215-946-5964
lwilsoncvt@att.net
www.upatsix.com/liz
Excessive screaming is a common behavior problem with
companion parrots. This is a complex issue, and not always easily resolved.
Parrots are not by nature quiet animals, as attested by those who have observed
them in the wild. Nature has equipped them with prodigious voices and they seem
biologically required to use them. For instance, in Brazil, you can apparently
hear a flock of wild macaws coming from five miles away.
‘Normal’ sound levels vary with species. Cockatoos
generally seem to sound off with an ear-splitting racket twice daily, dawn and
dusk, whereas the macaws seem more inclined to vocalize (loudly) off and on
throughout the day.
Theories of Relativity
Some species are reputed to be "quiet," but this
concept is relative. To be considered quiet in the parrot world, a species need
only be quieter than the species that are considered to be noisy. In the dog
world, this is like saying a terrier is quieter than a beagle. As the old
saying goes, If you want a quiet pet, get a reptile or a fish.
Screaming continually for maybe 15-20 minutes, several times
per day, could be considered "normal" behavior for a parrot,
depending on species and individual. However, screaming non-stop for hours at a
time would obviously be considered excessive.
Seasonal Screaming
The time of year can be an important factor with excessive
noise. The moment the days start to lengthen, many parrots respond by starting
to scream much more than they normally do. This is strictly seasonal behavior,
and if the owners can hang in there and not accidentally reward the behavior,
the birds will settle down on their own after a few weeks. Accidental rewards
will be discussed shortly.
Time Limits
The problem
inherent for the parrot behavior analyst in dealing with many cases of unreasonable
noise is that the problem is exacerbated by a limited time frame.
Unfortunately, many owners allow negative behaviors to continue for a long
time, not seeking help until an ultimatum has been set by family members,
neighbors, landlords or even the local police. However, it takes time to create
behavior problems and it takes time to change them. Consequently, these issues
are not fixed overnight, which is, of course, what the owner needs.
The judicious use
of earplugs can often prevent the dilemma from worsening while the people are
trying to improve the situation. People usually laugh when I suggest this, but
it is not said in jest. Deadening the sound can often reduce the incredible
tension that builds up as an animal screams, preventing the problem from being
worsened by an angry outburst. [As an aside, there are a large number of
shrieking, tantrum-throwing spoiled human brats that are still alive today,
thanks to my prudent use of earplugs when trapped with them on extended plane
flights.]
Often, angry neighbors are mollified when they hear the
owners are actively working on resolving the problem. However, the primary
obstacle to improvement in parrot behavior is the impatience of the caretakers.
Unintentional Rewards
From my
experience, parrots that scream constantly are birds that have been rewarded
for screaming. It is easy to understand why human caretakers give these birds
what they want, since obsessive screamers can be a nightmare with which to
live. People reach a point where they will do almost anything to quiet
them.
So they offer treats, let the birds out of their cages,
or pick them up, etc. – thereby rewarding the behavior. Having spent inordinate
amounts of time around a number of parrots that screamed excessively, it is
also no mystery to me why so many screaming parrots end up abused.
Consistency &
Teamwork
To change an
unwanted behavior, parrot people must be clear, consistent, and above all, patient.
They must also change their own behaviors that created or exacerbated the
parrots' conduct.
If there are
multiple humans in the household, there must be a group effort whereby all
members are consistent in their approach to the bird. Regrettably, one person
rewarding the bird (inadvertently or not) can totally negate any progress the
others might make.
Step By Step
Analyzing a parrot’s excessive screaming and
attempting to resolve the problem requires a step-by-step approach. First, an
avian veterinarian should do a full medical work-up, to be certain there is not
a physical reason for the racket.
The normal noise level of the home must be reviewed. I
vividly remember a phone call from a woman complaining bitterly about her noisy
parrot – but the conversation was almost obliterated by the background noise of
a blaring television, barking dogs, and shrieking children.
