your 'been away' at times that are tolerated better by parrots like, for example, at noon, when they rest) will help.

[Wolf]

To add to Pajarita's reply you can also listen to your bird and pick out a whistle that he uses a lot of the time and when he calls to you answer with the whistle right off. Sometime this helps with the screaming issue as they can learn to whistle for you instead of screaming. The whistle is much more tolerable for most humans than the scream. It may help in this manner but it will not stop him from calling to you, just how he does it, but you must answer it.

[nuffz]

Thank you for your time to respond. I greatly appreciate it even if its not what i wanted to hear haha. His diet mainly consists of tropical seeds and fruit mixture. How would i be able to tell if he is hormonal? i try to keep him to a schedule as best as i can, i open his cage, feed and water him, before i go to work, when i get home i usual spend about an hour with him chasing him around his cage and dancing with him to try and give him as much exercise as i can. Although this can vary. I put him back in his cage when i go to bed again usual around the same time. He is very aggressive towards everybody else, i wonder if there is a way that i can train him to at least tolerate other people i wonder if this will help. I have no other experience with birds although he is very noisy i couldn't imagine parting with him when the baby arrives so i am willing to try everything no matter how small the results may be.///////// Wolf..... i have been answering his whistles with whistles but not his screams, i will start answering him all the time then thank you both

[Wolf]

More of those things that you don't want to hear, but must be said for the birds well being. Aggressiveness and screaming can both be caused by hormonal behaviors. Parrots are photoperiodic, which is a big word that means that light has a huge impact on their lives and is one of the things that trigger the breeding cycle in them. Food is another trigger for the breeding cycle. There are also other triggers but these are the two with the biggest impact on your bird.
We can explain this all in much more depth, if you want to read it, but I think that for now, I will just go into the remedy for a hormonal bird.
The first thing is to put the bird on the same light schedule as the birds that live outside experience. This is that without the interference from artificial lights that they are exposed to the predawn twilight, wake up around sunrise then at days end are exposed to the twilight period called dusk without artificial lights and are in bed by full dark. This resets there internal biological clock so that hormones are only produce at the right time for breeding to occur on a yearly cycle. It is a slow process but it is the only thing that works with the birds endocrine system and biological clock.
The next thing that needs to addressed is the diet. Parrots do eat seeds in their natural environment but it is to a much lesser degree than what we feed them. The seed diet is too rich in fat and protein to be fed all day long. Parrots need a diet consisting of whole grains, vegetables, fruit and leafy greens with a limited amount of seeds for their dinner.
Exercise, which for a bird means flying can help to reduce the level of hormones in the blood.
Make sure that you answer using the same whistle every time that you answer him or it doesn't seem to work as well.
I have five different species of parrots living together with me and I feed them all the same foods. They range from a parrotlet and a pair of budgies on up to an Amazon parrot.
I start their day by giving them a couple of fresh vegetables, a fruit, and a leafy green in the sizes and amounts appropriates to their sizes. I then feed them their breakfast, about an hour later, which is a cooked food that I make especially for them. It consists of cooked whole grains, cooked mixed vegetables and cooked white beans and lentils. They have enough of this food as well as the fresh foods to last them all day long and then I feed them a high quality seed mix for their dinner, which I remove from the cage at bed time.
Between this light schedule, this diet along with no inappropriate touching ( I only pet their head, beak and neck) my birds go into and out of breeding mode once a year. This has been a great way for reducing both screaming and aggression in my birds as well.

[nuffz]

once again thank you for taking the time to help me and my parrot;
inappropriate touching? I stroke Charlie on his complete front(from his claws upwards) i will have to stop this and only touch his head the same as you, also i do try and keep his exposure to light the same as if he was outside. My biggest concern now is his diet , I have tried him on pellets before but he wouldn't touch them, also he is very fussy with vegetables he won't eat anything green for some reason, as a matter of fact any REALLY strong coloured fruit or veg' he won't eat e.g green beans tomatoes and strawberries. Most dinner times i will try and give him something of my plate if i think its safe for him, this seems to make him feel more included and contempt, quite often he will eat at the same time we do. He particularly likes mash potato and the occasional small piece of bread/pizza crust. what are your views on this? I have read mixed opinions. I have not tried cooked white beans or whole grains i will try these. i will also remove the mixed seeds from his cage apart from at dinner time as you suggest.

[Pajarita]

Well, don't remove the seed mix until you are ready to start feeding him something else. I, like Wolf, also feed gloop (that's the name of the cooked whole grains, pulses and veggies dish he described and, if you look it up, you will find several threads with recipes in them from the easy supermarket one to the more complicated one) to everybody. The trick to switching a bird to a healthier diet is timing, presentation and persistence. If you take out his seeds after he goes to sleep and give him a 'starting gloop' (whole grains cooked al dente mixed with beans -meaning no veggies yet) mixed in with just a sprinkle of his usual seed mix in the morning, he will start by picking the seeds off but, in a day or two, he will start eating the whole grains, too (you will find little empty 'skins'). After a few days of this and when you see he goes for it without hesitation, you start adding veggies to it, one by one and VERY gradually. I always recommend starting with sweet corn because, from the tiny finches to the macaws, I don't know of a single bird which doesn't like it. Then you would add chopped broccoli or the peas and carrots and so on and so forth. I have transitioned hundreds of birds to gloop and have never had a single one that did not eat it. As to fruits and veggies, it's, again, a matter of persistence and presentation. Some things like, say, blueberries are just a matter of persistence (I had a gray that took 5 years to try her first blueberry) but with things like carrots, it's also a matter of presentation. My budgies will only eat the raw ones if I stick a whole one between the bars like a long conical perch but I have a gray that will only eat them if they are coarsely grated. I don't feed my birds any people food. I don't know about you but I eat crap compared to what my birds eat So no mashed potatoes for them but they do get organic potatoes. I usually buy the fingerlings that come in a bag and in different colors: purple, yellow and white and without peeling them (all the goodness is in the peel), I 'bake' them in the Potato Express microwave baggie, cut the larger ones in half and drizzle extra virgin olive oil on them - they love them! (and I do too so I always make some for me and save them until dinner )

Eating breakfast (it's the main meal for a bird) with them helps and, like I always say, raw green beans might not be what you would call my favorite breakfast (I actually hate them!) but I always eat one or two with them.

Conures are good eaters compared to other species so it should not be too hard to switch yours, it will just take time and a lot of produce ending up in the garbage but, if you keep at it, it will happen.

[nuffz]

Your right i am wasting a lot of food! he's starting to eat things he hadn't tried before. He also took to sweet corn straight away as you thought he might. i will be going to town this weekend and purchasing the ingredients for 'gloop'. i work 60 hours a week so things are going to take a bit of time as you say. carrots, broccoli he won't touch but again i will persist with them all, mix things up for him. Are there any toys in particular that might help him/enjoy? he has ropes swings babble balls etc, but iv read that they prefer less toys and just things he can destroy do you think this might be part of the problem? thanks again

[Pajarita]

I don't give my birds toys -well, the ones that live in the human areas have three each in their individual cages because they are also the only ones that are caged (the others live cage-free in the birdroom) and they hardly ever play with them - but they do chew stuff like rolled up unread catalogs (I get the free ones they give out in the supermarket, the ones for cars and homes), cardboard boxes, etc so, yes, try that, they do love to chew.