# Serious attention screaming



## Whitefacefan (Aug 1, 2010)

Hello, everyone! This is my first post. I'm concerned about my pet cockatiel. Tiki is a female, about a year and a half old and a cinnamon whiteface pied. She is extremely people bonded, and while accepting of strangers she is most bonded to me. When things are good she softly peeps hello and goodbye, cuddles, comes up to my face to fall asleep when I sing and is generally glued to me. I love her and she loves me back. 

However, she is also very timid and insecure (even by cockatiel standards!) and therefore more prone to freakouts. This makes her a bad attention screamer whenever her routine is messed up. And recently, I moved 1100 miles away. So in her mind, her routine has been VERY messed up.

We now live in a place that's much better for both of us, and she has more room to stretch her wings and opportunity to get lots of sun and hear other birdies safely from my screened in balcony. However, she is in a different, smaller cage and is of course far away from the place she was raised in. She has been extremely upset and insecure.

I'm thinking the time has finally come to get Tiki some company.

Whenever she is left alone, to the point on if I leave the room, she turns into a screaming mess. She screams until she runs out of gas and hits the point where she devolves into what sounds like a series of mournful peeping, like a person who can't scream anymore and devolves into sobs. When I find her like this she seems frozen in place, fluffed up and not moving or doing anything else but scream, scream, scream.

Other times she will remain quiet unless I'm in the room, and at that point she will break out the screaming routine and pace. I've recently broken her out of that pacing by rewarding her for quietly climbing around rather than pacing the floor with strategically placed millet.

She gets at least an hour a day, stimulation, and flight time outside the cage. She gets lots of treats for being quiet and I rarely cover her unless the noise is driving me to a breaking point or it's night time. I've also made sure to fill the cage with her favorite kinds of toys, bells and wood, but she only plays in the cage when I'm around and otherwise bangs it around to add to the tantrum.

I know she's upset and insecure, and that the move has affected her negatively - she misses her old place, her old routine, and her bigger cage up there (finances have not allowed me to ship or rebuy the old cage yet, this one is a bit smaller but more than adequate for 1 bird.)

I also know she is healthy, stools look normal, eyes are bright and feathers are fine. She handled the actual traveling part really well and quietly greeted me from within her kennel when she arrived, which makes this all even more ironic. Her diet is unchanged. 

What can I do? I can deal with the noise as it's not that terrible by parroty standards and I could always put her outside, but at this point I'm worried about her well being. This is all going on while I'm still UNEMPLOYED and home most of the day. God knows how bad this behavior will get when I start work up again, she might even get bitey or pluck.

I was considering getting her a friend - after all she has been bonded to me for over a year now and I should be able to introduce a buddy without losing her love. However adding a new bird could upset the poor thing's nerves even more even if it helps her loneliness and boredom problems in the long run.

Any help would be greatly appreciated from both of us.


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## kirbulous (Jul 21, 2010)

Kirby was not quite this bad but I think he was on the way to being this kind of screamer. I got him a buddy and while he is still getting used to having a bird around the screaming has definitely slowed. Although I'll admit that initially I had two screaming birds. Now that they are getting used to each other they don't scream quite so much.
Getting your bird comfortable with change is important. Rearranging the cage every other week or at least monthly is a good idea. She needs to learn to deal with change. Positive reinforcement with treats and comforting from you should help her to learn.
But be sure not to respond to screaming, only respond to silence even if it's only 3 seconds of silence to begin with. Then slowly increase the amount of time that you wait until one day she realizes that screaming isn't necessary to get your attention. You could also train her to make a less annoying sound to get your attention. My birds have learned that whistling a tune gets my attention more quickly over screaming so while they do sometimes start to scream they quickly switch to whistling and I respond to that. Good luck :tiel1::tiel3:


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## gio (Aug 1, 2010)

Have you tried music or new toys?


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## Whitefacefan (Aug 1, 2010)

I have tried music after hearing her screeching turn into a weird series of warbles after I left the room, perhaps singing? Or since it was rock music, maybe she was just telling me to turn off that racket! Singing would be odd either way since she has been sexed as a female, but then again she's obviously one of the more vocal ones. I also allow her to sing (scream) with me at least once every couple of days with silly karaoke.
I'm going to leave calmer new age/ambient music on in the background whenever I leave since the TV doesn't seem to be cutting it. 