Another woman wanted to know how to stop her Amazon from
barking like a dog – but she still had the dog. (Why she objected to the parrot
but not the dog was beyond me.) Noisy environments beget noisy parrots.
Physical & Management
Causes
When the parrot does not have everything it needs for a happy,
healthy life in captivity, problems will result. For example, when my own macaw
had an annoying screaming episode a few years ago, and just as I was ready to
scream at her (parrot behavior analysts screw up, too) investigation revealed
(to my chagrin) that her pellet bowl had fallen and she was without food.
Other Problem Etiologies
Other management issues that can be the etiology or cause of
excessive noise problems would include: cage location, boredom, inadequate food
and/or water, sleep deprivation and a lack of exercise.
Cage Location:
Depending on individual personality, cage location can have a tremendous impact
on sound levels. If a parrot is gregarious, being caged in a room by itself
often results in increased vocalization, as the bird calls repeatedly for the
rest of its flock.
If
a parrot’s cage is against a window, then the bird has a full 360-degree view
in which to watch for, and warn about, predators. As a prey animal, this poor
bird has little or no opportunity to relax. Occasionally, relief from excessive
screaming can be virtually instantaneous if a hiding place is provided in the
cage, or the cage is moved, at least partially, against a solid wall.
Boredom: Just as boredom is a
primary cause of behavior problems in adolescent humans, it is also a major
source of problem behaviors for many companion parrots. Home alone for hours
while owners work, many parrots are expected to just sit there.
Avian veterinarian James Harris described the generic wild
parrot's day as being divided into quarters. One quarter of the day is spent
interacting with one's mate and other flock members. Two quarters are spent
locating, procuring and eating food. The remaining quarter is spent grooming (Behavior
round table discussion, Annual Conference of the Association of Avian
Veterinarians, 1996).
The average companion parrot in this country is alone most of
the day, has few or no interesting toys and has a food cup under its nose. No
wonder that many birds get into aberrant behaviors such as feather destruction
or excessive noise. After all, what else is there to do? Ideally,
parrots need small numbers of stimulating toys, rotated on a weekly basis to
keep life interesting. By toy rotation, I mean the following: once a week,
remove one toy from the cage and play area. Replace it with another toy the
bird has not seen in a couple of weeks, and then move the other toys around. By
doing this, the caretaker keeps the bird’s environment more interesting.
My friend and colleague Debbie Foushé described four
categories of parrot toys: chew toys, climbing toys, foot toys and puzzle toys
(“Play
Therapy.” THE PET BIRD REPORT, Issue # 23, 1995). One toy of each type (and
some are combinations), rotated weekly, would satisfy most parrots' need to
play, investigate and destroy, and also leave the bird plenty of room to play
madly. This would be in contrast to many cages that are so stuffed with toys
that the poor bird can barely move around, much less than do something fun and
athletic like swing on a toy.
Non-Toy Toys: Food
can be offered in new and interesting and/or challenging ways, such as stuffing
an empty tissue box with greens, suspending an entire clump of broccoli or
small squash from a hanging food holder, or hiding a nut within view but not
easy reach inside a puzzle toy. In a recent Bird Talk article, colleague
Chris Davis suggested making great food toys by suspending unsalted pretzels
and flour tortillas rolled with surprises inside on food skewers.
Lots
of safe, clean branches can be offered, complete with leaves when possible, for
shredding and flinging. Clumps of clean sod can also be great fun to tear apart
and fling around.
Parrots are extremely
intelligent animals and intelligent animals need challenges in their lives. As
a consequence, parrot owners need to spend time figuring out ways to keep their
birds occupied, especially during the long hours alone.
Sleep Deprivation:
Since most species of companion parrots are equatorial, they would be getting
10-12 hours of darkness year-round in the wild. However, in the human
environment this rarely happens and sleep deprivation can cause many aberrant
behaviors in parrots, just as it does with people.
Exercise:
According to researchers, wild parrots are extremely active animals, often
flying many miles between favorite roosts and feeding grounds. Clipped and
caged, companion parrots rarely have an opportunity to truly exercise.
