Archive for the ‘Screaming’ Category
Make that Darn Bird Stop Screaming!
Among the many behaviors we are working on at the moment, we are trying to get Static, our Goffin’s Cockatoo, to reduce the number of unwanted vocalizations.
Or, as my mother would say, “Make that darn bird stop screaming!”
In Static’s defense, she’s not a constant screamer. In fact, the amount of noise she makes rarely bothers me. She hollers a couple of times day, and usually for not very long, so it’s not all that obnoxious. For others, like my mother, who isn’t a bird lover, even the small amount of racket is pretty unpleasant.
Now I’ll admit that there are some noises that Static makes that I like more than others. Our family goal is to encourage her to make more of the sounds we like and fewer of the ones we dislike.
One of the sounds I don’t like so much is the noise she makes when I’m out of the room and she wants me to come pick her up. It’s this loud screeching/hissing sound, and I think her name is very descriptive of the racket. It’s certainly not a pleasant sound at all, and it’s even less nice if she decides to make it while I am on the phone in the living room.
I view a certain amount of noise is as part of life with companion parrots, but I do agree that in this case, less is more.
So, how are we encouraging Static to make more of the nice noises and fewer of the unpleasant ones?