Screaming Eclectus

[Marsha]

Hi I'm Marsha and I'm the proud owner of 2 male eclectus parrots.
One named Phoenix and is now 1 year and 3 months old, the other one is called Phantom and is now 9 months old. They are both lovely parrots and very sweet. They dont bite and will step up for just about anybody. Phoenix even knows a few tricks.
They have been best friends from day one and even share a cage together.
The only problem I have with them is that they on various parts of the day will go into a screaming serenade. Most of the time its Phantom starting and at some point Phoenix starts to tag along.
Whenever I get home I take them out of the cage and to the livingroom where we have a big javatree for them full of ropes and toys to play with.
They don't seem to have a real reason to start screaming but they do and sometimes its eardeafening. When it gets too crazy I will take the biggest screamer to my time out cage in the hallway. Most of the time thats Phantom and than Phoenix will start again because he wants to go to his friend. Than after 5 minutes I will go get them and they will be quiet for 5 minutes and then start again. Sometimes I have to repeat the time out thing 2/3 times before they stop, sometimes they are quiet after the first time.
Dont get me wrong, I know they are parrots and they make noise but if only the eardeafening screaming would stop, I will be a happy person. They dont do it the whole time, but when they do it's very very loud because there's two of them and it goes on for like an hour. They dont respond to me walking in or out of the room so thats not the trigger. Frankly I dont have a clue what is..
I tried the whole ignoring thing already but that didnt seemed to work at all.
The funny thing is that I never heard them screaming when I was at home and they were in the cage, so maybe they dont like the tree?
I would like to know if there is a alternative for the time out cage. I read something about praising the sounds you do like, maybe thats something. They both dont talk (yet?)
If anyone has any tips or tricks I'd love to hear them!
(Sorry for any misspellings, I'm from the Netherlands)

[drif]

This is just a guess: since they are both male and the older one is at the mature stage I would say that he (Phoenix) is calling for a mate. It also sounds like Phantom is mimicing his older flockmate's behavior.

How long have they been together? If you are not interacting with them when they start calling then going over and picking them up to take them to the 'time out' room is probably reinforcing the screaming by your interaction. If I were in the room when it started but not playing with them at the time I would walk out of the room.

If you are gone for hours at a time try leaving public television on for them. My coworker has 5 birds and does this. She swears that it helps them pick up speech which may replace the screaming.

I would also try to put a mirror on the wall near the javatree to see if the other birds (reflections) will grab your fids' attention. This helped with my second conures screaming.

If none of this works. Start a diary and use the 'ABC' method of behavior modification. If you are not familiar with that process try googling 'antecendant, behavior, consequence'.

Or, you could just have a rowdy flock... good luck.

[Marsha]

We brought Phantom home when Phoenix was 9 months old, so they've been together for 6 months now. Phoenix might have hit puberty but he's not sexual mature yet, thats gonna take at least 1 or 2 years so I dont think he's calling for a girl. I know how a call sounds because thats what they do whenever they hear me coming up the stairs when I get home or whenever they arent in sightdistance from each other, they start calling each other then aswell.
I dont have a tv or the oppertunity to place one in the room where their cage is. They do have a radio in their room which I always put on whenever we're out.
My parrots walk around the house all the time and sometimes follow me to the bedroom where we have a big mirror. Phantom does likes to look at himself but Phoenix couldnt care less, so I dont think thats gonna work.
Yestherday I tried to keep them busy with a leather satchel where I putted 2 hazelnuts in along with alot of hazelnuts shells and they were very happy and quiet so maybe I should buy more foraging toys?

This is the tree by the way, the leather satchel is on the photo too



I thought they had enough toys but maybe the wrong toys are in the tree..
They do have alot of foraging toys in their cage, treatwheel, snackrack, turn and learn logs etc.

[laducockatiel]

Yes, foraging is the way to go. If they are busy foraging the whole days they won't have an opportunity or chance to scream. When they have simple, homemade, foraging toys in their tree, it's more natural for them than shop bought toys in a cage, they actually forage from trees in the wild. Good luck!

[Marsha]

It's been a week now since the last time they have been in the time out cage and they have improved much!
Whenever I think they will start screaming again I'll fill their foraging toy in their tree and they'll be occupied for an hour of even hours. I don't really know why it almost completely stoppped because I don't use new toys, They have been there for almost a year now but they never really played with them. Or maybe its because they dont have to go into the time-out cage anymore. Although they dont seem to hate the time-out cage, when they walk around the house they often go into the time-out cage themself when the door is open. And whenever I have to take them somewhere and I have to put them in the travelcage (time-out cage is actually a travelcage) it always goes without any problems and they seem happy to go in.
Anyways, I'm really happy it stopped almost entirely and we are going shoppig for them this weekend. A parrotshop in the neighbourhood has a sale on all items in the shop with 25% off so I'm get them more foraging toys