Why you shouldn’t give your birds attention when they scream.
By Marianka Meiring
One of the most common reasons for parrots being surrendered is their screaming.
It is important to understand the reasons why your parrot is screaming and how to handle each scenario. Listen closely to your parrot and you’ll quickly realize that their screaming is due to either being bored, seeking attention, being injured, stressed, not feeling well or an expression of joy.
We unintentionally teach our parrots to scream when we pay attention to their screaming bouts. Research shows that if we want this behaviour to continue then we need to pay attention to it. We fail at trying to control the situation by yelling back at the parrot or by running to them every time they scream. We are positively reinforcing their bad behaviour by going to parrots and giving them the attention, they are demanding. Birds are very clever, they quickly learn that screaming will lead to attention, in this way they are training their owners instead of the other way around.
Yelling at your parrot when they are screaming, isn’t helping you at all. In the wild parrots ‘scream’ to locate each other or to communicate with each other about food, predators and they also ‘chat’ at dusk (flock calling). So, if you think they will respond to your yelling by being quiet you are mistaken, all you are doing is reinforcing their screaming as they take that that you are busy having a conversation with him/her. They see it as bonding time!
So, what can I do to decrease my parrot’s screaming bouts? One way is by rewarding them when they are playing by themselves and being quiet. The best way to respond to screaming is to ignore the screaming and positively reinforce quiet behaviour by paying attention to them during the times when they are playing quietly. After a while, they will notice that screaming does not accomplish the same response from you, and that quiet behaviour leads to the attention they desire. Rewarding positive behaviour is acceptable and ignoring unacceptable behaviour is the best way to deal with problem behaviours in parrots.
Pictured is Marcel an umbrella cockatoo adopted by team member Marianka in July 2020.
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