Screaming parrot... Help!

[Ollie1013]

Hi,

My Moustache Parrot screams... a lot!
Especially when I (or other family members) leave the room, when he hears the door open or sees anyone putting on a coat and when the phone or door bell rings.
He will also scream for no reason at various times during the day. It is loud and is enough to give anyone a headache.
He is healthy and receives tons of love & attention.
Help! Why does he scream???

[laducockatiel]

How old is he? If he is young, he may scream when you leave because he may think of you as his parent. Introducing foraging toys will also help. If you give me more details, I will be able to help you more.

[CrazzMc]

he wants to play with you guys. You need to teach him *not to scream* when you leave the room. I found a video on youtube saying that before you leave the room give the parrot its ultimate favorite treat or his favorite toy. If he starts screaming once you leave let him scream. As soon as he stops screaming then go back in.

This will take a very long time, it won't be easy. Good Luck.

[Ollie1013]

He just turned 3 in September. I've had him since he was 3 months old.
He has a really good personality but it seems he can never get enough attention from us. He is particularly obsessed with my mother... She is clearly his favorite for no apparent reason and especially screams when she walks by his cage or leaves him.
We have to move him to different areas of the house throughout the day to keep him occupied. If my mother is out of sight he is ok, but once he knows she is in the house .. He wants to be wherever she is.

[Avialae]

First of all, as already mentiones: prevention! ake sure he has a big enough cage (Moustaches are very active birds that love to fly, i would recommend one that's at least 150*150*100cm, preferably bigger. A lot of natural branches, and i cannot stress enough the importance of daily foraging activites.
There's a post on enrichment in the toys section which i recently posted a reply to; go check it out.

First of all, it sounds like you have, probably not on purpose; rewarded him for screaming.
Parrots pick this up very quickly; they scream, someone tells them to "Shut up", gives them food so that they will stay quite, or maybe just walk in to the room withouth even thinking about that the parrot is screaming. In no time at all you have a parrot that screms his air sacs blue for attention.

To come running when they stop screaming is a very long process that most of the time is only somewhat effective, if effective at all. It is very hard to efectively reward "doing nothing".
Even if you only walk in to the room when he is screaming, by accident, once every week, that is still enough to keep the screaming behaviour reinforced.
Try to look at the differences between a slot machine and one of those machines that dispences soda when you put money in them. If you put money in one and it doesn't give you your reward (soda), you just get pissed and most of the time doesn't try again.

However, when it comes to slot machines, you try and you try and you try because you know that if you just do it a liiitle bit more, you'll get that money!
This is sort of the same deal. All it takes is for the behaviour like this to be rewarded once in a while for it to be effectively maintaned.

What you want to do to solve it is use differential reinforcement. You simply start rewarding some other behaviour with the same consequence your parrot is looking for when screaming. (i.e giving him attention)

I'm sure he has some cute noises that you guys would prefer over the screaming.
Simply make a habit of ignoring him and staying silent as death whenever he screams, and as soon as he makes cute noises, talk to him from the room you're in and go see him. It will be a lot of running and talking at first, but eventually this will work the same way as the screaming does today; it doesn't have to be reinforced all of the time.

Eventually, when the problem is solved, i would also cinsider getting another moustache to keep him company. Having two birds that get a long is a blast, and also so much better for the birds. They're really not suposed to be alone at all.

Good luck!

[Naurthon]

I'm sure he has some cute noises that you guys would prefer over the screaming.
Simply make a habit of ignoring him and staying silent as death whenever he screams, and as soon as he makes cute noises, talk to him from the room you're in and go see him.

Avialae is right on the money here. My BCC can scream up a storm. It is hard to image how a 72g feather puff can make SO FREAKING MUCH NOISE!!! I know making noise is natural for him, but my home isn't the jungle in Peru thank you very much, so I want him to use his inside voice. I completely ignored him whenever he screamed, so he wouldn't feel rewarded for doing so, and whenever he said "I love you" I would shower him with attention and praise. It didn't take him too long to switch from screaming to saying "I love you" when he wanted attention. It's a HUGE improvement!

Nikko and Dante now use "I love you" as a contact call (along with "peek a boo!") to interact with me wherever I am in the house. It is much nicer to hear than screaming.

[Ollie1013]

Thanks everyone for your advice! Will definitely take these suggestions and see what happens!

[brfussne]

I'm sure he has some cute noises that you guys would prefer over the screaming.
Simply make a habit of ignoring him and staying silent as death whenever he screams, and as soon as he makes cute noises, talk to him from the room you're in and go see him.

Avialae is right on the money here. My BCC can scream up a storm. It is hard to image how a 72g feather puff can make SO FREAKING MUCH NOISE!!! I know making noise is natural for him, but my home isn't the jungle in Peru thank you very much, so I want him to use his inside voice. I completely ignored him whenever he screamed, so he wouldn't feel rewarded for doing so, and whenever he said "I love you" I would shower him with attention and praise. It didn't take him too long to switch from screaming to saying "I love you" when he wanted attention. It's a HUGE improvement!



Nikko and Dante now use "I love you" as a contact call (along with "peek a boo!") to interact with me wherever I am in the house. It is much nicer to hear than screaming.

Naurthon, I was wondering if your CAG, Dante, was/is a screamer? If so, how loud was he? I'm thinking really hard about getting a CAG, and was wondering what the noise level was for one.

[Naurthon]

Naurthon, I was wondering if your CAG, Dante, was/is a screamer? If so, how loud was he? I'm thinking really hard about getting a CAG, and was wondering what the noise level was for one.

Dante doesn't scream, but he does talk and sing a lot. Since I'm also a singer, I enjoy that. The only unpleasant noise he makes is a piercing beeping sound that he learned from our smoke alarm and microwave, which both make similar sounds at the same pitch. He doesn't make the sound often, because I ignore him, but when he does, it is loud enough to hurt my ears if I am in the same room.

Greys can easily learn electronic noises, like cell phone rings and door bells and things like that. I've made an effort to keep Dante away from sounds like that, because I don't want to hear them.

Nikko is much noisier than Dante, even though Dante is 6 times bigger. I don't think greys in general are known for screaming, but they are perfectly capable of making their own loud, annoying sounds.

This video shows a pretty normal amount of Dante-noise. (You can also hear Nikko a bit in the background, NOT screaming, thankfully!)

[Naurthon]

brfussne, I just noticed you're in San Diego. I got Nikko at a store (Our Feathered Friends) near Friar's Road and Mission Gorge Road, and I highly recommend them. Be prepared for major parrot noise if you go into their bird room, however!

I don't recall them having many greys, but they typically had a number of older macaws and cockatoos and a few eclectus, along with many young conures, cockatiels, and lovebirds. They also had several newly hatched poicephalus parrots of different types. The people who work there are knowledgeable, and will be able to answer your questions about parrots and help you find a companion bird that will really fit your lifestyle.

I also noticed that you're 21. Young is good when it comes to greys because they can live 50-60 years. Dante is very likely to outlive me. I would encourage you, though, to spend some time thinking about your life plans for the next 10 years. If you have plans for college or travelling or moving a lot, a grey might not be the best choice for you right now. You and your potential future companion grey will be much happier if you are sure you're going to have a reasonably stable life before you consider adding one to your flock.