Vocalizing Grey

We’ve got an African grey male, 1 year & 9 months old - he was hand-fed
from about 8 weeks and we got him when he was 13 weeks old.
He is tame and attached to both of us but since I feed, take care of him,
train with him and am at home a lot, he’s always been closer to me than to
my partner.

However, I think he’s reached puberty now - since about 4 weeks his
behaviour towards me has become more ‘partner-like’: e.g. he pin-points
his pupils, spends a lot of time trying to get my attention while hanging
upside down and he tries to provoke me to scratch him in a favourite spot
just under his bill.

Most of the time I try to ignore this behaviour but the following problem
is developing: when I ignore it long enough, he starts to call to me to get
my attention with a very loud and piercing whistling sound (something he
sometimes also uses as a contact-call when I leave the house).
Ignoring this whistle is almost impossible as he will keep it up.

Something we’ve tried for quite some time now, is to pick him up when he
whistles like that and put him in a ‘time-out cage’: a small, very boring
cage in a seperate room, for about 20 minutes - a more extreme form of
ignoring. This doesn’t always work either though, resulting in going back
and forth to the time-out untill he gives in… so we now also use a firm
warning by saying ‘no’ or leaving the room for a few minutes when he
starts this whistling. All of these methods work at times, but none of
these methods work to the extend that the whistling truly stops, because
the next day he’ll start again.

One interesting point I noticed is that when I did scratch him under his
bill, which he loves, it will result the following day in whistling much
more often, so I was able to make this link between his whisling and my own
behaviour. Needless to say, I don’t give in to that anymore either -
scratch him on the top of his head only and stop as soon as he tries to
turn his head to be scratched under his bill.

What’s the best way to help him stop this piercing whistling to get my
attention, which now is clearly geared towards the beginnings of seeing me
as his partner? I don’t want to frustrate the bird because of course I
can’t give him what he needs as a partner. He’s only just started puberty
so I’d like to nip this in the bud as soon as possible somehow.
I really hope you can help us and look forward to your suggestions and
advice!

With thanks and greetings,

Miriam

Dear Miriam,

My name is Jared Morgan and I am an avian trainer with Natural Encounters, Inc. I recently received your question regarding the loud calling and whistling from your African grey parrot. I hope to be able to provide you not only with some possible solutions to your problem but with some strategies that can add to your relationship with your parrot as well.

Firstly I want to commend you for your desire to work through your problems with your African grey. The ownership of a companion parrot can at times be very challenging and it could be easy to give up on them, but your determination to instead improve you situation is to be commended. From reading your email I saw what I think are two possible issues I could help you with. First is the piercing whistling sound that your African grey is making. Second was a possible worry about the relationship between your grey and your partner. Let's begin with the screaming.

Screaming or noise making is very common in parrots. These behaviors in the wild occur most often around sunrise and sunset. It is a way for these birds to communicate when they may not be able to see each other. It is common then in the household for parrots to still scream in the morning or at night and possibly also when you go out of their sight as you may be considered a part of “the flock”. I saw two ways you attempted to combat this, first by putting him in a time out cage and second by saying no. It is likely that, since the first thing that happens when he whistles is that you pick him up to put him in the cage, that it is not the time out cage, but rather being picked up that he associates with whistling. In addition, if you make any noise in response to his whistle, including raising your voice to scold him, it is probable that your bird will interpret this only as you calling back to him. Both of these things would likely reinforce the behavior, making it more likely that it will occur and occur more often.

The best strategy that I can suggest is to train what we would refer to as an “incompatible behavior”. This could be anything you could train your bird to do that would mean he would not be able to scream while he does that other behavior. We would suggest you reward the vocalizations that you do like. If the bird mimics any sounds you like or is making soft calls you could reward your bird by responding back. This you can do from outside of the room when the calls most often occur. It is important to still ignore the vocalizations you don't want as well. You could also train him to do other behaviors and make sure he is being quiet while doing them. This could be any number of things like having him go to a certain point in his cage, playing with a toy, or standing, and being quiet. This training will be good for your bird's mental stimulation as well as your relationship.

To get started with training, the first step is to find a treat to use to reward your bird for behaviors that you want to see more often to replace the unwanted vocalization. To find what treats to train with we suggest you put a bowl of food in your grey's enclosure with all of the things you feed your bird in one bowl. Whatever it is that he eats first is probably his favorite item, and should be removed from his diet except for training, which will make sure that it keeps its special value. You could also remove a few treats so you could vary what you reward your bird with. You can then use these treats to reward the behaviors you want and to ignore the behaviors you do not want to see as we talked about above. If done consistently you should be able to see an increase in the desired behaviors and a drop in undesired ones.

We also suggest using small steps to help your bird learn what you are interested in teaching him. For example if you would like to train you bird to put his beak on a bar you may begin by rewarding him for coming close to the bars, then reward him for touching the bar with his beak briefly, then increase the time he touches it before rewarding. It is important to make sure that you take steps at the pace your bird is ready to make them, and to allow yourself to move back a step temporarily if and when needed.

It also could be helpful to establish what we refer to as a "bridge". This is a word, noise, or movement that signifies to your bird that what it just did at that moment is going to get a reward. Here at Natural Encounters, we use a verbal bridge - the word "Good". It is used to “bridge” the time between a desired behavior and when you are able to give your animal a reward. You can establish this by making a noise or movement and then immediately afterwards giving that special treat to your bird. After some time of doing this your grey should begin to associate the bridge with the reward and the bridge can then be used to let him know exactly when it was that he did what you want. To test if your bridge has been established make the noise or gesture and see if your bird responds.

On to the second issue, the relationship between your bird and your partner.  If you would like to establish a better relationship between your grey and you partner there are a few things you could do. It would be helpful for a time to pull yourself back a little and have your partner do many of the things like feeding or training of the bird. I know this can be difficult for both you and your bird but it is natural in the wild for parrots to move on to new partners when theirs die or disappear, as well as to leave the parents when reaching maturity so he would be ready to form a new relationship readily. After they are able to improve their relationship, you can reintroduce yourself back in and reestablish your relationship again, now as part of a "three bird flock".

It may take some time to train and maintain these behaviors, and it is important to remember that behaviors like loud vocalizations are natural and may never disappear completely. The strategies I suggested should however lead to a significant decrease in the undesired behaviors, as well as an increase in desired behaviors and a process that is great stimulation for your parrot and beneficial to your relationship with him as well.

We hope that your relationship with your bird continues to grow, and that the advice we've provided helps to build your levels of skill, sensitivity, and enjoyment of your bird for many years to come.  If you are interested in learning more about the care and behavior of companion parrots, please check out our website at http://www.naturalencounters.com, which features a variety of papers and articles on the training, enrichment, and behavior of companion parrots. Best of luck, and we look forward to hearing about your future successes!

Sincerely,
           
Jared Morgan
Avian Trainer
Natural Encounter, Inc.