High pitched Senegal!

[Zeezee]

Hi everyone!

I'm brand new to owning a parrots and I have recently bought a hand reared Senegal parrot. I've had her about 6wks and she is now just over 4 months old. I absolutely love her!
However! I work in a school and had the first month we were together off so we spent all day everyday bonding! I have now gone back to work. She has started whistling really high pitched like a fire alarm when I leave the house. My boyfriend is being driven demented by this as he doesn't start college till later in the day. I have explained to him about ignoring this behaviour etc. I have heard her start as I close the front door!

I need help as it is driving a wedge between myself and my boyfriend and I'm not going to give up my Zeezee! I've been told this may be seperation anxiety and there isn't much I can do to stop it and she will have to get used to me being gone in the day but does anyone have any tips on how to help the situation??


Thanks in advance!
Alison

[Polarn]

The only thing really is to try enhance her cage time (besides the obviouse ignore). This could be done with foraging, toys etc also if possible a big enough cage to encourage some movement.

This is however (I know this info is a bit late for you right now) a quite common problem that people spoil the birds rotten with attention during the first period of time, birds are creature of habits and the more routine in their days the better they do pretty much. This means that when getting a bird it is important to not spend more time with it in the beginning than what you can provide every day for the rest of its life. However due to the long living nature of birds things do happen I our lives meaning we have to disturbe their routine. Anytime I know I will have to disturbe it I try to spend about a month to adjus them to the new schedule or whatever change there might be. But I do try to spend all 7 days of the week in basically the same manner with my birds (wich isn't that hard since I actually work 7days a week) although never long hours a a time so it works pretty well for them. But foraging toys etc that help your friend to stay occupied throughout the day would most likely easen the change for her quite a lot. If she doesn't know how to play with the toys you'll have to show her.

[Zeezee]

Thank for that! It's pretty much what I have started doing now. She does have lots toys that I rotate, she's v spoilt! I'll just ave to get her used to being in the cage when I'm around!!

[marie83]

I differ a bit in my opinions of routines than polarn and I actually prefer to have a variable routine for mine. Well I actually need to because I work shifts but even before that I varied things as I've found it causes much less stress on mine when life throws a great big spanner in the works, sometimes you dont have the opportunity to make gradual changes in a routine over a period of time.
Every birds different of course and some will take to a varied routine better than others. Its definitely better to ease a bird into a change if they are already used to a set routine where possible though.
The only thing that is set in stone for my birds is bedtime.

[Polarn]

Well, I'm not timer specific since I too work different hours but usually I work either 2or 3 hours then off for about one you're and I do 3 or 4 of these workhours a day not always the same time but the interaction with the birds pretty much looks the same but might be an hours off or two. However I do think it's hard on a bird to go from full attention 24/7 from movin in to be left without this person for full workdays reducing its contact and interaction with probably more than 50% if you work regular shifts and allow your bird a good nights sleep. But I do think that except for any unplanned things from a birds point of view a set schedule 7 days a week is prolly welcome. Even if I don't time everything I still think a bird definitely wouldn't mind really. And Marie even if your not set on a schedule I suspect the changes are less when workhours changes or not feeding on set times etc than it is to never have been left alone for any time in the environment you have just moved too to then get thrown straight into everyday life where people got to work etc.

But it is an easy and understandable mistake (atleast in my eyes) to spend every awakn minute with the new bird only to figure you have actually put up other things needed to be done in the process (I still do this however, if one of em is sociable and I've decided to spend the day outside fixing something I skip it and stay in only to figure I have to do it another day when I'm besides doing that have to work leading to a lot less interaction for the birds, as a downfall from spending the day with them earlier, and personally I don't think bird grasp a fact like that. As in you can't tell the bird that hey this week I'm staying home the whole week so we can do a lot of fun things but next week I have to pull double shifts. So I'm not a firm believer in a schedule but major changes I do think you should ease in if possible.

[marie83]

Yea sorry if I wasn't clear, that is what I meant that unless the bird is already on a variable schedule it is best to ease it in slowly.

Mine are quite used to having wildly differing days, some days they are out all day and others they are only out for an hour (much rarer for them to be out such a short time though) but I would never just throw a new bird that was used to a set routine into that as it would cause too much stress. In general theres no need for their routines to be so extreme but I like to throw the odd day in where they get much less attention so they will cope well if there is ever an emergancy like when my mother was in hospital. Its reassuring for me to know they are not at home getting stressed out because of it as well but neither are they neglected and they still get loads of attention.

[GreenWing]

Put some music on for your sennie. Try classical music Tiki loves it. It's soothing for her to the point that she can nap as it plays.