Have bought a 7 year old African Grey... Need help

[DollyParrot]

My Wife and I have bought a week ago a 7 year old African Grey female.

She seems to have settled in very quickly as I was told they don't talk until they are happy with their surroundings. She started talking within 3 hours of being here. Unfortunately she also likes making a high pitch squeel very loudly. Not a short one that we have been told is nervous or unsure of something but one that lasts about 2 seconds and really hurts our ears. Is there any way of training parrots to not do something? She also cheers for a team that I don't support so hopefully we could retrain that too, but for now, stopping the squeel would be a great start. Otherwise she is cool.

[ranaz]

Congratulations on having the CAG. Cant help with the squeel, but wanted to wish you luck with your new companion

Rana

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[judygram]

Well the good news is she can stop the squeal when she wants to but the bad news is you will have to ignore it for the time being. Once they learn some sound and they like repeating it there is not much you can do to make them stop it other than just ignoring it. This is something she picked up from her former owner but as time goes by she may do it less and less. The same thing applies to the cheering for a particular team, she will gradually say it less and less now that she no longer hears it.

[DollyParrot]

It's not easy to ignore it but we have been trying. Hopefully if we can teach her to say something new she will favour doing that over the squeel. Here's hoping anyway. Thanks for your advise and well wishes.

[tanyab]

I have a 5year old ag.Ive had her for 3months.When I leave sometimes she squeels also.I tell her Ill be back but she still squeels.Shes seems to be doing better when I tell her Ill be back.She only does it when I leave out the door..

[judygram]

That will work but you just have to ignore it for now for if you respond with something she may take that as encouragement to continue.

[Tycos_mom]

You may need to buy some earplugs in the meantime. Judy is right the only thing you can do is totally ignore it even bad attention is ateention and she will continue it if you say anything at all while she is doing it don't even look her way and she will soon stop and go on to something else.

[Luvparrots]

DollyParrot, congratulations on your new grey. When I re-homed my Eclectus he would shriek to high heaven. I would just talk softly to him for a few minutes or if I was in a different room, I would sing. He would stop to listen to me and it soon stopped. I believe sometimes they just need to be acknowledged. This worked for me perhaps it will help you. It takes a little while for our fids to settle in and learn to trust us so just be patient and I know you will be rewarded a thousand fold. Welcome to the family.

[djzenjen]

Congrats on your new Grey! We adopted Mischief when she was 8 years old. We adopted her last June and have now had her for a year. She also does this high pitched BEEP that from point blank can really make your ears bleed. She hasn't heard it for over a year (wherever she picked it up from) and as time passed we have heard it less and less. She still does it, but mostly now when we pick her up. (I think she gets excited and BEEPS.. and that's my fault cause I encouraged her every time she did it while on my hand.) :whistle: