Bird won't stop ringing

[thunkened]

Hello, I have a 7 year old Male(I think) African Grey.

 

He is an awesome bird and we give him lots of love and attention. He bites my girlfriend constantly, this makes us think he's a female? But the owner said he was tested as a male.

 

Now, I need some help. Puppy won't stop ringing!

 

Sometimes my girlfriend and I have to do other things besides play with him. We both have jobs, we work from home - but sometimes we need our time to focus on work.

 

Anytime we leave the room, Puppy does his loudest noise - his ringing noise. He will do it for 3 hours non-stop. We've tried ignoring it. We've tried saying "NO RINGING" and putting him in the closet for 5 minutes. When we put in him in the closet, he stops. But once we bring him out, he behaves for 5 minutes but the second we leave the room he starts ringing again.

 

We live in an apartment and his ringing sounds like a fire alarm - we can't have this.

 

Any reccomendations on how to teach him that this is unacceptable? Thanks.

[bettyboop]

Greys do not respond to punishment .Placing him in a closet to make him behave is bad.I am sure the others will have better suggestions , I would allow him to be where he can see you and see to it he has plenty of interesting toys to entertain him while you are busy .Busy beaks are happy beaks .Also ignore the bad and praise the good behavior .

[danmcq]

The ringing, I assume is you Phone? If so, he has linked the phone ring to you come running in and pick it up. He expects the same, He rings, you are supposed to come and pick him up.

 

It is like a contact call, but much, much more. :-)

 

Parrots do not respond to punishment, as already mentioned. Perhaps if you would take him/her in the room you are spending hours in would stop the issue and he/she would be happy to just be with the rest of the flock.

[thunkened]

Thanks. If I bring him into my office, I cannot focus because he makes noises nonstop if eyes are off of him. I also cannot be talking to clients with a SNYTHETHIZER in the background LOL.

 

He has lots of toys and plays with them, but he prefers to have us staring at him or be biting my girlfriend.

 

This ringing isn't quite a phone, the phone noise he makes is fine.. this ringing noise is his loudest noise and sounds more like a fire alarm.

[judygram]

Is this a new noise he has picked up or is it just become really annoying by now? How long have you had this grey, all 7 years or just recently adopted? I need a little more info to come up with some suggestions for you.

 

But one is you do need to ignore these scream fests, if you give him any reaction at all then he takes that as a reason to do it more. It sounds like you have been spending a lot of time with him in the past and now things are maybe different and he is used to that and now you want him to entertain himself for a while and he doesn't understand.

[danmcq]

LOL Thunkened!! Your right, I work from home sometimes too and am involved in conference calls that I must sometimes quickly hit the mute button to alleviate the "Others" from wondering where I really am. :-)

 

Well, then I guess you can scratch the idea of him/her being in the room solving the issue. But, it may if you can somehow convince him he needs to be quite when your on the phone. Maybe "Clicker" training would associate the action of "Being Quite" when he/she see's you on the phone.

[thunkened]

Hi, I adopted the bird at 5 years old he is now 7.

 

This is something fairly new, but I actually spent less time with him in the past as I had a go in to work job, and no girlfriend(home most of the time).

 

So it's almost like he's become more unruly with more attention.

 

I made him a perch(with toys, he loves playing on it) in the living room so he's in there usually with my girlfriend - the perch is really high up, is he feeling dominant?

 

My girlfriend can be in there for 4 hours with him and the second she leaves the room he starts doing his LOUD LOUD fire-alarm ringing.

 

Post edited by: thunkened, at: 2008/06/29 23:57<br><br>Post edited by: thunkened, at: 2008/06/29 23:57

[danmcq]

Well, being left in a room alone is a 911 ;-)

[bettyboop]

If I read the post correctly , you are saying you didnt have a girlfriend and were home a lot ,so now you do .Perhaps this is his way of telling you most of the attention he did get from you is being shared with the girlfriend . I think maybe if you were to give some attention everyday in a neutral room alone for a while and allow him to see you from another room while you are working it might help .He may be jealous of the girlfriend. You mentioned he bites her , perhaps he does this to make her leave. My bird has to be able to see me or he does the contact call , if I send a call back he usually stops .I am not as experienced as Dan , but this is just a suggestion you might try .

