# Back to Screeching



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

We went through a couple months of Joey being a bit of a brat, with incessant screeching. It was to the point where I feared one of the neighbors would complain. Then we decided to ignore it and reward good behavior. There was a great improvement, but then my mother in law came for a little over two weeks, and his new routine was disrupted, He was mostly good while she was here, and for a couple weeks after. For the last three weeks he has gotten steadily worse. Ignoring it only makes him louder and more incessant.

It is getting disruptive, and we can barely watch tv or anything without the noise. I can't leave the room without him going into what I think of as his 'I've been abandoned! Mom is NEVER coming baaaaaaaaack!' full on, hysterical screech. Cooking, doing dishes, running to the shop for a minute, going to the bathroom, any thing that requires me to be out of the room even if hubby is still in the living room.

We've re-arranged his toys, tried ignoring the bad and rewarding all good, everything we can think of. Every time I hear footsteps in the hall, I tense up and wait for a knock at the door. It is only a matter of time until someone complains about the noise. I have heard him quite a distance down the hallway on several occasions, and I am sure the screeching can't be fun for the people across the hall from us.

I am to the point where I am ready to try Avi-Calm. I tried chamomile tea and that seemed to have very little effect. I just want to know if anyone has had good luck with Avi-Calm before I fork out the money for it. I miss my happy little boy. 

He'd been hormonal about a month ago, but that seemed to have calmed down.


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## ZappyZapdos (Jan 6, 2015)

Zappy is on Avi-Calm for his night frights and there has been a drastic reduction in those incidents. However, even with the Avi-Calm, he has some of same disruptive behavior as Spooky has in reaction to my absence. For Zappy, Avi-Calm does not seem to make a noticeable difference with anxiety when I leave the room. Three things seem to help, and you might have already tried them.

1) I use my flock call (a wolf whistle) or sing to him from another room so he knows I haven't abandoned him. When I am going to leave my apartment, I show him my keys. He now associates keys with extended absences and does not cry when I leave my apartment. 

2) If one of my family members is present and I am going to leave the room, I have them block his view of me and show him a toy or millet. Apparently, what is traumatic for him is seeing that I am leaving. If he doesn't see it, it doesn't bother him as much.

3) If his crying is truly out of control, I cover the top of his cage (and sometimes the sides if he is especially bad). 

I have one other suggestion. I bought an aquarium for Zappy to sleep in for his night frights. It took him awhile, but now he loves it and associates it with sleep and calm. When I put him in there and leave the room, he does not tend to cry. Maybe you could buy Spooky a time-out aquarium or cage?

In conclusion, it seem to me that Avi-Calm is great for plucking and night frights, but it isn't so great for learned behaviors, such as crying. That has just been my experience, however. Others may have had great success!

One other thing. Have you tried talking to your neighbors? I thought Zappy's crying was very disruptive because I could hear it in the hall. However, my neighbors have told me that they don't even notice it and/or don't care. I'm right next to the laundry room, so some of my neighbors whistle to Zappy through the door while they're doing laundry.


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## Jaguar (Jul 11, 2014)

The only thing that worked for Phoenix and I was moving him to another room where he cannot see or hear me. Out of sight, out of mind. I often stand in the hallway outside the door and listen to the two chatter happily back and forth to themselves. Much better than the screaming


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## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

He is even doing quite a bit of screeching with hubby and me in the room. I'm not sure what has changed to cause this. Even when he isn't screeching, he is making a screechy "Eep, eep, eep' sound over and over. It is to the point where I am making things worse by trying to pacify him. That is the last thing I want.

I haven't asked the neighbors if they can hear him, but there is no way they can help but hear it. Part of me is afraid to ask, in case it makes them think of it as annoying if they hadn't before.

I love my little guy more than words can explain. I can't imagine having it come to where I'd have to give him up, even if it meant he went to live with mom until our lease was up and we could find somewhere else. I know he'd be very well looked after and loved for the time he was away from me, but it would be so sad knowing he was away. A neighbor complaint would result in that. If it wasn't for the risk of that happening, we'd let him screech it out until he learned that got him nowhere, but chatter, singing, talking and whistling are all encouraged.


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## Arun (Nov 27, 2014)

TamaMoo,
Does this happen all day or only during the first half of the day, till about noon?

I'm asking this, as we had the same incident from Coco ( male ) screaming/screeching our heads off till noon, from within the cage. 

No amount of ignoring or rewarding good behavior or covering cage during such episodes solved this. Like you were, we too had fear of the neighbors complaining. Recently, we've started getting them to sleep at sunset, so that they have 14hours of darkness, if not sleep. Then, *first thing in the morning, while we change water & feed, we let them out of the cage so that they fly and perch around the room, for an hour or so*. This relaxes the male a great deal, and after this early-day flight, he's extremely busy with feeding, preening & playing with toys. Much more active & friendly, compared to when they had a daily evening-playtime.

Now, it's a much more peaceful home, and they've turned to cute & happy tiels. Also, they automatically call us out to cover their cages at the stroke of sunset. Seems like they've liked this routine - early-morning exercise & early to sleep. Maybe you can try this & see if it works.


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## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Thanks for the suggestion.  He is slowly returning to his sweet self, but we can try letting him out first thing, at least on non work days. On work days, we are up at 5 or 6, depending on the day, and neither of us can seem to drag ourselves up early enough to give him a long fly around before that. Maybe a shorter one will help with being first thing. 

He was doing it off and on all day and evening while he was doing it, so it is hard to pinpoint which time of day was worst. Usually I can distract him from flock calling when I need to be out of the room a long period, generally only once a day to cook dinner, by giving him broccoli. Whoever said music soothes the savage beast must have never tried broccoli, because that stuff is magic.  But now he is back to mostly calling out 'peekaboo' when I am out of the room, and I call it back. He and hubby whistle to each other as their flock call.


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