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Sun Conure Screaming

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

Sun Conure Screaming

Postby BridgetTracy » Tue Jul 19, 2016 7:27 pm

Well... :lol: Puff has started screaming now. In the morning he will make these soft noises that don't bother me but if I sit up in the bed to get my glasses off the table he starts screaming. I know he just wants to be fed and taken out but the screaming is a bit excessive. So I walk out of the room (blind :lol: ) and wait until he is silent for 10 seconds. I walk back in and if he stays quiet while I walk to the cage I give him a treat. That isn't normally the case. I walk in and he starts screaming more (also I taught him to dance so I see him dancing on his perch screaming :lol: ). I keep leaving and re entering until he is quiet and I can make it to his cage without him screaming. That started the 3rd morning, and he was pretty quiet the rest of the day. The 4th morning he did the same thing. But the rest of the day, if I left the room he would starts screaming. So I tried to ignore it until he was quiet for 10 seconds and I would go back in the room. Again he would scream once I came in so I repeated that for at least 15 minutes until he wouldn't scream when I came to the cage,and I would reward him. The 5th day of having him (today) it got worse. Now I have to wait outside the door until he would be quiet for 10 seconds at least 10 minutes and once he was, the whole process of going in, he screams, I leave, I come back in, he screams, continued for 30 minutes. Now it is at the end of the day and we have to go somewhere. So I put him in the cage and gave him dinner. I walked out and he was screaming. This time I had to get ready so I didn't wait by the door until he was quiet for 10 seconds. The screaming went non stop for 30 minutes (at the least) while we were leaving. Im in the car right now so he could still be screaming as I type this. Also if I try to go anywhere in the house (besides my room) he will scream. And he is on my shoulder so that hurts my ears. The screaming doesn't happen that often since he is out of his cage 5-8 hours a day and he is rarely in his cage. He also screams when I leave the room and he isn't in the cage. For example I had to go get something from my bathroom so I left him on my bed and ran to the bathroom and back. He screamed while I was gone( I was gone less than 15 seconds). I am pretty sure I can never get him to completely stop screaming but I would at least like to reduce it, or stop it from getting any worse. I'm assuming there is a better way to stop this than mine lol. Thank you :sun:
BridgetTracy
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Sun Conure
Flight: No

Re: Sun Conure Screaming

Postby Wolf » Wed Jul 20, 2016 7:07 am

Answer him when he screams or calls for you. Answer him everytime he calls. Do not ignore him, he is not screaming to irritate you although it does and few birds can compete with the high pitched screaming of a sun conure, some can scream louder but still not as head splitting as the sun conures scream.

You could answer him with a simple two note whistle which he will pick up and use to call for you. You can also answer him with words that you may need to say a bit louder than normal at first until he figures out that he does not need to scream so loud.

These will reduce the screaming over time, but I don't know of anything that will totally eliminate it. These two screaming events that you describe are called flock calls and contact calls and they are both quite normal for the bird.

For the longest time I joined in with my birds in their morning flock calls while they announced their presence to the whole world( at least it sounded that way to me), now although we talk in the mornings the screamfests are not very often.

As for the contact calls, they occur anytime that I leave the room, but because I did not ever ignore them and always calmly answered them, they are within a normal ( for me ) vocal range. I did not and still do not come running when my birds call for me. I know that they are safe, so I answer them and then I go and check on them when I can. I do not ever try to fool them, they know if I am in the house or if I am outside and still at home or if I have gone somewhere. In fact, if I leave I tell them that I am leaving and will be back as soon as I can.

I have experimented with them enough to know that they know the difference of me trying to hide my presence from them or when I am actually somewhere else and can't come right away. It must be their incredible hearing. They have to have amazing hearing to pick out one birds sounds out of 40 or 50 pairs of other screaming birds, and I read once that they hear storms approaching even a day or so before the storm arrives. So they know if you are waiting outside their door when they are calling for you and that must make them scream even more as they don't know why you won't just answer them.

I could go on about how dangerous it is to be a lone parrot in the wild and how calling for the flock or your mate could get you killed and other things of that nature, but it is easier to just say do not ignore your bird when he calls for you, don't go running to him unless his scream is showing fear and pain, just answer him and in time this screaming will improve.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
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African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: Sun Conure Screaming

Postby Pajarita » Wed Jul 20, 2016 1:24 pm

I am sure that somebody told you to ignore the 'bad' behavior (screaming) and reward only 'good' behavior and that's the reason why you walk out and wait for him to shut up before you go back in but, my dear, would you do the same thing with a baby who, waking up and finding himself all alone, starts crying? Because that is, in essence, the reason why he screams. He is afraid and he is calling for you, his source of security, his companion.

I am not scolding you because I realize that you are trying your best and simply applying what seems to be a good training technique to eliminate something that could be a problem but I have to tell you that it saddens me something terrible when people give this very wrong and extremely unkind advice to people who don't know how to deal with parrot screams. Parrots don't scream when they are alone because they are bad or because they are asking for a luxury, they scream because nature programmed into their brains that they need to be with their flock ALL THE TIME. Constant company is not something they want, it's something they NEED. Some parrots are more vocal and louder than others and sun conures are one of those species whose screams can become a problem (jendays, sundays, quakers, cockatoos, GCCs are also species that require special handling when it comes to company).

I have taken in big time screamers and my way of 'curing' them is to pay attention to them every single time they call for it. It has never made sense to me why people think that leaving a highly social species all alone and ignoring the bird's screams for help would solve the problem! To my mind, it seems much more logical to reassure the animal so it learns that it doesn't need to scream all the time for company because he is not all alone and, even if he is, there is no danger.

Freddy Too was a big time screamer - the bird screamed constantly, even when he could see me and even when I was right next to him (he would not scream if he was on me, though). This bird would scream all day long and even in the middle of the night if he heard a voice in another room - and believe me when I tell you that a sun conure screams are NOTHING compared to a cockatoo's! This went on for ten whole months and I thought my husband was going to throw him and me out the window :lol: . He had lived 21+ years screaming all the time he was alone (which was every day of the work week and some weekends too, because his previous owners had their own moving business) so, to him, screaming was a way of life. But slowly but surely, he realized he did not need to scream because he was never again going to be alone and stopped. Nowadays, he now calls in the morning and sometimes during the day but it's a matter of seconds and the rest of the time you don't hear a peep out of him except a ByeBye or a Hello? when he hears somebody outside the birdroom.

I also have a sun conure now, I've had three in total as well as jendays, quakers and a sunday, and, again, no screams from any of them. Why? Because they are not afraid.

So, please, pay attention to him instead of walking away, comfort him and show him that you love him and he can count on you, that he is not alone, that he doesn't need to scream for help. Think of him as a baby and act as you would if this was your own child.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Flight: Yes

Re: Sun Conure Screaming

Postby BridgetTracy » Wed Jul 20, 2016 2:38 pm

I guess I didn't think about it that way. Thank you for telling me. I will start responding.
BridgetTracy
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Sun Conure
Flight: No


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