Decreasing Screaming

Alfred Cockatoo… bring a moluccan cockatoo, while I’m cleaning cages.

When I clean cages, he is extremely loud, especially when I clean his. I’ve tried tons of different approaches. Him in the aviary, music playing, talking to him the whole time, giving him toys, bathing him before. Nothing seemed to kick his desire to be extremely loud while I clean. I’m still working through concussion problems and horrible migraines, so I really needed this to change so I can clean.

I first started with just reinforcing what I want to see, him being calm and quiet. I would constantly be in the aviary for a few seconds, then back over to reinforce. It ended up taking too long and he still had screaming episodes.

So, I decided to find a compromise and an alternative behavior for him to do. He likes to be loud and gets animated. Also taking his species characteristics into play of them being LOUD. So, I started to reinforce using secondary reinforcers (my attention and reaction like dancing or head bobbing with him) and encouraged other sounds. The laugh, WOOOO, and then his ah ah ah ah with head bobs is far more tolerable than his full blown screams.

Are they still loud? Yes. I keep my noise reducing headphones on at all times when cleaning. But I don’t get nearly as bad of a reaction from my head with these noises. He gets to still do his thang, but in a way that I will also enjoy.