I will also try new toys soon. She really doesn't care about toys in general and rarely plays with them, even her favorite wood chew/fruit shaped toys. But she does like dummy birds. I know those are not recommended but they did help when she was on her way to being a screamer at my old place, and whenever she began to show signs of possessive aggression it was simply removed from the cage until she showed signs of loneliness again. She pays zero attention to mirrors.

From the sounds of it, it appears that a companion really will be the only long term solution.


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## Siobhan (Mar 21, 2010)

Try classical music. Most of the music my birds hear is when I'm practicing, and Freddie (and Clyde) seem to prefer classical. Freddie was all wound up today and doing a lot of "pay attention to ME" squawking until I started playing the piano, and when i played a classical piece, he switched to whistling and quit pacing.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

I think a feathered companion will help alot, go for it.


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## Whitefacefan (Aug 1, 2010)

I'm at the end of my rope. I've tried everything over these past few weeks.
For the past week I've given her 2 hours of time every day, with the rest of the day in her cage spent 3 feet from me. I've given her one hour of "karaoke" in which we both sing (scream) for an hour or so, with the other hour being quiet play time. 
I've put things that she seems to enjoy nibbling at while outside the cage, that I don't care about of course, inside the cage for her to munch on. I've given her tons of millet. I've tried whistling quietly when the cage is off. Been playing all genres of music I could think of for her, absolutely nothing seems to calm her down. 
I've only been blanketing her for short periods of time when the screaming gets really bad but it's not helping, the screaming resumes immediately. 

She literally spends all of her time stuck in place screaming, and is stressing herself out to the point where she is flighty and anxious outside the cage and is making watery stools despite being healthy. This is bad for her body as well as my ears, and we are both very unhappy. 

Although the solution could be another bird, she is very people bonded and my biggest fear is that she completely rejects their presence, or worse, rather than accepting her new friend she teaches him/her to scream like crazy too.

The biggest problem is that I start work soon, and while right now I'm pretty much here most of the day, soon I will be working part time but still irregular hours. If she can't handle me being gone from the room long enough to take a shower, heaven knows how she will handle being completely alone for hours while I work.

I'm considering rehoming her. Maybe her flocking instincts are just too strong to be happy in regular tiel life, and she needs the company of others in an aviary or a multi parrot household in order to be truly happy.


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## Hemlock (Aug 1, 2010)

We were having the same issues with Rio, and it was particularly hard since she wasn't allowed out of her cage except for cleaning and brief hello's for nearly a year due to surgery and some healing issues. So, she became very vocal. She's now allowed to come out briefly (but we have to be very careful). We ended up getting her a companion, and as soon as we brought him home and he was out of quarantine, Rio turned into a completely different bird. We got a Green Cheek (calculated risk on the noise), and neither one of them is overly vocal. We hear from Rio occasionally, and Simon makes a decent amount of noise, but neither squawks or screams.

We're in the process of getting another cockatiel and I'm curious to see what will happen there, but I'm hoping it won't make it too bad!


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## Ezzie (Jan 19, 2010)

I feel your pain, i really do.

Buddy has developed this "flock call" which is a high pitched scream, and he does it all throughout the day, same pitch and everything, it really does drive me to my breaking point where i end up screaming at him in frustration.

It also doesnt help my grandparents think its "cute" to call back to him from downstairs, So now whenever im not in the room or he hears something outside of my room, he starts screaming for attention or a reply, Thanks grandparents.

I have tried so many different things but none works!
Still, i would rather burst my ear drums then give him away.

If you are at the end of your thread, maybe rehoming her would be the better option to someone who can stand it.
If your looking for a new home find someone who has more then a single bird, someone who had a bird ROOM, or someone who just can "tune out".


