# Need help with Screeching?



## ZombiiGekko (May 16, 2014)

So I have a young male cockatiel who is only about 5-6 months old and recently he has started screeching. He does this when we come home from work and mostly at night or when my guinea pig gets excited. Now I wouldn't mind it if it were just a couple high pitched calls but he does it for quiet a bit of time. I have tried covering his cage back up which only makes him stop for a few minutes and then he starts up again. The only really time he stop, stops is when we take him out of his cage. I feel like doing this though is reinforcing bad behavior and I have no idea how get rid of this bad behavior. Does anybody have any ideas?

:grey tiel:


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## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Joey went through that at about 5 months to about 8 1/2 - 9 months, and rarely does it now at 10 months. I wonder if it is an age thing? At first I wondered if it was because of more sunlight hours, but he still gets a lot of hours of light, and has calmed down. For a while, even covering him didn't calm him down. We were at our wits end for a bit because it was rather disruptive, and we didn't want to do anything that would reinforce the behavior. I wish I had an answer for you, and hope someone comes along soon who does. I am just trying to give hope that it does end eventually.


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## Nimra (Aug 4, 2014)

There was a post about it earlier here. You should check that post. Also you should keep your bird busy in order to make him stop screeching. Like toys.


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## Hellena (Feb 11, 2013)

There was a post about this that you should check out. Keep him busy with toys in the cage, foraging ones. Don't respond to the screaming and do not let him out when he does it. I would also not overdo the attention, that will make it worse. Let him play and find things to do on his own, in his cage. Take him out for periods here and there, but don't let him have the day out of his cage. They get bossy and sometimes out of control if you give them too much freedom.


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