Is Your Parrot Too Loud?
Parrots are not silent creatures. If someone considering their next companion enjoys solitude and quietness, a parrot is not one to be considered. Some species are louder and more vocal than others. Generally, these are the cockatoos, macaws, amazons, and conures, but not limited to. Parrots’ decimal range, dependent on species, can reach up to 140 decimals, which is roughly the same intensity as a jet engine. These loud calls are used to be able to communicate with the flock as they are spread out in the wild foraging. Contact calls are the most common form of vocalization we will see in our parrots, which is used to signal where the flock is, what they are doing, or for the flock to come to the bird, often times because they are in a cage or an area they cannot leave, but want the social aspect.
There are many reasons to a bird feeling the desire to scream. Already mentioned, to know where the rest of the “flock” is. When a parrot is in our care, humans become the “flock” and if the flock is out of sight, the bird may call to see where they are, or for the caretaker to come to them. Sometimes, you may be in the same room with your parrot, but not interacting with them, and they scream. This could be for the desire of interaction, as well as possibly wanting to investigate whatever the humans are “investigating” like if we are cleaning, or making parrot enrichment, etc.
A lot of people accidently reinforce these behaviors to continue. Reinforcing can be going up to your bird while or shortly after your bird stops screaming, giving a food “bribe” to “stop them” from doing the behavior, yelling at the bird, banging or throwing objects at their cage, startling loud bang on a wall, squirting them with a water bottle, walking up to their cage to cover them, turning off lights, music, televisions, etc. Remember, your bird does not just understand English, even if it mimics. Your bird may understand the context of when to say things, almost perfectly, but your bird does not understand the connotation and meaning behind our words when scolding. All they interpret is “I screamed, they came up and talked to me.” Any approach, acknowledge, or environmental change can be rewarding to increase the rate of the behavior happening again, which is positive reinforcement. If you are using a negative punisher and the rate of the behavior is still happening, then it is not an appropriate negative punisher to be called effective. But generally, I never recommend a positive punisher. When you feed your animal, it may bring peace and quiet for a varied amount of time. But they quickly learn that screaming=food, so in the future when they want that special treat or food, then they will scream.
Another reason to scream is because of diet. A lot of commercial pellets are filled with improper ingredients and cheap fillers and ingredients for our parrots. Most pellets have a lot of sugar, fat, carbohydrates, artificial colorants, preservatives, and artificial flavors, all that can cause excessive energy in parrots, leading to an increase in screaming. Also, having an all-seed diet can increase screaming. Generally, when my parrots are louder, I cut out nuts and seeds from their diet, only given through foraging and training, as well as make sure there are no extra dried fruits (freeze dried would be acceptable), and make sure pellets are lower in sugar for their dry mix. The pellets I generally recommend are Roudybush and TOPS pellets. For the fresh foods, I cut out all fruits and just stick with vegetables. There are also some ingredients known for their calming effects that you can add to your parrot’s diet. This includes cauliflower, red clover, parley, lavender, chamomile, mint, and rosemary.
I do not necessarily recommend avian teas for soothing and calming. From what I have found to date, there are no scientific studies and research being done on the effects of giving your bird’s avian teas short and long term. There is also a sense of a placebo affect that could be happening when you see behavioral change. Personally, I have used many brands and formulations of avian teas, my clients have, and the organizations I work with have, and we have all come to the consensus that there was no effect on our birds, accept it as something different to give them which can be enriching. Another additive to diet I do not recommend to help screaming are CBD at this time for any reason. There is a long list of reasons, and I hope to cover the topic in the future about this and I will add a link to further explain here when it is posted, but I will briefly touch on the main reasons. First, there is not enough science done to show the effects it has on our birds short and long term. There are no universal dosages, strengths, how many times a day, and certain level of purity and concoctions that is scientifically proven to have an effect on our parrots positively, as well as help us understand if there are negative implications. Without these key factors, we could be giving too much to our birds and it could be something harmful long-term to their health. CBD has not been studied long enough in parrots to understand long-term effects for an entire lifetime, especially for larger parrots like amazons, greys, macaws, and cockatoos. Also, each brand of CBD has a different formulation, strength, and most marketed for pets have little to no CBD actually in it, even though it is marketed as such. A lot of less expensive CBD are not true CBD, which we are unsure of those implications to our parrots as well. Furthermore, the placebo effect it can give to us. These are the top mentions for this topic, but there are far more reasons why I cannot recommend it at this time. I hope science allows me to recommend this option in the future, as I think it would be great if the claims of the product were proven true scientifically.