[BMustee]

As it was said, any attention is still attention. Parrots don't care if it's negaive attention, they just want you around. Like you said he will do the alarm for 3 hours...but at the end of those 3 hours I bet you go in and tell him to hush it. He has now learned that if he keeps it up he WILL get your attention. What you need to do is ignore it. I know you said that you have tried that before but it is the ONLY way. If he is making the offending noise DO NOT ENTER the room...DO NOT YELL for him to be quite...and that goes for the girlfriend as well. Only come into the room when he is quite. If he "rings" for 3 hours...then don't go into the room for 3 hours and 5 minutes. It will get worse before it gets better. If you are dead serious that he will go on and on for 3 hours, well then it might go up to 4 hours, but once he relizes that it isn't going to get him what he wants he will stop. If you want to know why he does this, it is because you have trained him to do it. I'm sure it started by him making the noise for a few moments and it got your attention. When he did it again it may have taken a little longer, but it got your attention. Unfortunately your attempts to ignore it have always ended up with you or your girlfriend going in to tell him to knock it off, therefore teaching him that he just needs to keep it up longer and longer till he gets what he wants. Basically what you have on your hands now is a Grey acting like a big spoiled Cockatoo. Once you have stayed out and not contacted your grey at all and he stops the ringing, then go into the room and let him know how good of a boy he has been. Any time he is being good give him the positive attention. He is still going to call for you but once the ringing has stopped you can replace it with an acceptable contact call.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2008/06/30 03:14

[spookyhurst]

Excellent advice BMustee! I couldn't have said it any better .

 

Here is an excerpt from the website http://www.natew.com/birds/articles/BehaviorModification.html that talks about the "extinction burst", and clicker training to reward sounds that you like to hear:

 

"When the bird realizes that biting means being caged for five minutes of solitude, it will bite less. When the bird realizes that screeching means being left alone until it quits screeching for a few minutes, the bird will screech less. Be aware that - especially with screeching - the problem will get worse before it gets better. This is called an "extinction burst." Basically, it tries harder and harder to get whatever reward screeching once produced. When it realizes that the reward isn't going to happen, the screeching will taper off.

 

In addition, it is often possible - and usually helpful - to reinforce a different behavior to replace the behavior you're trying to extinguish. For example, if your bird scream for attention, then in addition to ignoring screams, lavishly reward a more pleasant noise every chance you get. When the bird realizes that a mild peep or a "come here" is a more effective way to get attention, the screeching will be reduced even further."

[Acappella]

Everybody else has pretty much covered what you need to do. I just have one more piece of advice. I'd get some earplugs or noise cancelling headphones to save your sanity:P

[GusandGloria]

This last bit of advice is the BEST advice given in this thread. Your negative reaction to your bird's vocalizing is YOUR problem, not your bird's problem.

 

Your reaction needs to change, not his behavior.

 

"Gus" makes THE loudest, most obnoxious noise in the universe to get my attention. He does this when he needs something. And he will continue until his needs are met. Why should I ignore that?

 

What's important is for me to determine what he needs. If he is in serious need of something, I tend to him. If he is just trying to get my attention, on his emotional level, that's still a very real 'need' and I'm not going to do the opposite of what he needs and leave him (!). I put him in a quiet, dark place where he can still see me, and where there is minimal stimulus. I give him a treat for 'something to do' and he calms down every time.

 

If I had a child that was crying (regardless of the reason) I wouldn't ignore it or leave the room. Gus is no different from a child for me. He can't tell me what he needs in English, so he uses Parrot which, unfortunately, can be a horrifying language.

 

Birds are not like children or dogs -- they do not learn by being punished or ignored. They only become more aggressive, or worse, they can turn on themselves, which in the end, means even more problems for you.

 

On that note, ignoring a grey when it's needy is a risky thing and you need to understand the consequences, which can be *real* behavior problems like self-mutilating, plucking or chewing, to which, incidentally, greys are particularly prone.

 

If you don't like loud noises, you have no business owning a parrot. It's as simple as that. Yes greys are mostly quiet and not screamers like Amazons, but they have the ability to be LOUD when they want to be. And they shouldn't be ignored or punished when they behave like birds. You need to adjust your attitude toward the behavior. We're a lot smarter than them and it's easier for us to adjust to them than to force them to adjust to us. Wouldn't you agree?

 

Take comfort though, that parrots can go through "phases" where they begin an odd behavior, and then they can just stop all of a sudden. Let's hope that's the case with the ringing. But, be prepared for the next odd behavior and educate yourself on how to handle that one. And so on ... for the next 60-70 years.

 

Don't punish your bird by ignoring it. IMO, that's the worst thing you can do. It weakens the human/bird bond and it's cruel. If it's making noise to get your attention just put on your headphones and go about your normal business. Seriously. I do this all the time and we have a very blissful, happy little birdie family.

 

***Think about this ... if you really love your bird, imagine the bird gone. Imagine the silence. Now, wouldn't you rather hear the noise? Cherish the bird, cherish its personality and cherish the time you have with it because it could be gone tomorrow. Remember Alex.<br><br>Post edited by: GusandGloria, at: 2008/07/01 11:39