Continuous screaming by cockatiel?

[jessandbeaker]

Hey,

My cockatiel's behaviour has changed in the last few days and I'm starting to worry he might be sick. He has always been a bit of a screamer, especially in the morning on weekends when he decides it's time to get up. Normally I will give him his breakfast and that keeps him quiet for a bit. I've been trying to address the screaming by only taking him out of his cage when he is quieter, although that isn't always possible :/

However, now he screaming almost continuously. Most of the time he will still stop if he is on my shoulder but recently he has been screaming right in my ear which is deafening. He screams when he is on his playpen and on his window perch. I am absolutely at my wit's end and concerned we are going to get evicted because he is just SO loud. The only thing that seems to work is moving him from the living room into our bedroom and shutting the door. I don't like to do it, but sometimes when I have to work or the screaming is getting so much I worry about the neighbours getting mad I do what I have to do.

Could he be sick? Any other ideas on what this might be and how to handle it? Thanks!!!

[Pajarita]

Male tiels call continuously when they are in high condition and have no mate - that's why they call, they are trying to be heard by a female. Are you keeping yours to a strict solar schedule with full exposure to twilight or to a human light schedule? Because tiels are not what you would call very hormonal birds and they only call like you say when they are sexually frustrated.

[jessandbeaker]

He's on a human light schedule. In fairness now that I think about it he's had some interrupted sleeping time this week. I was considering maybe putting him in our bedroom when we put him to bed so he's not disturbed by the TV etc. Then we could put him to bed earlier too. Do you think this might help?

[Pajarita]

What helps is to keep them to a solar schedule with full exposure to twilight (lights off until the sun is up and after it starts to set allowing the bird to fall asleep naturally and wake up with the sunrise -think of chickens or the birds out in the trees). This makes the pineal gland send the right 'signals' for turning on and off the production of sexual hormones with the different seasons. Feeding them lower protein during the resting season (winter) helps too.

[marie83]

Whilst I agree with what Pajarita is saying 100% I would also suggest to you that you have reinforced the screaming by taking him out of the cage to quieten him down, thus he has learned that there is an increased chance of him being let out if he makes more noise. You can attempt to reverse it but it may take a long time and a huge amount of patience on your part, you will also need to do it in conjunction with the advice given above as far as possible.

**EDIT** Scrap that, just realised I mis-read what you put.

[jane19]

It's Spring where I live and my 10 month old tiel has also entered into his first hormonal phase. He could loud chirp (comparing to his flock call it's only chirping) for hours. He doesnt live in a cage so it's hard to do the light schedule thing. Once he take his frustration out on his favourite chair he remains quiet for the rest of the day. If he doesn't feel like that and continues to chirp, then doing some flight exercise helps a lot. A tired bird is a quiet bird I also heard that reduce high carb part of the diet may help, but haven't the need to try it.

[Pajarita]

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be dense but I don't understand why it's hard to keep a bird to a solar schedule because he is not in a cage. None of my healthy birds are in cages but they are all kept to a strict solar schedule... all you have to do is turn off the overhead lights and allow night to fall and not turn them on until the sky is lit.

[jane19]

Yes he is on 'natural' light schedule. He goes to bed at 7pm but night is still happened to be too short to cut off the hormonal effect. Or maybe it is just a teenage hormone overshoot thing? Sorry I meant unable to cover the cage early to give longer sleep etc in the previous post.

[Pajarita]

Ahhh, I see. Well, it is true that just like any other 'teenager' juvenile birds that are reaching their sexual maturity do have higher hormonal surges than adults but it might also have something to do with his protein intake as well as showers. I don't know what you feed right now but I always switch them back to a budgie mix after they finish their molt at the end of the summer. They get the seeds for dinner and only enough for them to fill their crop with no left-over (about a tablespoon each) for all day foraging they get gloop and raw produce -particularly leafy greens which they love. As to the showers, in the wild, tiels go into condition during the wet season so bathing them often makes them produce sexual hormones when they also have a rich diet (I only bathe them once a week after molt is done).