I cant shut my budgie up!!!!

Question

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Followup To

Question -
I have had my Opaline budgie for just over two months now and he is four months old. He wasn't hand reared and is proving difficult to tame, especially as he has such a nasty bite!
The main problem I am having is that just over the last couple of weeks he has started screaming and screaching at the top of his lungs and it lasts all day. He is so loud with it that my next door neighbour asked it if was an African Grey that we were keeping!
I don't know how to keep him quiet. He gets an awful lot of attention and toys to keep him occupied when we are out but I can't stop this overly loud shouting. Can someone pleeeeeeezzzzzeeee help?!


Answer -
Hi, Fiona.  Thanks for posting.

Parrots don't normally scream and screach at the top of their lungs all day for no reason.  Something has to be amiss here with your situation.  However, I need more details about what's going on, especially things that might have happened about the time the screaming/screeching started...did something in the household change that caused this to start, are you keeping your budgie in his cage more now than before, are you out more now than before, addition/deletion of people/other pets, what type of diet is bird on, does he get proper lighting, etc., etc.  The more details you can provide, the better I might be able to help.

Chrys

Hi,
Thanks for your response to my question. Nothing in the household has changed recently. The screaming and screeching really started with the hot weather - he seems to almost be in a permanent bad mood. He has a bath or two every day, which he really enjoys, and is kept in a shaded area of the room. He is fed on a seed mix and some lettuce and spinach a couple of times a week. He has twelve hours sleep each day and is covered with a sheet at night. There has only ever been myself and my partner in the house. My Tokay gecko died recently but my budgie is in an area af the room where he coldn't see him. He has never been out of his cage. He wasn't hand reared when I bought him and I'm still in the process of trying to tame him and get him used to human contact. We were making great progress until he started with his screaming and now he's very snappy. He has a very large cage but I still want to get him trained so he can come out to exercise but he's just so bad tempered now. He gets plenty of attention - I spend half of my spare time talking to him and trying to finger train him and that level of attention has not decreased. He has natural sunlight through the day and when it gets dark he is normally falling asleep so he is covered until the morning. He is not interupted by the television or noise of any description during these hours. I was wondering if he may need a friend or if there is some other way to sort this problem out.
Thanks,
Fiona

Answer
Hi again, Fiona.  There's always a way to figure out a problem with a bird!  May take some time, but most problems can be figured out.

Is this bird's wing flight feathers clipped?  Clipping the feathers helps keep a tame bird tame and helps in taming one down because the bird is at your mercy for mobility.  In other words, the bird won't be able to get away from you when you are working with him.  With full flight, they can just fly away when they want to.  

Do you allow your keet to come out of it's cage during the day or when you are home?  If not, this could be one reason why he is screaming.  Perhaps he wants to be out with you.  I know this is harm at first, but with clipped wings, you just have to let the bird out, pick him up when he falls/climbs down from his cage, and work with him on a daily basis.  For example, when you and your partner are watching TV in the evening, let the bird out to sit on his cage.  Eventually, the bird will get curious and most likely venture around his area.  Just keep watching TV and see what he does.  Also, when working with him, sometimes it's better to take the bird into a neutral room where the bird can't see/get access to it's cage.  It's cage is it's safety zone/personal territory and most birds try to get back to their cages when in a situation they are not comfortable with.  Once in the neutral room, place the bird on a stand, bed, floor, etc., and just interact with him.  Talk to him, practice geting him up on your finger, etc.  However, once you lose his attention/focus, stop the session, and start again another time.

Also, since it's breeding season, his hormones might be running rampant, thus, his bad mood.  Not much can be done about this...just have to let him be his bad self until it passes.

About the geiko, if the geiko was in the same room with the bird, the bird knew the geiko was there!  Birds have excellent eye sight and can see things you don't even know are there.  Perhaps the bird misses the geiko.  This could be a reason for the screaming.

About getting a companion...the best pet bird is a single bird in the home.  This is because birds prefer other birds to humans.  Of course, this decision is yours, but getting him a companion will likely ensure your keet will not be tame/able to be tamed.  

Is the bird too hot during the day with the hot weather?  Cages birds can't/don't tolerate being too hot.  They can become accustomed to/live well in fairly cool temps, but heat is bad for them/hard on them.  If your keet is kept in temps above say 80 degrees F max, he's probably too hot.  

Sunlight through a window is not proper light for a bird.  The glass in a window deflects certain UV rays the bird needs.  A better light would be a full spectrum bulb in some type of lamp (shop light, bird light, fixture over the cage, etc.).  Depending on the type fixture you would use, you can purchase bulbs or tube bulbs, etc., such as you'd buy for a reptile, aquarium fish, plants, and light fixtures/bulbs just for birds are readily available at pet shops that cater to birds.

Diet - seed is bad for birds...high in fat, little nutrition.  Lettuce has no nutritional value at all.  Spinach is good!  It would be great to convert your bird to a pellet/seed mix.  Keep up with the spinach, but introduce other types of food.  A poor diet can result in bad behavior (a bird may just not feel well all the time).  Sometimes, birds can get vitamin deficiencies, etc., due to poor diet, lack of proper lighting, etc.  This can make them not feel well and be grumpy all the time.

Think about these things and let me know if any of them make any sense to you/might be a connection.  Having answers to my questions might also help figure this out!  I have a website with lots of info on birds if I didn't give it to you before:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

Thanks.

Chrys