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## tielmom (Aug 4, 2010)

I hear ya...we have a Lutino who can scream louder than any tiel I have ever heard.
Sometimes when he is on my shoulder and I am at the computer he gets startles and will make that really shriel scream that nearly pops my eardrums...I mean my ears hurt and were ringing after wards. He seems to get really vocal when I lay my baby down for his nap...of course. I think it is because I am gone and he can not see me. I have to use a loud fan so my son will not wake up. (it does not always work though). Once he gets started the other three usually chime in and I am ready to run out the door. lol


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## Dave & Tito (Aug 1, 2010)

I am having a similar issue with my bird Tito. There is a chance I've made this monster! But we're on our way to fixing it.

Tito is a very happy bird, loves my partner and I and would spend all day on our shoulders if he could. He ALSO screams when we leave the room, like you I take a shower and can hear him scream for the duration until I'm in sight again at which point the screaming stops.

I believe he's screaming for two reasons:
- to maintain contact with us when he can't see us, the 'flock call'
- to DEMAND that we come back

We're trying two things at the moment;
1. He has two calls that he makes when we're out of sight, one is a glass-breaking high pitched scream and the other is a cute little peep. When we're in another room he'll scream but we'll wait for a peep, and when that happens we'll peep back and often throw in a 'good boy'. We can peep back and forth for a minute or so before he tries screaming again. We never respond to the scream and we try not to re-enter the room when he screams. Sometimes if it's driving us mad we'll storm in (silently) and cover his cage. Once he's been quiet for a about two minutes we immediately uncover him and praise him a lot for being quiet, we whisper when we do this too. The goal here is to replace the scream with either a more tolerable peep, or silence.

2. We're trying our very best not to re-enter the room while he is screaming. This is taking a lot of discipline and it's hard not to be late for work due to hiding out in whatever room we're in waiting for the screaming storm to pass. 'Quiet' however can simply be ten five to eight seconds of silence. As soon as this valuable window appears we reapper and praise him a lot.

Both of these are working but they take SO MUCH effort. The hard part is remembering to praise him for sitting quietly when ordinarily you wouldn't notice a bird sitting quietly or think to praise him, or you might just want to soak in the precious silence. This takes a lot of discipline.

Good luck to you and your lovely bird!


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## bumblebear (Nov 15, 2009)

I know your pain. My Mogley always seemed to never be satisfied with the attention I give her; she'd scream bloody murder whenever I left the room or even turned my back! Fortunately I also enabled the quiet-and-reward technique and it's been working well. I'm not sure if it is because my budgie Bear shares his cage (a very big cage that set me back...waaaay back  ) but she seems for independent and okay. All I did was simply leave the room and she'd flock call and I'd whistle a certain whistle back. If she started screaming again I'd ignore it until she calms down and I'd come back in with a millet.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

This seems very familar, I took on a cockatiel from some people because they couldn't take the flock calling anymore, the noise was driving them mad. He is fine now as he's with other cockies and one that he's singled out as his companion. This is what I say about Cockatiels, they aren't easy birds to keep, why they are thought of as a childs pets or starter bird I don't know, I think they are basically like mini versions of Cockatoos regarding needing lots of attention and if anyone knows what they are like they'll know what I mean.


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## mpayjr (Aug 16, 2010)

I know what you guys are going through. My cockatiels scream LOUD when I walk out the room and get quiet when I come back. They only do this to me because I spend more time with them than anybody else in my family. They have even tried biting through the bars if there is someone else in the room alone without me. 

One of the best things to do (and I've only had my first cockatiels for a short time) is to put them on a schedule or train them like Dave & Tito is doing. I have been doing this for the past few days and I think they are actually starting to catch on. They don't yell for me as much. But I'm not sure if this is also partially do to their new eggs.


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## Siobhan (Mar 21, 2010)

Birds squawk. It's part of having a bird. The flock call, which is what it sounds like yours is doing, is the way they check in with each other to make sure everyone's safe. He wants you to answer him, so he knows you're safe when he can't see you. Constant screaming means something is wrong. Is his water clean? Food full? Anything in the room that he can see that could be frightening him? Sounds he doesn't recognize? Could he be in pain? 

At least twice a day, all five of my birds raise the roof for a while in what we call the Morning and Evening Squawk. Then they all settle down and while the budgies and Freddie usually continue chattering or singing, it's at a much softer volume. When Freddie wants attention, he makes a particular noise which is VERY loud and if I go in and talk to him for a few minutes, he'll stop.


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