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I can't take it anymore


Jadewolf32

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OK I love Shadow to death,he is a little over 5 months old now, but it's getting to the point where I can not STAND his screaming, its that prehistoric sound they make, he does it so loud that it hurts my ears and Im getting frustarted and starting not to want to deal with him. If I am talking to anyone, on the phone talking to husband, or dogs, he will do it NON STOP, I leave the room he is quite, I come back out and there he goes the second he sees or hears me, I can not do anything because he starts in and I get pist off and leave so I dont do anything stupid like scream back or hit the cage, this is affecting our realationship, i also used to feed him something warm every night before bed from a spoon, so now he does not want to eat from his bowl, he will scream at me sit at the location on his cage where I would feed him, so last night I was SO pist off at his screaming all day, I did not give him bedtime snack, I do not want to hate him but I have not bothered with him at all today because I am DONE, again when I walk by he does that noise, not once or twice but non stop, I had to go outside to finsh a important phone call..I am strating to regrete owning him, i have not changed anything as far as how much we have 1 on 1 contact or his playtime that is up until yesterday I have reached my breaking point.... What do I do?

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Is he spending his time in his cage all day long? Greys require ALOT of attention. But I am sure you did your research and knew this going into purchasing him. :unsure:

 

If you continue to treat him this way, then my advice to you is to you give him to someone who will appreciate and love him.:angry:

 

Patience & understanding is what he needs.....

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Firstly let me say, I fully understand how you are feeling with the noise! I am going through the same thing with three of them at the moment!

There is nothing you can really do to stop the noise except to ignore it and dont react to it at all.

Please dont let this affect your relationship, I can imagine you were fed up with this but dont change things, still give him his bed time snack and carry on as you have normally been doing.

He is young and this will hopefully be a phase which will stop!

My eldest grey who talks all day dosent do the schreeching as much, hang in there and please dont regret owning your grey!

Sorry I couldnt give you a solution, I hope you work things out.

Caroline

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We have all been at the end of the line at one time or another.At 5 months old he is still a baby. Please give him lots of love and attention. You know,when they learn other sounds and words these can often replace those anoying sounds. My grey Charlie is a swine when I am on the phone,I have learnt to live with it. He now laughs out loud when I am on the phone and I have had some amazing conversations with people I dont know, say from a company I am ringing,It can become fun. Keep with it. Sheila<br><br>Post edited by: she, at: 2008/10/25 19:07

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It is so sad to read your story. I also agree that at 5months old he is still a baby and requires alot of attention and love. dont give up on him, still give him his treat. Is he in his cage all day or is he outside the cage cause i think that could also make a difference. Please dont give him away give him another change. Hope it works and inform us of how he is doing ;)

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I'm so sorry you are having a hard time. Here I sit wishing I had my grey now and I wish I could help you. If I were you, I would put on some music or the TV so Shadow has something to react to if you cannot play with him. Please don't ignore him he only needs some attention. Maybe some foraging toys where he has to find his treats. If you really are at the end of your rope then find him a new home where he can find the love and attention he needs. Take a long and deep breathe and do the right thing for both you and Shadow. I find long walks are good for clearing my head. Give it a try and good luck.<br><br>Post edited by: luvparrots, at: 2008/10/24 00:53

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He is out of his cage almost all day, this has become a game to him, he will fly off the cage walk up to me and look me in my eye and do it, I have been ignoring him and it is at a feverish pitch now, after he flys off the cage for the 4th time I pick him up and put him in his cage for about 10 mins, he will then take his beak and snap the bars, scratch like a chicken and do that noise, its like he is in a panic if I do not pay attention to him now, if he had it his way he would be on me 24/7 I give him lots of cuddle time, I do not work so I am here all day every day...Im just having one of those days where its enough alreday, even the dogs went out back and has not came back in..it kills me to ignor him like i said he acts like he is in a panic, begging for me to look at him pick him up and i know the first time i do, it will never stop, so now along with that noise i listen to him snapping the cage bars with his beak and scratching like a chicken In his bowl of food wasting it....

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i can understand your frustration i have a cockatoo that would scream all the time to then he got sick and stopped screaming and at first i was happy for the quiteness then i was missing him screaming but he is now back to it and i can say i am happy about it cause i know he is feeling better, i have my screamier back

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I have found that when my greys act up, I put them in their cage for some time, and then when I take them out, they behave nicely.

He is still young, and requires assurance from you, don't be afraid to give it to him. This WILL pass if you remain patient and loving. I wouldn't allow him to get too upset in his cage. Others here might have other opinions.

 

DAVE007.......where are you when you are needed for advice! :P

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He's trying to get your attention. I know it's annoying and frustrating, but this is what all parrots do. I don't know any that are quiet. Noise? OMG, I have 3 macaws, an amazon and a Grey. You should be here during social hour. I swear to God the windows rattle and the house vibrates.

 

Unfortunately, he's also going to feed off your attitude. If you have a negative attitude, he's going to react to that. How about keeping a pocket full of his favorite treat and every time you walk by his cage and he doesn't scream, give him a treat. He'll make the connection eventually. At 5 months old, he's a baby. he doesn't know any more than what you've taught him. Greys need ALOT of time and attention. If you're in the room, they think you should be holding and playing with them. Can you move him to another room where he can't see you all the time? It might help.

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Jadewolf32 wrote:

i also used to feed him something warm every night before bed from a spoon, so now he does not want to eat from his bowl, he will scream at me sit at the location on his cage where I would feed him

 

If the screaming just started at the same point in time that you quit spoon feeding him, it's highly probable that he is screaming for his mother to feed him.

 

He is still very young at 5 months and may still require feedings and is not fully weaned, thus the screaming.

