Hormonal?? Adding bird??

[rebeccaturpeinen]

Hey everyone. My Joe has started screaming his little heart out for the last month, I am very much assuming that this is hormonal as spring is in the air here in Denmark. (we dont know for sure how old he is but our vet thinks around 2) Problem is... he is driving us nuts with his screaming!! He has lots of toys and gets out of cage time but even then he screams. Is there anything I can do to help him?? I know idealy I should get anther bird and we did, two months ago but she wasnt healthy...

Would getting a budgie help so he has someone to talk to or wouldnt that help his hormonal problem?

Dont get me wrong; I wouldnt just get a bird for that reason, I really want one more, and we can afford it.

one more thing; I know it would help him to get 12 hours sleep but.... we have to uncover his cage in the morning before work wich means he is up and about around 6.30 am (he used to just continue sleeping cos it was dark out but now it is light already at 4.30) So in order for him to get those 12 hours we would have to cover him already at 6.30 pm wich seems veeeeeery easrly.... any advice?

[cml]

The waking up thing is easy, here is what I do:

Get covers for all your windows in the bird room, and pull them down sometime during the evening. This will make your bird room dark, allowing you to control the light with timers.
Dont cover his cage with anything, the window covers will make it dark enough in the room =).

What I do is that I prepare their cages every night before they go to bed at 10pm. I change the water, I fill up with pellets etc etc.
At 10pm, the timers automatically turn off all lights in the bird room, and they go to bed =).

At 10am in the morning, the timers turn the lights and the radio on and they wake up. By this time Ive been gone 3 hours already, and I'll be home in another 6!

This way the parrots get their sleep and at the same time they have less time without me. It also allows me to keep them up for much longer than many of the members here on the forums.

Just make sure you get plenty of lights, so it gets bright enough during the day, if you can also add a UV-bulb =).

This is the timers I use (I have 6 timers):
http://www.ikea.com/dk/da/catalog/products/20134447/
And these blinds, which dont let through any light:
http://www.ikea.com/dk/da/catalog/products/30049514/#/90192250

[rebeccaturpeinen]

Thank you so much CML!! That was very helpfull and Ikea is right around the block from here!! Have a great weekend!!