Going crazy...please help

[amyinaustin]

Hi all! My name is Amy. My husband and I have an African Grey named Chloe. We got Chloe from my hubby's dad 3 years ago, who had her frm a hatchling. Chloe prefers my husband, and tolerates me (She will sit on my shoulder, step up, and rarely let me pet her head). My husband works nights and just graduated from a 9 month course. We have been having an issue with Chloe making loud whistles or beeps when my husband is getting ready for work, when she is in a room alone, or even when he is in the room, but not paying attention to her. It is getting to the point where my hubby is thinking about selling her as he can't enjoy even being in the same room with her without her being on his shoulder. As I said, he just graduated and will be able to spend more time with her soon. Will spending more time with her help? Do you have any advice on how to keep her from "screaming"? Do AGs go through a "teenage" phase where they are more annoying or demanding? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we usually enjoy her.

[SchroedersJen]

Schroeder does that with me fairly often too. I have an extra special toy chest with "magical fun birdy toys" just for him. When I need some peace and quiet, I let him take a toy out of the toy box. They are mostly easy to solve puzzle toys with treats in them that I don't let him have 24/7 access to. They usually shut him up long enough to switch his attention over to playing and off of me. You may want to teach your grey to forage and set up some difficult foraging situations in the cage. I do this with s\Schroeder when I neeed extended quiet. It takers a bit of time and creativity to set up, but can get me about 2 hours of uninterrupted me time. Since doing this, he has learned how to play on his own much better and he is only extra demanding once or twice a day. You might also consider setting up an outside play cagee or aviary for Chloe, so on nice days she can get out of the house. Most birds love having some outdoor time. My birds like it so much that sometimes it's hard to get them in at the end of the day. The outside cages have been a lifesaver. I am self employed and work from home, so being able to have a quiet house when I am on the phgone with clients is essential. It also gives them time away from me to vocalize and do top secret bird stuff that they dont normally want to do around human eyes.

[judygram]

Hello Amy and welcome to our family, we are so glad you could join us and we look forward to hearing more about you and Chloe.

 

Jen has given you some sound advice and speaks from experience on how she handles a similar situation. Other members will soon chime in with their ideas and suggestions for you.

 

Do read thru the many threads for lots of useful information and do not hesitate to ask questions you may have and we will help you in any way we can.

 

We love to look at pictures here so if you have some of Chloe you would share with us we would appreciate it.

[amyinaustin]

Thanks for the suggestions. She has 2 forage toys in her cage now, though they need to be "restocked". It very well could be a problem of her being bored rather then being lonely as her cage is in the living room with us

[judygram]

Those toys in the cage should be rotated out on a regular basis, I have many toys for my two birds and it helps keep them occupied and busy if you change them out, its almost like they are new to them.

 

There are some threads in the homemade toys room for making them out of common household items and won't cost you much in materials, some are quite unique.

[Luvparrots]

Hi Amy welcome to you and Chloe. Hopefully now that your husband has graduated he will have more time for Chloe. My Ana Grey is noisy until I acknowledge her. She just wants to be recognized. So when I leave the room I tell her I'll be back. When she whistles for me I whistle back and let her know I'm around. My fids are happy as long as they can see me but they have lots of foraging toys and hanging perches around the house. Hope to hear more about Chloe. Pictures please!

[SchroedersJen]

If you dont have money to buy tons of new toys right now, you can also try wrapping old toys in brightly colored tissue paper and re hanging them in the cage. You can take normal house hold items like toilet paper tubes and milk jugs and make some great free toys too. Remember that foraging toys dont have to just contain foot too. Large beads, ffoot toys, wads of paper, cupcake wrappers, plastic milk jug rings, plastic spoons, and bits of other chewy stuff can all work. Just so long as it is novel and they have to work for it, they will be entertained and busy. A busy beak is a quiet beak, weather it is eating of ripping apart a new bit o junk.

[1sydneybird]

One of Sydneys favorite things was SO CHEAP! I found a box of cash register tape at a thrift store. I will just put a string through the center, and he will take about an hour and just unroll the whole thing. Its hysterical. The other thing I do for my guys is take an empty kleenex box, and stick all kinds of things in it, including balled up paper. It takes them awhile to shred through the whole thing, and doesnt cost a penny!! Good luck, I know how annoying the "beeping" can be!!!