Exessive screaming! Dont know what to do

[Suzanne_Oeid]

Hi there
I've had rio for a few months now and he was never like this so im guessing its something we taught him unconsciously. I understand they like to vocalise in the morning and afternoon

He now screams the minute i walk out of the room, when i take him out of his cage he starts to talk and you can start to hear the excitement in his voice and he then gets into that bobbing flight position and screams like crazy (never use to do this) i use to be able to leave him in his room out of the cage and walk out like normal he would stay quiet and play, now even in his room (his saftey comfort zone) he screams! Not only when i leave the room, when we are sitting together he screams. Im currently teaching him flight retreat and even his training sessions are different, he looses focus and gets very very excited and screams. I cant take him outside because he gets too loud even though i would love to because its horrible being stuck in that room all day. I dont know what to do anymore, and its really starting to get frustrating. His cage and his room is not a quiet zone anymore

I've tried walking in only when hes quiet or when he screams to put him back in his cage and shut the lights and walk away. All these little things but nothing is making a difference.

Would really appreciate your advice
Thank you

[Wolf]

Let's start with : How old is he now? What is his current diet, what and when do you give him to eat? What is his daily schedule both light schedule and activity schedule? How much time do you spend with him daily?
I think that these will tell us for sure what is going on.
Depending on his age we may be looking at hormones starting to kick in. In which case you will need to adjust his light schedule and probably his diet and then be patient while his system corrects itself.
This could be that he is lacking the attention that he needs and craves, which based on what you have said is where I would place my money. I do not have any of this species of parrot so I don't really have any experience and I don't think that I will be getting any to gain the experience so I will share what I have learned from reading about them and talking with people that do have Cockatoos and let those with these birds confirm or correct me.
Cockatoos are beautiful birds and are probably the most cuddly and affectionate of the many species of parrot, this is what most people find so endearing about them. Some people think that it is because of how deeply that they bond with their human, I think it is their bonding as well as their personality combined. That in many respects is really a moot point, though. What is important is that it is like a two edged sword or a knife with a blade on both ends as the very thing that attract humans to them is the source of most of their problems and can lead to excessive screaming, feather and self mutilation, aggressiveness to name a few things. It can also make them extremely dangerous as their bite, even a light nip can be an emergency room adventure for a human. They are also highly excitable and you don't really want them to get too excited as that can easily lead to nips and bites. Well so much for what I have learned about this type of bird.
I think that you are going to have to find a way to spend more time with this bird before your troubles get worse. I am sure that he would not mind as he will happily spend most of his time lounging around on you for hours upon hours especially if you toss in some head scratches and the occasional treat. From what I have gathered, if he doesn't have a mate then most people end up letting them run about the house with them even though they are very destructive and will quickly reduce your home to sawdust without constant supervision. The judicious placement of play areas throughout the home with plenty of wood for them to destroy may help you, but the thing that he wants more than anything else is the closeness of your person. although I don't know that it will help you can try to teach them to whistle rather than to scream.
I hope that this will help or at least point you in the right direction.

[Pajarita]

Also, how long have you had him? Because it could very well be that the only thing that changed is that he is now over his honeymoon period. If you answer both mine and Wolf's questions, we might be able to give you a few pointers (I have two Lesser Sulfur Crested toos and had a citron as well as two umbrellas so I well know what you mean by the constant screaming )

[Suzanne_Oeid]

Thanks for both your replies back
He is 3 and a half, i provide him with all kinds of fruits, veggies and some times pellets and seeds, also cooked rice and lentils.
I've had him for about 5 months now, trained him a few tricks, he speaks a little now he know hello and hi poopoo lol that was a fun one to discover because we call him that and he picked up on it.
He isn't a fan of my family, just a few he is alright with.

His schedule is pretty dual due to the screamimg so he is stuck in a room thats dark so i always have the lights on for him, plus the windown in the room, he is on the ground level of the house. I cant take him upstairs or outside, considering he now screams in his room so he looses it outside. The crappy thing is our main family seating area is upstair and i always take him up to sit with us to get him involved and around the family but end up having to return him.
I do think i spend less time with him now due to this problem because of the things I've been reading up on to get him to reduce the screaming.

I too think its to do with lack of attention and boredom, when you said to have plenty of wood around for him, just laying on the floor? Or around in his cage? I dont mind him on the floor tends to keep him quiet but when i leave him on the floor upstairs he screams. Its to the point i cant leave him infront of an open door or window, would have to close the blinds. The minute he sees outside or is outside he screams, maybe thats because he is in that room most of the time? I don't know. But we have elderly neighbors so that's not fair for them. Would love to leave him in the backyard on the grass and play, I've tried many times but ends badly.

One other thing as you mentioned they are very cuddly, he is too very adorable but then it just clicks with him and he gets over excited, i allow him on my shoulder i trust that he won't do anything but now he screams while on my shoulder and gets excited and starts bobbing (never use to do the screaming part)so maybe not such a good idea, just been keeping him on my lap but he is always trying to climb up.

[Wolf]

It really sounds to me as if he is both hormonal and lacking in attention. I would supply wood block maybe a couple in his cage, a couple on the floor in his room and keep a couple where you can get to them easily where ever you might take him other than his room. He needs to receive the light that occurs at twilight both in the morning at dawn and in the evening at dusk. This will reset his internal biological clock to what it should be. Make sure that when you pet him that it is only on the head, neck or beak and in his current state I would be very careful about him being able to reach your face.
We could really use more in depth information on his diet so as to make sure it is not too high in protein.
I am not sure how to advise you on getting him more attention due to your family situation. I do not think that it would be uncommon for him to bond with you and not want anything to do with other people, but I don't know.

[Suzanne_Oeid]

i will definitely provide him with more wood blocks to keep him busy, thanks for that
i give him mostly apples, carrots, celery, cucumber and tried tomatoes but he didn't like it. for pellets im using Harrison's bird food, high potency coarse he just got on this recently he got a little ill and thats what was recommended by the vet. the average bird seeds a mix of nuts and dried fruits, trying to lay off sunflower seeds as i was giving him way too much and for the lentils he loves chickpeas, favabeans but ive i got two different opinions about that so i put like 3 in his bowl, he doesnt really like them anyway. Also the brown and yellow lentils, i cook them in with white rice that is only sometimes.

[Wolf]

I like celery, but don't give it to my bird as it is mostly just water and fiber and not much as for nutrition. I haven't given my birds any dried fruit because of the sulfites that are used to keep them looking pretty so we humans will eat them, although I am considering changing this as I do have my own food dehydrator and do know how to build larger solar dryers. I just haven't gotten around to doing it , yet.
It looks to me like their is a lot of protein foods in the diet that you are feeding, but as I am not sure how much protein that cockatoos require, I had best let Pajarita take the lead on this , although I am thinking that they don't require all that much.

[Suzanne_Oeid]

Oo thats sounds cool, good luck with that, thanks for your help wolf
if you dont mind me asking this random question, off topic
how do you keep the area clean where your birds are located or if you take them to lets say the lounge in the house without making a mess?

no matter what i try to do, for instance putting these rubber mats under the cage and his stand he always seems to get around it, throwing food everywhere, poopy dropping everywhere. always results in major cleaning 2 times a week or more. someone suggested extending the frame and base of the cage to catch anything thrown around but how about when hes out of the cage? i dont mind it, cant blame him but would love to reduce the mess

[Wolf]

All of my bird live in the living room, which is where I spend most of my time, but no matter where I am I have either a roll of toilet tissue or I have some folded up in a pocket and clean up right away when they poop.

[Pajarita]

In my personal opinion and experience, toos need A LOT of attention and constant entertainment. Now, this 'constant entertainment' doesn't necessarily have to be a person playing with them, it could be other birds. I have two lesser sulfur cockatoos but poor Linus has only been here a few months and he has deep wounds in his soul, I think, so I won't use him as an example. Freddy, on the other hand, has been here for a couple of years now and is now very much settled in his new home and routine so I will tell you about him.

He was 21 years old when he came to me, his owners had severe medical issues which made them lose their business and home so they had to move in with her brother who would not take Freddy because he was a screamer - BIG TIME! He also plucked his legs but that is neither here nor there. Freddy loved his owners but he only saw them at night, when they came home from work so he wasn't been kept at a strict solar schedule and, on the advice of his avian vet, he was been fed Harrison's High Potency (very high in protein) so the poor thing was not only overly hormonal, he was alone all day long. Result: constant and very loud screaming.

It took ten months for him to stop and, it might sound like a long time but considering that he had lived that way for 21 years, I don't think that it was that very long. It did seem long though because, as you have figured out, these birds are LOUD LOUD LOUD! I put his cage in my livingroom and, as I stay home, he pretty much spent many hours either on me or with me nearby. I answered every single scream, sometimes I would just walk up to his cage and talk to him for a while, sometimes I would take him out and allowed him to be on me. I kept him (as I keep all my birds) to a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk and immediately stopped feeding him the pellets, switching him to gloop and raw produce for breakfast and a seed/nut mix for dinner. As the months went by, he screamed less and less and I started bringing him into the birdroom with me. He had never seen other birds and it took a while for him to dare venture out on his own but, slowly and surely, he did until he moved in there. He still screamed a bit after that, especially when he heard voices outside the door (my husband always forgets to whisper in the evenings) but he eventually stopped. He lives cage-free in a room with other birds which also live cage-free, he gets pieces of wood to chew on and, most importantly, his beloved hard cardboard boxes in which he spends hours scratching and chewing the inside. He has his little routines that he, apparently, needs to feel good and which I accommodate (the jumping on my shoulders when I come in so we can have our 'love session', the 'papapapa' where he stands at my eye level and staring into my eyes, clicks his beak while I click my teeth in rhythm, my feeding him his 'salad' (the daily leafy greens - he is a GREAT eater) before any other birds gets anything, my swinging him from a towel while I go WEEEEEEEE... little things but important to him. He still makes his loud calls but they are short-lived and they mostly happen in the morning and evening, which is normal. Nowadays, when he hears our voices outside the door to the birdroom in the evenings, he says "ByeBye" a couple of times in a sweet soft voice and shuts up.

Now, I know that most people out there would tell you to ignore him when he screams and only go to him when he shuts up (they call it rewarding 'bad' behavior when you do) but I don't agree. The way I look at it, they don't scream because they are been 'bad', they scream because they NEED company, just like a baby would cry when left alone... out of fear, insecurity, loneliness. And I would never not answer a baby's cry. I think that, once they see that they do have company all the time, they stop screaming. It doesn't happen overnight but, in my personal experience, it happens if you are persistent and consistent - of course, this implies that you are there all the time, too! It's a lot of work, I won't deny that! But, aside from the ear splitting inconvenience of their screams, the fact that I think that they do it out of anxiety, loneliness, fear of been alone kind of breaks my heart so I really can't see myself just ignoring them.