Another reason for screaming is improper housing. Improper cage set up, as well as out side of the cage set up, can increase screaming within parrots. Improper cage set up can be for a multitude of reasons. First is cage location. Some birds do better in a quieter place in the house, in which if they are in a busier part of the house, they will be more anxious, more receptive to the higher energy making them scream more, some want to be right in the action, where if they are in an under stimulating place, they will crave for more action. Also, the majority of cages I see parrots in are simply too small for the, even the ones sold by cage companies marketed to be for a specific species. The general rule I tell clients is the minimum size for cage for their parrot, is at least:
Length: Double the birds open wing span
Width: the birds entire open wing span
Height: Double the bird’s entire length, including tail
Of course, that is a generalized statement. Some species prefer to have more horizontal room than vertical, all need bigger than these recommendations. But this is a pretty easy idea of the minimum size for each bird. I always say meet the minimum requirements and then go as big as you can afford with the idea that you will always be looking to make it larger as time goes on. Another cage inadequacy is perching, or lack thereof. If there is not enough perch complexity in amount, shapes, textures, as well as a varied set up those changes often, then this can affect your bird’s boredom with their stagnate environment, which can increase screaming. For play stands, most play stands are more boring and smaller than inside the cage. We often do not have enrichment out on our birds play gyms. They also are usually only a couple feet, if that, of usable perching. This disallows your bird to move around to burn off energy, and can be very boring.
Furthermore, lack of enrichment inside and outside of the cage can cause an increase in screaming. This is because a bird is under stimulated mentally or physically, bored, and in return will find their own way of entertainment. I always use my analogy to describe the important of enrichment by relaying it into human society. Imagine you work in a cubical 8 hours a day, the average workday. It has no decorations, nothing inside except your lunch, a chair, and a desk. Those are all your necessities met for the work day, but all you do is sit there. Time goes by so slow. So, you start to play with your fingers, start to tap your foot, hum, sing to yourself, anything to pass the time. But, if you were given a computer and a task, you would be busy completing that and time would go by much faster. There would be no need to find ways to entertain yourself because the work task you are given does exactly that. That is what parrot enrichment can do for your bird and their screaming. To learn more about what enrichment and foraging is, as well as to get your bird started with it, please click here! We also sell enrichment on our shop!
Hormones can also play an effect on our parrot’s vocalizations. No matter the species or sex of the parrot, increased vocalizations during hormonal periods can be common. Unfortunately, in captivity, our parrots can be hormonal for longer because we provide them with everything, they need to get them into the breeding mindset. Companionship (humans or other parrots), access to stable food and water (resources), stable temperatures, good health and access to veterinary care, all are necessities in basic animal care, but can help secure our parrots to want to mate constantly. Hormone regulation can be managed by environmental factors, our interactions, diet, but also medically through your vet.
Finally, stress and anxieties can increase screaming. If there is a person, or overall sex, that your bird has had traumatic experiences with in the past, the sight of them can send the bird into anxious screaming to alert of “danger,” even if the specific person has never done anything bad to the bird. Adding new things to the environment when your parrot is not used to change can also cause an affect on vocalizations. Anxiety disorders can also have an effect on screaming levels, in which the best way for resolution is to work closely with an avian vet and an avian trainer help your bird overcome their fears. Fluff and Feathers works internationally with clients offering in-person and online behavior consultations and training.
Overall, these are some of the most common reasons for parrots to scream, with some aid in how to resolve it. It is impossible to give all the reasons, all the management strategies, and a dedicated training plan out in the public and say “this will work for every bird” because that simply is not true. Every bird and situation are different. These ideas will help you get in the right mindset to help change your bird’s vocalization patterns to hopefully decrease some of it, but if you are still struggling, always feel free to contact us, and we would love to work with you and your companion!