Why Does My Bird Sccccrrrreammm?

A Conversation with Greg Glendell, UK Parrot Behaviorist: Part Two — Screaming

A few weeks ago we began our three part series about a telephone conversation I had with noted UK parrot behaviorist and author, Greg Glendell. Because we talked for about two hours, I found it best to break the highlights of our conversation into the three main topics: biting, screaming and plucking. Part One of the series covered biting. Today I’d like to summarize some of our discussion on parrot screaming.

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Total Cockatiel Personality Change After Death of Cage Mate – What Can Be Done?
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Total Cockatiel Personality Change After Death of Cage Mate – What Can Be Done?

“Poor Popcorn”, it seems we say that a lot. She has such high expectations of us and when we cannot fulfill them for her, she lets us know, but unfortunately we can’t explain “why” in bird speak.

Since we have had her, she has gotten us well trained to serve her, she wants attention when she wants it and not most other times. BUT she does want people time every day.

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Arranging Your Bird’s Cage: the Cage Canopy Concept
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Arranging Your Bird’s Cage: the Cage Canopy Concept

Mitch mentioned something to me the other day that I had never given any thought to the cage canopy. I had more or less arranged toys in the top part of the cage, from instinct I suppose, but never knew why I did it or thought that others might not do exactly the same. 

In the wild, parrots and other types of flighted birds (as opposed to emus and ostriches (that can’t fly) spend a lot of time foraging, often on the ground. All the rest of their time is spent in the upper branches of trees.

This provides the best cover from predators by preventing the things that want to eat birds from easily spotting them while the rustling of leaves alerts the birds to the presence of some creature in time to make every effort to escape the danger. The birds play, sleep and nest for the most part in the top one-third of the tree canopy. 

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Are Himalayan Salt Lamps to Parrots what Coal Mines Were to Canaries?
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Are Himalayan Salt Lamps to Parrots what Coal Mines Were to Canaries?

Editor’s note: some of you may remember my journey enabling my mother’s return to Chicago Arlene (my mom) has been on five of the seven continents. Eight years ago at the tender age of 76, she spent three weeks traveling to China.

The Himalayas span five countries: India, Nepal, Bhutan, China (Tibet), and Pakistan, with the first three countries having sovereignty over most of the range. At the time, China had not closed the border to Tibet and she was able to spend three days there. According to mom the majesty, environment, and the purity of the air you breathe in the Himalayas – cannot be understated.

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Is it Plucking, Molting or Over-preening? Why are those Feathers on the Cage Floor?

A subscriber from our Sunday Brunch writes

I recently adopted a 15-year-old Severe Macaw whose previous owner had a terminal illness.

 

I could tell the Macaw had been taken care of meticulously from the written records of her care from Hatch Papers to recent complete blood panels however I never had the opportunity to question the previous owner concerning details of ‘Bandit”.

 

I knew the moment I saw her that I wanted her as I owned a Severe 30+ years ago and have known several over the years but none as sweet as this little girl.

 

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Fixing the My Bird Hates Pellets but I Love Pellets – Enigma
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Fixing the My Bird Hates Pellets but I Love Pellets – Enigma

Some of you realize – many of you don’t. The majority of social media posts you read were programmed days or weeks before for “future distribution”. This means whoever is pushing the erudition out won’t be around when you’re reading their content to actually engage you in a discussion about this new important “message” from the person or brand you are following.

Water from a fire hose is fine for putting out fires, but you can’t drink water from a fire hose and you can’t water plants with a fire hose. Getting information from social media is like getting information from a fire hose.

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I Love My Bird – I Hate the Mess – A Helping Guide to Bird Mess Containment
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I Love My Bird – I Hate the Mess – A Helping Guide to Bird Mess Containment

Every parrot owner deals with the issue of messiness with seeds or pellets that get tossed out of the cage or water splashes wetting the cage liners.

No parrot parent likes to have just changed the cage liner, swept or vacuumed debris from around the cage, and provided clean water dishes only to realize that their bird has just decided to soak the entire cage floor and the food by trying to bathe in their water dish or has decided to toss out part of their food in a wide sweep that sprinkles on the newly-cleaned floor, has just taken a poop in their water dish or had poop fall into the newly-served food.

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Why Humans Don’t Use Steel Bars to Wipe Their Mouth
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Why Humans Don’t Use Steel Bars to Wipe Their Mouth

and Parrots Don’t Use Napkins on Their Beaks – Does your parrot need a napkin? Why is he wiping his beak on his perch or cage bars?

Have you noticed that sometimes your parrot wipes his beak on his perch or cage bars? Do you wonder why this behavior happens and what it means? There are two reasons a healthy parrot does this behavior, so let’s look at each reason.

why do humans use napkins, not steel bars?

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My Bird/Your Bird – Break Up Decisions and Creating the Blended Family With Parrots
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My Bird/Your Bird – Break Up Decisions and Creating the Blended Family With Parrots

I started making my way across the earth in the middle of the last century.

I traveled terrestrially and airborne as my father Norman was a vagabond pilot – sure, I’d love to have a coffee and chat about that sometime. 

If you are a baby boomer you may remember probably what was one of the first chain stores – Woolworths 

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