Is this normal?

[kaylayuh]

Does anyone with a GCC find that sometimes they scream nonstop for no reason? I understand some screaming is to be expected and his normal noises are no problem, but this has gotten out of hand.

Cheney Bird has been screaming nearly nonstop for three days. He started Tuesday morning with some screaming which I chalked up to him just playing and being vocal. Wednesday morning around 6 a.m., he started again. He continued screaming almost nonstop until he had breakfast. Once he was done, he went straight back to screaming. Thusfar, today has been exactly the same.

I've had him for a month on the 12th, so I'm not sure if this is normal behavior or if I'm doing something wrong or if there's an issue with him that he's trying to communicate that I'm just not getting. He has ample food, clean water, and many toys. He has hours outside of the cage. He has a decent sleep schedule and will often wake up before I do.

He doesn't seem to be in pain or sick. He's eating and drinking normally. His droppings are normal in size, color and frequency. He hasn't had access to anything he shouldn't. His food hasn't changed and he has access to it all day. He hasn't been given any new or different foods that he hasn't had before.

I just really don't get why all of a sudden he's screaming like this. I try to ignore the screaming and I'm completely okay with even 20 minutes of screaming throughout the day. But this literally lasts for hours. I'm not sure if I caused it or if this is normal now that he's settled in or if he's trying to communicate some need to me that I just haven't figured out.

[Nevermore]

I guess it depends on what your definition of screaming is. Is it the really, really loud "EEE!EEEEE!!EEEE!!EEEEE!EEEE!!!" that makes it sound like the whole little bird is going to explode in a puff of feathers any minute?

I don't know about the other GCC owners, but my boy doesn't scream a whole lot. Not unless he is upset over something, or afraid. Or just wanting to make some noise. He screams maybe.....2 or 3 times a normal week or so? And not for no more than 30 seconds. Aside from that, he has a 'yell' he does. My parents say it makes him sound like hes a squeekie toy being squeezed. "ee-EE! ee-EE!". That is his 'normal' yell, and he will do that often.

Those are the only two I know of that could be described as screaming. But if your boy is screaming non-stop...is there anything new in the room to scare him? Does he scream when hes on you, and not on the cage?

[kaylayuh]

It's a really loud nonstop "EE EE EE!" sound that can go on for as long as an hour at a time. I'm surprised his lungs haven't popped yet.

There's nothing new in the room. He will scream when he's sitting with me.. until he realizes that he's with me and he quiets down and "purrs." The screaming seems to start if I need to put him down to do something and then will continue for extended periods after that. I don't want to pick him up when he's screaming so as to not reinforce that screaming gets attention.

The only thing I can think of is that he's now used to someone playing with him for extended periods every day. I'm almost always in sight of him, whereas in the rescue he needed to share people with dozens of other birds. If this is why he's screaming, I don't want him to think that he needs to be with me every second of every day and kill his sense of independance.

[Margaret]

kaylayuh,
I'm not any GCC expert. It just came to my mind that exactly Tuesday you moved the cages. Maybe that caused the problem? Jealous or scared?
Hope you'll find a solution soon.

[kaylayuh]

kaylayuh,
I'm not any GCC expert. It just came to my mind that exactly Tuesday you moved the cages. Maybe that caused the problem? Jealous or scared?
Hope you'll find a solution soon.

I actually moved the cages Friday. Just in case, I moved the cages back to their original position this morning and he screamed more and flew back to the budgies cage.

I'm starting to think he just expects my undivided attention at all hours of the day.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Scooter doesn't scream nonstop the way you are describing. He will go Eeep-eeep-eep at a fairly high volume as a contact call if I'm out of the room and he has the urge to make contact. When I tried to wean him onto pellets, he did go through a period of doing it frequently when he'd run out of seeds. He also has an Ack-ack-ack-ack-ack call that seems to be a warning or distress call, and if something seems to be scary, he will keep doing it until the scary thing goes away or stops.

If you are sure he is healthy and his basic needs are all met, I'd probably handle it as a screaming issue and try to reinforce quiet solicitations for attention while ignoring the noisy ones. But I would probably double and triple check for anything that might be causing alarm or discomfort.

[kaylayuh]

He seems to be okay today as long as I'm not far from him which, as you know, isn't always possible. He's been fairly quiet for the past two hours but I've been in his line of vision. As soon as I leave the room, he starts "EE EE EE EE!"ing again. I reward him for even relative quietness, as I don't mind normal vocalizations. But he seems to get more frantic the longer I ignore the frequent calls, not less. I've never heard of a bird doing this before.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

When my birds contact call, I'll answer them, so they know I'm in the house and where I am. I'll answer a few calls in a row, but if it starts to get excessive, I ignore it. I also have a little ritual when I am going to leave the house -- I tell them I'm going and close the door to the room. They are always dead quiet after that... I've hung around a little while sometimes or come back to get something. You might try answering the call once or twice to let him know you are around and see if that makes it better or worse.

[kaylayuh]

I do answer the normal contact calls. Those are different in sound, pitch and frequency and usually stop once I answer him and he knows I'm in the general area. These screams sound more like his distressed calls, but there's nothing new in the area that could possibly scare him. I've tried separating the cages again to see if that was an issue, but he flies over to the budgies' cage and hangs out, still while screaming.

I left for an hour or two earlier and stood outside the apartment door to see if he continued to scream. He stopped as soon as he heard the door close when I left. So I stood there for a few minutes longer to see if he started again, and he was completely silent. When I came back, as soon as the door opened and I was in his line of vision, he started screaming again.

[kaylayuh]

He appears to have been tired and I just wasn't getting it. Unfortunately there's a lot of sirens that go by my apartment as there's a fire department across the street, so I think they've been waking him up at night. Normally he refuses to be put to bed until 10 p.m. and wakes himself up around 7 a.m., so hopefully he'll be happier now that he's put himself to sleep earlier.

Is that normal, though? I've never heard of a bird screaming its little head off because they were tired. I know babies and toddlers do it, but never a bird.