[Malaki's Mommy]

I purchased my baby Quaker in August 2007. I instantly fell in love with her from the moment I saw her. I had a Quaker when I was young, but I consider myself a first time parrot owner, so I need a lot of advice. I've read almost all of Mattie Sue Athan's books on parrots, but I can't solve our little problem. Malaki, my little girl Quaker, is now 10 months old and SCREAMS! I'm not talking about the normal "squak...pause...squak" when she's asking where I am. She screams bloody murder if I'm not keeping her as the center of all my attention. I gather, after I read Mattie Sue Athan's books, that I over spoiled Malaki the first months that I had her. She is still learning to play with her toys on her own, so we're working on that. I just don't know what to do! When she starts screaming she doesn't stop. I live in a little one bedroom apartment, so this behavior issue can't continue. I don't know how to make her stop. I've tried covering her up, but she still screams. I've tried ignoring her, she just screams louder. I've been working with her, for a long time now on encouraging her to say "step-up" instead of scream, but I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. Any words of advice would be great.

[Gizmo #1]

Just simply ignore her and she will eventually stop. She wants attention. Also its possible she is hungry as they yell when their hungry check er food to make sure she is eating.

[Cheekys mum]

Thats frustrating! My QP at times in the past sometimes screamed alot. But it didnt last. I also ignored it! But for Non stop for very long periods Im not sure what to say. I agree with Gizmo. Not good for an apt tho. Some others will come along to help here too!

[Carrie~Anne]

I've tried ignoring her, she just screams louder.

That is one of the reasons why I'll never advise someone to ignore screaming behavior. When you ignore it, the bird screams louder, and you still ignore it, and the bird screams louder. Eventually you get to a point where you absolutely can't ignore it any more, and then you acknowledge the bird and suddenly the bird has been rewarded for it's louder screaming behavior. Most birds will then start to scream at that louder level.

I'm not saying ignoring screaming doesn't work, but I am saying that you have to ignore it, all the time, no matter how loud it gets, which is very, very hard for most people to do.

[Marki]

I had this problem with my first bird Sadie. I took her to a bird behaviorlist who said if I covered her she would stop. The bird behaviorlist soon learned that didn't work.

After alot of different things, I found that removing her from her regular cage, putting her in her sleep cage in my bedroom and closing the door worked. However, the key was that I also had to remove myself from her sight as well.

After doing this repeatedly she stopped the behavior. The one thing you can't do though is reward the behavior by giving in to them. This just reinforces the bahavior.