Noisy Bird!

[aliceandtheowl]

I know, I know, Lovebirds are supposed to be noisy!

But I was wondering what other people do when they are trying to get something done and their bird is beginning to...well, drive them a little bit nuts :)

For some reason, my lovebird is especially loud around my boyfriend. If I am home alone, she is usually relatively quiet and will screech loudly occasionally, but mostly makes soft chirps, sits on my shoulder and grooms herself quietly, plays with her toys in her cage. But when he is here with me, or when he is home alone, she becomes very persistent and screechy. Even when he takes her out to play with her, she will sometimes snuggle him, but mostly she walks back and forth on his shoulders as if to announce her dominance! This is troublesome because he does a lot of work from home, and sometimes when he's trying to get some work done, she goes into loud-mode. I've witnessed this and it is quite grating on the ears. In the past, with my other boyfriend (a couple years back), it was very similar. She really enjoyed running back and forth on his shoulders, screaming. Sometimes I think it's just a thing she has with males. I have noticed that when she's vocalizing a lot, if my boyfriend leaves the house, as soon as the door shuts she's calm again.

But lately, she has even been quite noisy around me. I realize that it's normal for lovebirds to vocalize, but sometimes I think, come on! A lot of the time, I can't put my finger on what the "problem" is because sometimes she'll get really loud even after I have given her treats or snuggles or playtime.

I do try to ignore the noise and not "reward" the noisiness. Sometimes we have to put her in a separate room, and I feel really bad about it, but I live in a condo and the walls are quite thin. My neighbors are quite stingy and I'm afraid that the noise will become annoying for them, too...

Ideas?

[Enko_chan]

The issue with the significant other sounds like a jealousy thing, and I am willing to bet that when she is being loud, she is wanting attention from you.

Have you tried playing music, or a movie softly near her cage? Sometimes other "people noises" can soothe them. Sometimes dogs will think "people are home" (although I really doubt even most dogs will fall for this) but with parrots they will know the difference, but will often be soothed by the "people sounds". My quaker parrot, Kokoro, will even ask to "watch a movie" if nothing is on and he is bored, and will ask me to "turn it up" if he can't hear it well enough. Since lovebirds usually lack the ability to ask for things that way, all they can do is scream and hope you can figure out what they want. Believe me, she isn't trying to drive you insane!

[Pips mom]

Pip has always been a pretty quiet lil guy! but Rudy....boy can he make noise! he doesn't do it often, but when he does.....I have told him a few times on occasion that he is the noisiest lovebird in the world!! Only thing that works with Rudy is if I wheel his cage to wherever I am, and even then, him and Pip will yell back and forth to each other! When it comes to noisey birds......you just can't win sometimes I think and it's certainly nothing you're going to do be able to change just like that. I guess you have to look at the boyfriend thing and maybe pick a room furthest from the neighbors when he handles her! I hope your neighbors don't mind the birdie noise!

[Chickobee]

If there are times when you particularly want your bird to be quieter here are a few things you can try:

- Let your bird take a bath. They usually spend a lot of time quietly preening after their bath.

- Give your bird a foraging toy with treats it has to work for such as treats wrapped in paper or inside a small box.

- Give your bird an irresistable toy to destroy like a pinata, yucca, or a small basket.

- Offer a millet spray. They are usually good for 15-20 minutes of silence.

- Or, wear earplugs!!! :rotfl

[Z28Taxman]

Ditto is generally a quiet bird. But he gets moods where he wants everyone within 2 miles to know he exists. the best way to avoid it when I don't want him to scream is to have planned scream fests. I'll get him going and we scream for 20 minutes or so. Then he gets it all out of his system and has to eat for an hour to recover his energy. :rofl:


My neighbors probably think I'm nuts. :omg:

[thebubbleking]

cant help here i have sun conures so to me no lovebirds realy that loud all about perspective i guess lol

[Enko_chan]

I hear ya, Bubbleking... Koko may not hold a candle to multiple Suns, but next to him, I don't even know if my lovebirds are noisy. They make extra noise extra early on Fridays, cos its their play morning, but we only notice that because we're asleep next to their cage when the noise starts! I grew up in a multiple loud Sun, Jenday, and Nanday Conure home... plus many other birds, so I know right where you are coming from.

I did think of one other thing, though, aliceandtheowl. If this screaming thing aside from whilst playing with the boyfriend is "newer", I am wondering if you could pinpoint an event that began it...

i.e. adding a new thing to her cage

adding a new item to your bedroom within view of the cage

Sometimes Kokoro's screaming jags will have to do with a particular object that he does not like. My other birds couldn't care less about things like that, but Kokoro and to a much lesser extent our Benny (though he only cares about the location of one particular object) can be set off by these things, and will not stop screaming while they're in their cages so long as this "thing" they don't like is around.

[bookworm0550]

i've grown used to mine. sometimes they are extremely loud, but there isn't anything i can do about it so i just let them be. i don't know if my neighbors finds it annoying or not. if mine are in their cages and being loud to get my attention and i don't pay any to them, a few of them will slam their food cage up and down and joey will tilt his water bowl in anger to get my attention. but that's when they want out and i'm too busy cooking or cleaning to let them out.

[bird-brain]

It's like some of you have said, noise is relative. At the moment I have 3 conures calling back and forth to one another...........Cabo is as noisy a lovebird as I have ever heard but it's usually happy singing and it doesn't bother me at all so I have never tried to quiet him. Distraction works well with the conures though.