by Wolf » Thu Feb 18, 2016 7:45 am
Sorry that I didn't see this until this morning, so I guess it is evening where you are although I don't know if that place you 12 hours or so ahead of us or the other way around. I don't suppose that I can be of much help in regards to your question and wanting stories as I only had a single bird for just a very short period of time, probably only 3 to 6 months at the most.
I don't know how loud a Quaker is as I don't have one of them in my little flock of birds, but that is really in many way a relative thing and unless you have to deal with neighbors doesn't usually present that much of a problem. It mostly depends on both the individual bird as well as its human and what level of sounds that they are reasonably able to tolerate. Many birds are a bit louder that we would like, but it is more often the pitch of their vocalizations that tend to cause the most problems.
People tend to deal with their parrots noise in several ways and many of the reasons for how they deal with the noise are based on what other people have said and or done and for the most part those reasons are only partially true or valid. For instance many people say to ignore the birds screaming and calling for you because if you go in to see the bird while it is calling for you that you will create a screaming bird. This is true, but only to a degree and is dependent on how you proceed.
I, for one, would never ignore my bird(s) when they call for me. There is always a valid reason for the bird to call and scream for you. Although our birds are not in their natural habitat and are bred and raised in captivity, they still have an instinctual awareness that a lone bird that is screaming and calling for its flock mates or parents or their mate, is very soon destined to become someone's meal or snack. And for this reason, it is not something that they want to do, and is one of the reasons that I don't ignore them, ever, when they call for me. You are getting a very young bird that would normally still be with its parents and would have just fledged and begun to leave its nest in the company of its siblings and parents. This bird by coming home with you is terrified as it loses everything that it was familiar with. It loses any siblings that it might have had and it has lost its parents due to our practices in imprinting and weaning, it loses the place that it was familiar with and the humans that it was imprinted on. This makes for an intensely fearful experience for the bird as well as being extremely stressful for them until they begin to adjust and begin to trust you. As you are probably aware of a parrot, in the wild is never alone from the time it is just an egg until it dies. It is always in the company of its parents, siblings, flock and / or mate. It depends on the presence of its flock for its safety from predators as well as for its sense of security and well being, And other than being hungry these are also the reasons why the bird is screaming and calling for you, and why I never ignore them during these periods when it feels compelled to call for me.
So how do I respond to this type of situation without risking turning my bird into a screaming nightmare? First of all, while I do not come running full tilt into the room where my bird is, I do answer the bird, this is of primary importance as the bird can't see me and is calling to find out where I am, in hopes that I will come to reassure it or because it is hungry and needs to be fed. I then go to see what the bird needs, but I stop while the bird still can not see me and time my entrance so that I have just answered the bird and while the bird is momentarily quiet. I then enter the birds space and where it can see me and either feed it or reassure it that everything is alright and that it is safe and not alone. By approaching it in this manner the period between its call for me after I answer it begin to get a little longer as the bird learns that once I have answered that I will be along shortly to see to it, and its screaming and calling for me becomes less urgent. In the interest of reducing the actual level of noise that the bird produces while calling for me I whistle to the bird, in response to its calls. Not right at first, but soon as it learns that I will respond and then I pick out a two tone whistle that I do not use for any other bird, so that when the bird hears it that it knows that I am answering it and not someone else. The bird will pick this whistle up fairly soon and instead of screaming to call for me it will begin to use this very same whistle to call for me, which is quieter than its scream as well as much less nerve wracking. If you can't whistle you can respond with a word or phrase that it learns is how you respond to it when it calls, although, like talking, I can't promise that it will pick up this word or phrase and use it, but it will still help to reassure the bird and again the screams and call become less urgent and intense.
Although, this does not exactly qualify as a story it is what my birds have taught me, along with a bit of study, about responding to them when the get scared that they are alone or worried that something has happened to me because I am not right there with them, so it is how I respond to my birds, so in that way it is a story, Regardless, I do hope that it will help you through one of the first hurdles that you will probably face with your new Bubblegum. Good luck and please post some pictures of your new friend and companion, Bubblegum when you are able to do so as we would love to meet him too.
will respond again when I have time.