How to try to stop my bird screeching every time I leave

[Nualahoops]

Hello , I have a cockatoo who is lovely . I am home all day doing bits and bobs , every time I walk out of the room where olly can't see me , he starts loud screeching until I return . I have gone upstairs and left him for a while whilst I'm cleaning and he does quiet down after a while , and if I go to the shops I say bye bye so he hopefully will get to know I'll be abit longer, will he calm down abit when he trusts I won't leave him. I am his 3rd owner , the last one only had him for 3 weeks (and I'm not sure how well he had been treated). Any advice please . Donna

[Cockatielsongs]

Yes my cockatoo does that as well, but I don't return to him until he has stopped, otherwise your cockatoo will learn that screeching will make you come back, maybe he is just calling you to make sure you arent totally leaving, I just call back to my too I say "Bandit!" (My cockatoos name) and he stops. Try just calling back to you too, but don't come back until he has stopped.

[Cockatielsongs]

Yes my cockatoo does that as well, but I don't return to him until he has stopped, otherwise your cockatoo will learn that screeching will make you come back, maybe he is just calling you to make sure you arent totally leaving, I just call back to my too I say "Bandit!" (My cockatoos name) and he stops. Try just calling back to you too, but don't come back until he has stopped.

[janetafloat]

I'm sure the others are right - you can not encourage the screeching - but I don't think you can stop it, or at least, if you can perhaps someone could tell me how! My Sennie makes an unholy racket when I leave (hard to imagine that such a small bird could make such a big noise) and I doubt he's doing it the whole time I'm gone but he often is still doing it when I return. Perhaps he hears my car in the driveway?

[Pajarita]

This is not a bad habit. Nor is it anything that can really be changed. People will give you all kinds of suggestions but the truth is that parrots were created by nature to have a large flock around them. It makes them feel safe and happy which been alone does not. Cockatoos in particular are VERY needy in that sense (they don't only want you there where they can see you, they want you next to them, preferably his body touching yours) and that's why they are the most 'given up' species of parrots as well as one of the species that is most prone to plucking and self-mutilation. Some of them resign themselves to the fact that they will be lonely most of their lives but it's not that they 'learn' not to scream or that they no longer need the company. They just kind of give up and suffer in silence -which is not good, in my personal opinion- and some of them turn to plucking and self-mutilation in their despair and loneliness.

You can try leaving a radio on (no TV, it makes them produce too many low alpha waves) or giving him a 'snuggly' he can lean on but please keep in mind that company, to a parrot, is not a luxury or a choice, it's a necessity. And this is not my opinion, it's the way nature made them.

[janetafloat]

So true. The reality is, the very creatures that we want as pets, because they're sociable, are the very ones that will be lonely on their own for that very reason. I am so aware of that. My dog has separation anxiety so I take her everywhere with me, as much as possible. It pains me that I can't do that with my parrot, yet anyway, though at least I make sure I don't leave him for long periods, and really do arrange my life around my furred & feathered companions to a large degree.

[pennyandrocky]

pajarita is right. rescues are full of cockatoos and grays because people don't know just how needy they are. the rescue i adopted mya from is bringing me another in a few weeks. a 30 year old citron with a plucking problem.

[Nir]

Both my sennie and budgie does that but I just accepted. Honestly the "don't reinforce it by answering their calls" really does nothing. Usually when I leave my room it's to go to gym and I have been told they continue it. Eventually they stop. So I fully accept it. Not like it's loud. They just make low pitched calls to me so it's not bad.

[janetafloat]

They just make low pitched calls to me so it's not bad

Really? Alfie has a contact call that's what I imagine a Pterodactyl must have sounded like, it's an unholy shriek! Not that I mind, there's no-one to be disturbed by it and since my house is so small (i.e. I don't have an upstairs to disappear off to) it only happens when I go out. I love most of his sounds and calls, he's such a cutie.

[Nir]

They just make low pitched calls to me so it's not bad

Really? Alfie has a contact call that's what I imagine a Pterodactyl must have sounded like, it's an unholy shriek! Not that I mind, there's no-one to be disturbed by it and since my house is so small (i.e. I don't have an upstairs to disappear off to) it only happens when I go out. I love most of his sounds and calls, he's such a cutie.

Ya it's not bad. But when I don't answer his low pitched ones in awhile, he will in occasion maker the louder call but then go back to the lower ones. My budgie is actually louder.