help, my cockatail is driving me crazy

**jodie** · 06-03-2008, 09:37 AM

hi, im new at this so please bare with me. I have an 18 month old male cockatail. He has developed the most terriable habit of screaming when left alone in the room. The sound makes me want to rip my ears off. He will steadly scream until someone, anyone comes back in the room. I have no idea what to do to stop this. I tryed talking to him but he doesnt listen very well.

I do limit his awake time to help the hormones and I make sure his cage is clean and his food and water are full. I would appriciate any help anyone can give me on this matter since Im being driven nuts.

**Husky_mom** · 06-03-2008, 03:30 PM

Hi,... welcome.... as for your problem I ´m no expert but what you are actually doing by "pleasing" him in coming back after he screams his lungs out is just reinforcing it... so now he sees it as "if i scream he comes back".... so he screams......

it may be painful (for your ears) but next time he does that just ignore him... and do your regular things... when he shuts up then got o him and offer some treat like millet.... so he associates being nice and quiet with tasty food and YOU....

**Pawsitive Thinking** · 06-06-2008, 10:29 AM

invest in some ear plugs until he gets the message

**Logan** · 06-06-2008, 02:52 PM

Cockatiels can be quite loud. Mine always seem to crank up the volume when I'm on an important phone call

Wish I had some answers, but it sounds like he's asking you for more attention, which may or may not be warranted. I do think ours settled down some once we got him a partner. Of course, he also stopped learning anything new because we weren't as important to him. I do find that ours settle down in the early evening and sleep for at least 12 hours.

As I'm typing, mine is talking his head off! LOL!

**WhenInDoubt** · 07-21-2008, 07:16 PM

I agree with Husky_mom. You’re just reinforcing the behavior when you return to the room. I’m not sure how you’d go about stopping the screaming, but ignoring it would be the best I think. I know it’s hard, I used to have some very loud birds as well! There are also many professional bird websites (and magazines and books) out there that will tell you all you need to know about stopping your bird from screaming. Good luck with it!

**imadognut** · 08-02-2008, 01:15 AM

I have a year old tiel and he was always wanting attention. We solved it by getting another male and now they are best buddies and all we hear are lovely whistles, and tweeting. They are both very affectionate with us still and love people attention, but having a buddy was the best thing we did for him.