Screaming parrot update.

[jelandusn]

Well, it's been a short time but so far, for the last 3 days, there's been a huge improvement!! Things are still kind of bad but they're getting better. I can now go all over the room and be farther than 3 feet away from him for about an hour before he starts to get vocal. And before he starts screaming he says step up a few times. If I ignore that then he starts screaming. I've been working on leaving him on his cage while I leave the room. He can still see and hear me but he doesn't do so well with this. BUT, the good news is, now he only screams for 40 minutes before he stops as apposed to nonstop! Also, I've been playing our version of the peekaboo game where I hide around the corner and wait until he makes a good sound. When he does I peek around the corner and say peekaboo. He loves this game! It's gotten to where I can leave him in a room alone for about 2 minutes. I'm going to slowly increase this. He also does ok when we leave the house. He screams all while we're getting ready to go but 2 minutes after the door closes he's quiet. I've started training him to do tricks, but that's not going so well. Which is why I posted my next question. hehe Anyway, thanks so much for all the help! I've been keeping his schedule pretty strict, so I think that also helped things. My husband doesn't see any improvement but I see tons. The bad thing is, we're going to be moving in a couple of months so I'll probably have to go through the same thing again...

[Lisa B]

sounds like things are going well. keep up the good work!

[jelandusn]

We had a relapse yesterday. It was the worst day I've ever had!!! He screamed ALL DAY with maybe a half an hour break. I have switched to ignoring him when he screams and that was working well until today. He finally got quiet around dinnertime so I was able to play with him and feed him in the evening but he started to get loud again. I just couldn't take any more screaming so I put him to bed an hour early. I really hope this was a last ditch effort and today will be better. I'm actually dreading waking him up because I'm so worried today will be the same. I don't think I can go through a day like yesterday. Even though I listened to my Ipod it was still horrible. Plus, I feel bad because he gets even less attention than usual. He can always see me so he's not screaming because he's alone. He's screaming because I'm not right next to him.

[babypiggy]

dont give up...

[Lisa B]

there are going to be good days and bad. something was bothering him yesterday and he has not other way to tell you.

[sweetpeaches]

these guys are so smart, sometimes i wonder who's training who..smile...don't give up!
there are some good books out there you can read too that might help.

[jenseits]

Have you read up on the "extinction burst"? It might be that this is the turning point and you're almost at the dawn. Chin up, keep reinforcing the good behavior and ignoring the screaming (as best as possible)... you could possibly be very close to success.

[jelandusn]

I have read up on the extinction burst and hopefully that's what that was. Yesterday was tons better! During the whole day he was loud maybe 2 hours and the longest screaming fit was just 20 minutes!! He was almost back to his old self. He makes me laugh so hard when he plays with his toys. He has a foot toy and whenever it falls he orders it to step up. We bought him some new toys last night so I can't wait to give him one today! Thankfully he's not scared of new things so this should keep him busy for a while today. I hope we're on the road to success.

[jelandusn]

Well, there's good news and really really horrible news. Kakashi is still making great progress. We had a big adventure yesterday! We took everyone to a river nearby and spent the day swimming and having fun. Kakashi just watched but as a treat he had a couple ramen noodles. The bad news is, I also read yesterday that the temporary ban on bird importation has now become an embargo. This means that I won't be able to bring Kakashi with me. I was hoping that the ban would be eventually lifted and never imagined it would become permanent. I'm so heartbroken. I really love him so much. I've tried to see about visiting another country with him where there isn't a ban and then coming to the US but we would have to stay in that country for a year. There's no way we could do that financially. Ironically, every country that I have friends in is listed in the embargo. So, I've decided to start looking for a good home for him. I want to have the time to wait for the perfect place and not have to rush. This way I have 2 years to find a perfect home and I can help him with the transition. I just wish I was able to introduce him to more people in the beginning. This change will be so hard for him if he's with someone who doesn't know birds. He doesn't actually bite if you don't pull away but if you do he'll bite. If you just say step up and kind of quickly get your fingers under him before he has time to react, he'll step up. He will try to reach down and bite your thumb once he's on but the earthquake method works great. Anyway, thanks for all the help. We seem to be almost to the light. Once I get it to where he doesn't scream I'll start looking for a home. I don't want to place him when he still screams because he'll be more likely to lose his home.

[ndeben]

Where are you located.?? I hate see you give up your bird.