At our wits end with the squawk habit

[Cooper]

I need some advice if anyone has some. I haven't been able to spend as time as usual with Cooper, we'll be adding a new addition to the family next January, and I've just been very tired and usually sleeping when I'm not at work. I know that I need to make more effort to spend time with her, and am working on this.

But the problem is that she has escalated her squawk-a-second-pay-attention-to-me routine. We try to ignore it as we had been before. Ignore the bad noise, praise the quieter chatter bit. But the constant squawking (not a little chirp) has become, well, constant. We can't ignore her when she does this now, it's too much.

When I get home from work, I try to give her lots of attention right away. Even bringing her with me around the house as I do whatever. Then when I put her back, she'll start up again. It's the same thing in the morning after I get up, say good morning and give Cooper breakfast, and she starts as soon as I am away from her.

I thought that maybe a second bird would help with her boredom, but we wouldn't be able to double the bird attention time for a second bird.

Any advice would be great! What will help when she's at home and we're at work? Any hope for us ever breaking the constant squawk habit? At least I know the baby will be able to sleep through anything if it learns to nap through this.

[LauraO]

It sounds as if Cooper is just lonely and missing you. The best thing to do is keep her on a schedule of love and attention as much as possible. In the morning, you could put a perch in the bathroom or where you get ready for work and just put her back when you leave. If she has a perch/playstand that's mobile you can move it around to where you spend most of your time. My grey Mijo just likes me to be near him whether I'm paying direct attention to him or not. If I leave he gets upset....You may also want to try and get Cooper some new toys to keep her occupied, and I know you don't have time for double the bird attention but if you are not going to have any time for Cooper in the forseeable futrure you might consider a friend for her........I know it gets hard to always spend time with our fids but it's necessary to make the time whether we feel good, bad, busy, or whatever.


Good luck:)

[Wheeliegirl]

I do the same thing that LauraO does. In the morning, after I've showered, I get Peachie out of her cage. She is with me (or exploring around the bedroom) while I put my make up on and straighten the bedroom. Then we're off to the kitchen to prepare some fresh veggies and my coffee and lunch. After that she is back in her cage. It seems by this time (hour and a half) she is happy to go back to her cage for a rest.

When I get home from work I let her out and she's usually supervising dinner preparations for me.

The weekends are toughest, because she does the same thing that you describe. I often have to close the bedroom door so I can watch TV in peace! I try to get her out for an hour or so 2-3 times a day on the weekends, but it isn't always easy. When she is out she is pretty quiet, for the most part, but she does spend a lot of time chattering to me, and we end up whistling back and forth to each other, which annoys the other humans in the house :whistle:

Sometimes I put her on the patio for a while. She is protected in her cage, and preoccupied by the other birds and sounds outside. But usually, there isn't much to keep her "quiet" when she feels like squawking, except to let her out of her cage. Other times I just have to tune her out by putting my ipod on or just ignoring her.

[Buy A Paper Doll]

I do the same thing. I've been working tons of hours lately. Consequently Melody has started screaming. I've been spending extra time with them by letting them "help" me in the mornings with getting their cage ready, eating breakfast, putting on makeup and stuff. Then after about 30 minutes, the birds go in the cage, I swap out my ratty, pooped-on "bird shirt" for my work clothes and I'm out the door. It doesn't take me any more time or energy, but it makes a huge difference to M&M.

Also, like Holly, when I just can't take it anymore, the bird cage goes outside on the screened porch, where they can scream to their hearts' content.

[Kirby]

It's actually quite funny hearing Skittles SCREAM for attention.... I am usually on the computer or watching TV and (I try to do this when no one else is home) I mimic her sounds and yell it back at her... It's HILARIOUS watching her stand up and be all "WHAT? NO... IM THE ONE WANTING YOUR ATTENTION" and she's very fat (50 grams) so it's all Jabba the Hut-like with the chubby-ness hehe

I usually take Kirby with me into the bathroom when having a shower, when I blow dry my hair, Kirby loves to have the low warm setting blown on him and will usually fall asleep on the towel rack. He'll come onto the counter to make my lunch sometimes too or just truck around on his play gym or harass Skittles)

[eeyoresdad]

I'd go with toys too. My cookie doesn't really mind at all when she's got some toys. The best ones are the small but long spiral cords. You know, the ones for the keychains. I have something at the end of it for her to chew on. Before I got them in, she screams like crazy. I like the attention but the little toys always gets her cheered up. Idunno, just a suggestion. She likes how complicated it is for her. Hope this helps.

[Mummieeva]

I will tell you what I did with my birds when I was pregnant. I would go into the bird room and open cages and sit in a chair and let them fly around. Then later in the afternoon when they were back in cage I would wheel it out to living room and nap on the couch. It seemed to calm them down some and we were still together.


Steph

[graushill]

I have to read a lot for my work, so instead of reading in the study, I usually do it in the bedroom where I have a comfy chair and a desk beside my flock's cages. One thing I've noticed is that when I'm sitting quietly and focusing on something else, they will usually calm down and chatter quietly or take a nap. I guess they feel Mamma is here and that's okay. Maybe this could also be a way for you to spend more time with Cooper and still get to do other things as well.

Their chatter rarely disturbs me anyway, but my husband who's more noise sensitive than I am sometimes wears earplugs if he thinks the noise is too much. This is of course not a long term solution but it works in a pinch.

Good luck,
Gloria

[Cooper]

It's good to hear that we have not totally messed up (we're not bad fid parents - phew) and that sometimes it's just something they do.

I've really been trying to give her more time out of the cage. In small doses anyways, the hubby's really poo-phobic (good thing he got me a bird!). If I'm changing, I'll let her explore the bed and she can splash around under the tap in the sink when I'm having a shower. She's been better and the squawking now comes out as a sign that she didn't get out enough.

She doesn't really pay attention to the outside birds, but then I don't want her picking up the stellars jay caw caw. She has been enjoying her toys more now that she gets out more. But one of her favourites is the toilet paper roll. As soon as she sees it she'll perk up and hop around all excited. We just don't go through enough toilet paper.

So things have been better, and I'm glad that I'm not alone!