According to veterinary ethologists (animal behaviorists), most behavior problems
in dogs would be alleviated by something as simple as increased exercise, and
we have found the same to be true with companion parrots.
Blowing Off Steam
To
prevent or help resolve behavior problems, we need to encourage our birds to
find acceptable outlets for their energy. Frequent long, soaking showers are
excellent energy-diffusers (as well as being excellent for feathering and
skin), and so are scheduled flapping exercise times. Owners who make a concentrated
effort to exercise their parrots, often have substantially quieter birds.
Necessary Controls
In my opinion, all parrot caretakers need to train
their parrots to respond to simple commands such as Up and Down, whether they
have a behavior problem or not. In
so doing, they establish themselves as outranking the parrot within the flock,
effectively demoting the animal to a submissive role. The caretaker (and anyone
else handling the bird) then constantly reaffirms this by always using
these commands. By establishing and maintaining a strong framework of
consistent controls, the owner will keep this position of rank. This will
assist in preventing serious problems from developing as the bird matures. If
problems already exist, it establishes the owner in a position to be able to
better change the bird’s behavior.
Flock Vs. Pack Structure
However, the flock structure appears to differ from the more
familiar structure of, for example, a dog pack. Once an owner has established
him or herself as the alpha with a dog, that person will hold that rank
indefinitely. The rank structure within a psittacine flock appears to be much
more fluid. In other words, the dominant individuals in a parrot flock probably
have to deal with constant challenges from other flock members, no matter how
well established it is in its role.
This is important to understand, because it is therefore
natural for a parrot to challenge authority constantly, rather like a human
teenager. This is not a reflection on the human's training ability. But people
cannot back down from a command they have given, or they risk losing their
superior rank and have to establish it again.
Keeping Diaries
It can be extremely useful to owners to see if there are
patterns to obsessive screaming episodes, so all people living in the household
should keep diaries for a couple of weeks.
Whenever
there is a screaming ‘event’, they should note the following: time of day; day
of the week; phase of the moon; mood of the people around the bird; his/her own
mood; the bird’s apparent mood; what is happening at the time; plus any other
information that might have a bearing on the parrot's behavior.
As
an aside, getting complaining neighbors involved in keeping diaries can be very
positive. They have now become a part of the problem resolution process.
After
10-14 days of data collection, the people get together and compare notes,
looking for patterns in the bird's excessive vocalizations. They are not to go
over their notes or discuss the content prior to that time, so that artificial
patterns are not created inadvertently created.
If there are patterns to the
screaming episodes, then caretakers can change these patterns before the
screaming starts, thus preventing the problem from even beginning.
For example, most dominant birds scream when the owners have
company. If so, owners can move the bird to a quiet part of the house prior to
the company’s arrival. A smaller sleep cage can be perfect for this. Giving the
bird a soaking shower prior to the move, then a fabulous new or different toy
(saved especially for this purpose), lots of safe branches with bark for
chewing, etc. plus a dish of luscious favorite foods, gives the bird lots to do
in its isolation.
Ignoring Bad Behaviors...
Owners must stay ahead of the screaming behavior, not wait
until it begins. When a parrot is behaving politely, not screaming, biting or
throwing food around, it is an unfortunate truth that we caretakers tend to
forget it is there. Then when the bird acts out, we pay attention, if only to
reprimand it. So it is being ignored when it is good, and gets attention for
being bad … and this is exactly the opposite of what we want.
… and Rewarding Good
Behaviors
Instead,
human flock members need to start rewarding their birds for sounds they like,
and they need to ignore the sounds they don't like. So if a bird talks, people
should respond to it. If it whistles, they should whistle back.
If on the other
hand, it screams while people are in the same room, they should be instructed
to give the bird a dirty look and pointedly turn their backs on it. This is an
example of using the bird's own body language to express their feelings, since
this is what parrots do when they are not pleased with something. If the racket
continues, they are to give the parrot another dirty look and leave the room.
