gcc freaking out

[charlieggc]

hi, im new and i just had to write this post. im worried about my green cheek conure. these days hes been freaking out alot, screaming constantly over and over again NONSTOP when nobodies with him, etc. i dont know what to do. ive tried making him new toys and taking him out when im able to but he continues with the screaming. i have school so i cant be with him 24/7 and im worried its going to affect him even more. he seems to be getting more stressed, i dont want him to start plucking out his own feathers. any tips on how to calm him down?

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum and I am sorry your bird is so unhappy! But, without more information, it's impossible to figure out why so tell us: how old is the bird? Gender? How long have you had it? What is his diet? Light schedule? Clipped or flighted? How many hours of out-of-cage and how many of one-on-one? Let me explain why the answers are important. Parrots are photoperiodic - which means their endocrine system (what regulates their sexual hormonal production among MANY other things) is governed by light so, when you keep them at a human light schedule instead of a bird light schedule, they produce sexual hormones all the time which ends up giving the bird chronic pain and causing terrible sexual frustration. Same thing happens when you feed them too much protein - and, as GCCs mostly eat fruit in the wild, they require a VERY low protein/fat diet. Clipped birds are insecure, anxious birds (because the only mechanism they have to avoid danger has been taken away from them) and flying is the ONLY way their body can get rid of the bad hormones (sexual and stress) in their bloodstream. Then you have the fact that GCCs are INTENSELY needy birds! People see them small and think they are easy to care for but, in reality, they need many more hours of one-on-one than many other species (I always compare them to cockatoos in this respect).

I have two female GCCs right now but cared for males in the past, too. Now, one of my GCCs, Codee, is a 'pet' one, she was handraised by the breeder so she imprinted to people. The other one is parent raised, she lived under not too good conditions at the breeder before I adopted her when she was already an adult and she came to me all plucked, very high-strung and fearful of people - and she also screamed. Codee never screams, never bites, doesn't pluck and it is the sweetest bird but she is out of her cage from 6:30 am (when she goes on my shoulder), goes back into it to eat her breakfast at 8:15 am more or less (when overhead lights go on), stays in her cage for half an hour and then comes out again (to my shoulder) until 2 pm when she goes back into her cage (lights off at 3:30 pm, dinner at 4:15 pm more or less). Annie follows the same schedule but she is never on my shoulder (although she does perch on my arms and head where she preens my hair when she thinks I am not paying attention) and, although she still plucks, she now only has two 'bad' spots only (between her shoulder blades and one teeny tiny spot to the left of her chest, right under her neck) and she never screams any more. She doesn't get personal attention from me aside from my talking to her but she shares her cage with Codee and she loves Epuish Caique (they preen and kiss each other) so she is not lonely. So, it's a matter of the right diet, the right light schedule, flight and the right amount of attention (depending on whether the bird is human-imprinted or parent-raised).

So tell us what the conditions are for your bird and we should be able to tell you how to improve its conditions so its happier and stops screaming.