 

I am just looking for the needle in the haystack that could be the root of the problem.

 

Try spoon feeding him his favorite food in his "Feeding Spot" and see if the screaming slows down.

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This is a serious problem. But... there are ways to change his behavior. First you have to ignore the screaming ( but not the bird of course) and you have to replace the sreaming sound with something nicer.

 

I don't want my parrots to scream, so I always play classical music for them, or Bocelli. This type of music has a relaxing effect on animals.

 

If they do start screaming after all, I do something that attracts their attention. For instance, I walk to the other side of the room, grab a chair and push it aside. Your parrot will follow your movements and be quiet for a moment. At the moment he shuts his mouth, I reward him bij praising him abundantly, and giving him a tiny piece of his favorite snack. So he will learn that being silent is rewarded. And he wants a reward, because at that moment he gets your attention.

 

Good luck, and don't give up!

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Parrots make noise...don't know what else to tell you.

 

Just about all parrot behavior problems are not thought up by the parrot but are taught by the owner. I'm guessing he was spoiled and given everything he wanted in the beginning but the novelty and "newness" has worn off and the attention has become less and less. Not to say the attention is at a neglected state, but not near what he got in the beginning. The clingy behavior spells that out. It also sounds like he doesn't know how to amuse himself and needs you for all his amusement. You need to teach him how to play with toys and that it is ok to be alone for a few hours.

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I really feel for you, we went through this not so long ago when our female was about that age. She would scream and scream and I would get so stressed that I would go from the room and burst into tears. It also started to affect my relationship with my boyfriend as I told him I can't take this anymore.

 

Well I can now say that I hung in there and all is ok now, she has stopped screaming and is talking more.

 

Not sure what we did to change things. I guess we ignored the screaming and I tried to stay calm as I am sure she would scream just because she knew I hated it. When she would scream I also tried to take her attention away from the screaming, so would get her interested in playing so she would forget about screaming. When she made any other noise that we liked we would both give her so much praise and you could see her get all excited which I am sure helped her to stop screaming as she started to make the nice noises more because she got loads of attention for it.

 

I made sure that I still gave her everything like her evening spoon fed formula as you can't take that away for them just for screaming.

 

I also think it was an age thing as well, that she was young and needed a lot of attention.

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Thanks Dan, believe me it wasn't easy there were a lot of tears shed.

 

I swear we have been through everything with our 2, screaming, not bonding to the other person, biting, not wanting to go back in cage, one of then not wanting to bath.

 

I just assumed this was what you had to go through when you get young greys and that it is our job to teach them how to behave.

 

I had no idea that some people have none of these problems with their young greys and I have to say these people are very very lucky.

 

Must say I am quiet proud we have solved nearly all of these problems with our 2, but I am sure between them they are cooking up another plan on how to test me.

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Those are great accomplishments. Believe me, most of of had trials in one form or another. Like them hating baths or showers, biting at times etc. But, it seemed like you had ALL bad behaviours at once to deal with, which was obviously very hard to deal with.

 

It is the kind of patience and persistence you displayed for a long period of time that sets the example for others here dealing with similar trying issues.

 

Your sharing your experience with others under going those same issues is invaluable to those individuals letting them know it will pass with patience, training and time. :-)

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Thank you so much for sharing that information, I was starting to think it was ALL me and also I think people are getting the wrong idea about me, YES I know ALL parrots make noise, yes he has tons of toys and does PLAY with them, I rotate every week plus make my own, he has 3 play stations plus his over sized cage, he has been weaned by me the night time snack I was talking about was a small amount of anything warm, a bit of oatmeal, a bit of dinner left over, what I meant by I didnt give it to him was he started turning his beak up to EVERYTHING and holding out for the night time food ONLY, I wasnt taking away his feedings. I am home ALL the time and I do rotate the time he is in or out his cage, his play times, his times on me, so no the newness DID NOT wear off he still gets the same amount of attention I do change the times however because I do not want him getting used to a set time for everything..I have been watching and notice what is triggering him, he has stopped 90% during the day when it is just him and I, as soon as my husband gets home and I TALK to him he does start, so I tell him quite its mommy time to talk and give him something to forage with or tear up, during my convasation I tell him good bird if he makes other sounds I get excited and do them back, if he does get into a cycle I will put him in his cage, if it continues inside the cage I cover him until he is quite then as i remove the cover i tell him good bird and take him back out, I have noticed one trigger is steam, I had take out food the other day and when I opened the carton you could see the steam and he went nuts, so the issue of me in the kitchen running hot water also gets him to scream, so so far it's steam and me talking to someone else, husband or phone or dogs. I just try and walk away and tell myself he will be talking soon i hear him trying now...So again thank you for letting me know I am not the only one that wanted to give up!

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Awesome outcome! You have the patience of a saint. You have a lucky grey. Teko screams sometimes too and we try to redirect his attention to something playful without giving any negative feedback. Thank you for updating us on the outcome. You are doing a great job.

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I'm glad to hear things are a bit better for you now. I can relate to being at your wits end from time to time. All of us have challenges with our greys and working through these problems only strengthens your relationship and helps you deal with the next issue. It IS important to keep trying and working the problems out, so many people don't and that's why there are so many unwanted birds out there. Good job.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jadewolf32 wrote:

He is out of his cage almost all day, this has become a game to him, he will fly off the cage walk up to me and look me in my eye and do it, I have been ignoring him and it is at a feverish pitch now, after he flys off the cage for the 4th time I pick him up and put him in his cage for about 10 mins, he will then take his beak and snap the bars, scratch like a chicken and do that noise,.

 

Gatiep did the same thing. I just added more toys and he was happy. And I moved him to a window. He is much happier now

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