The absolute worst thing the owners of a screamer
can do is yell back, since that is a prime example of the drama reward (S.
Blanchard, “Games Parrots Play”, BIRD TALK, Nov. 1991). If the bird is
squawking in another room, the owners can do absolutely nothing without
inadvertently rewarding the behavior. For example, if people go into a room to
cover the cages of their screaming birds, the parrots learn that raucous voices
can be used to make their humans appear. The fact that the birds end up covered
is probably not an association that is made.
A Better Tactic
As an alternative, the owners should wait until the birds
stop squawking – even for a couple of seconds – and then enter the room.
If the owners are consistent, their parrots will learn that screaming no longer
gets them the attention they crave – but this will take time and owners must be
patient.
Under NO circumstance are people to use punishment or
aggression. Negative feedback can destroy any potential for a trusting
relationship with their parrots. Besides, it simply doesn’t work.
Again, there must be full cooperation from everyone in
the environment. Birds will not change their behaviors if even one person is
yelling at them and therefore reinforcing their noise with drama.
The Exceptions
There are a couple of exceptions to the rule of ignoring
a parrot that is vocalizing excessively, and these need to be addressed.
The Flock Greeting:
Parrots seem to have an instinctive need to vocalize loudly when the
human flock comes home, and this is not a behavior that can be eliminated. This
is what Sally Blanchard calls The Flock Greeting. Instead, the human
caretaker needs to respond to this call. Rather than ignoring the bird when
arriving home, the human should go directly to the bird and greet it. Ideally,
the bird should be removed from its cage
with the Up command and
physically greeted, then given a treat to eat and returned immediately to its
cage. Owners can then go about their business, leaving the psittacid to munch
at leisure.
The Contact Call: For
a parrot, the flock represents the safety and protection of numbers, and a parrot
that becomes separated from its flock is likely to become another animal’s
lunch. Consequently, a prime function of that powerful voice is to enable
parrots to communicate with each other when other flock members are not
visible, for example when feeding in heavy foliage.
The call they use in this circumstance is called a contact
call, and when using it, a parrot is simply checking to make certain they
have not become separated from the security of the flock. Companion parrots
also do this, and they are simply making certain they are not alone.
Colleague Jane Hallander described African greys as
learning what she called human contact calls, such as the ringing of the
phone, and the beep of a microwave. Greys have therefore learned that certain
sounds in the human habitat always get a response, so they mimic these sounds
when they are seeking contact with the members of their human flock (“Contact
Calls: The Communication Link with Our Parrots,” PET BIRD REPORT, Issue #42).
People contact call to each other as well, like when I think I
hear my husband in the house. At first I might say, “David?” If there is no
response, my calling might change to “DAVID?” and a lack of response will
further escalate my calling to “DAVID!!”
In the same manner, when a parrot’s contact calls are not
answered they can often escalate to a scream — which generally gets a response.
So humans inadvertently teach a parrot that a polite contact call receives no
response. As a consequence, the parrot learns to use excessive noise instead.
After all, it works!
Therefore, when people realize their parrot is making a
contact call, they need to answer the bird’s polite vocalization from wherever
they are in the house. Otherwise, they risk teaching their parrots that only
loud, obnoxious noises get the response the birds need.
CONCLUSION
Parrots are by nature noisy animals, and they can be
nothing less. However, many parrots learn they get attention by screaming
excessively, and this sets them up for failure as a companion animal. One could
say that redundant screamers are birds that are unable to amuse themselves in
acceptable ways – if so, this problem can be perceived as a failure of
independence. Consequently, caretakers must find multiple acceptable activities
for their parrots, such as chewing and shredding wood, beating up on wonderful
toys, and eating (and throwing) lots of interesting and delectable foods.
After
all, the process of rehabilitating screamers is not to 'unlearn' the behavior.
Parrots will never be quiet animals, but through patience and consistency, they
can easily learn to replace obsessive noise with other behaviors that are more
acceptable to their human companions.
T T T T T