The winner receives a $100 check and a ‘ROUDY’ T-shirt and the winning photo will be featured in an advertisement.

Photos must be submitted by the 31st of August. I have attached the ‘Roudy’ comp flier to this post with further details.

Considering Pluto will ONLY eat Roudybush pellets I am going to attempt a photo or two. Let’s hope he feels like posing for the camera. I will post my ideas so you can tell me what you think!

Download the Roudy Bird Contest Flyer

To start I will give you a little background into my situation and then explore the techniques I used to help curb the screaming behaviour and then on to my recent situation.

About three years ago I had my computer set up in the same room as where Pluto had his cage. Over time Pluto learned the behaviour of screaming for my attention and through desperation of peace I responded in the worst way possible - yelling back at him to ’stop it’ or ‘be quiet’ - only reinforcing the behaviour. I was going insane, couldn’t get any work done, was unable to talk on the phone in a professional way with a screaming parrot in the background and I had to find a solution to this mess I had created!

I tried a number of different things that were suggested such as:

Time Out (covering his cage when he screamed) - this did not work with Pluto. Firstly he was rewarded by getting my attention when I went to his cage and often I would need to trick him into the cage which became a game in itself and once he was covered he would just scream louder anyway.

Moving my computer to another room - I ended up moving my computer to another part of the house. Unfortunately I still couldn’t close the door and Pluto was STILL screaming. However, there were quieter patches and I was able to begin thinking again.

Leaving the Room - Pluto would continue to scream when I would be in the room where he was situated. His screaming had now become associated with wanting food or attention. I attempted a technique of leaving the room when he would scream. I would not look at him, leave the room, stand quietly behind the door and wait for him to stop or make an acceptable noise and then quietly return to the room. I continued with this technique for some time with a bit of success and I will still ocassionally use this technique as Pluto HATES to be ignored. What he has learned is that if he screams I go away and if he wants me to come back he must be quiet or talk properly.

Distraction - I tried a technique of distracting Pluto when he would scream by playing with one of his toy bells or by asking him to sing a song. Playing with his toy would work sometimes but I wasn’t always in a position to do this and often when I went away he would start again. I often felt that this was letting him get what he wanted anyhow and wasn’t actually solving the problem at hand. Talking to him would often make the situation worse. He didn’t want to talk. He wanted to play with me or receive food and he wanted it now!

Ignore - As hard as it is to do this, the best way to prevent and fix a screaming bird is to ignore them. Turn your head away from them, leave the room, don’t call out to them, talk to someone else and put simply - just don’t react to them at all in anyway.

The key to any technique is patience

The thing to remember is that it can take a long time to reverse any behaviour. Persistance, patience and repetition are key when you have a situation such as a screaming parrot. If you have done well for a few weeks ignoring your parrot screaming and then you happen to react - you have just reinforced the behaviour again. Don’t see it as the end of the world however, just remember that by reacting you have gone back a couple of steps and need to push through it again. If you feel you are about to react - remove yourself from the situation - take a break, calm down and then return.

For the last couple of years I have continued to work on Pluto’s screaming. He has calmed down a lot however I am still battling it during food preparation. Pluto can see me in the kitchen and this causes the most problems however where he is positioned is the most suitable in the house. For some reason, food is a big issue and I am still trying to figure it out but I do have a few techniques that I am still working with. Pluto has an issue with the fact that ‘his’ food even if it is the same as ‘my’ food couldn’t possibly be as good as what I have or what I am making. I will often try to give him his dinner before I begin to prepare our dinner and this keeps him happy for all of 5 seconds. As soon as I return to the kitchen and open the fridge he is back to the corner of his cage screaming for something else. If I go to his cage and show him his food he will go back to it and eat it for a few seconds and repeat the process. If I leave the room all-together he will happily eat his dinner but that doesn’t mean he will be full and not scream when I return to the kitchen.

So you are thinking - argh this would drive me insane! Well yes it can do. But now this is my routine:

Give Pluto his dinner. Pretend I am eating it with him and how yummy it is.

Begin preparing our dinner.

Pluto screams. I do one of four things:

a: I leave the room and wait for him to be quiet before returning. Not always possible if you are busy doing something.

b: I simply ignore him. I don’t look at him. I don’t speak to him and I wait for him to say something that is acceptable and THEN I respond to him; rewarding him talking and hopefully he will carry on talking. Sometimes he will talk to get my attention and then immediately after I have responded he will scream cause I am looking at him. 9/10 times when this happens I leave the room to show him that I am not tolerating this at all.

c: I sing to myself and dance around having a good time without paying any attention to him. He HATES this and can’t help but start to sing too. At this point I then involve him in the fun. Again this is not always something that is easy to carry out if you are busy.

d: I start talking and paying attention to others in the household. I have found when I do this he has to be quiet so he can listen in. He wants to know everything that is going on.

Often through ignoring Pluto and just continuing on with cooking he will finally retreat to inside his cage or start playing with a toy. The key to my success is not to react. My ’success’ is a parrot that screams less. I don’t believe he will ever be a non-screamer, he just screams less and less.

But my parrot screams when I ‘LEAVE’ the room.

A lot of owners have an issue where their parrot screams when they leave the room. Their parrot is calling for them to come back. A couple of methods you can try:

a: When you are about to leave the room for a moment, say “I’ll be right back’, leave the room for just a moment and return saying ‘See I’m back”. Give your parrot a bit of attention and then repeat.

b: Similar to above but if they scream when you leave, softly call back once “I’m just in here”. Then quietly wait for them to break from the screaming or make an acceptable noise before returning and saying ‘See I’m back”.

c: Ignore the screaming. If you have to go into the room when they are screaming, do not look at them and do not talk to them - even if they stop when you enter the room. You don’t want to reinforce the behaviour that if they scream, you will come running in.

So what brought me to writing this post today?

Well… I had thought that the screaming had calmed down a lot over the last year. Pluto was happily playing and talking all day in and around his cage. We would have the odd screaming session around meal times or if he was missing out on some attention but I have equipped myself with much knowledge and techniques to deal with it.

So…

Four days ago I decided to move my computer back to the room where Pluto’s cage is. I guessed there would be a few issues and that Pluto would scream here and there and I was willing to accept that I was going to have to deal with this as it is a change for him too. But I tell you what, I was not expecting him to scream from morning to night. lol He sat on top of his cage whining and then screaming all day long. If I happened to glimpse at him he would bop his head up and down with fury. He was absolutely furious with me. How dare I move back here.

Well as hard as it was. The first two days I was strong and simply didn’t react to his screaming. If I went off to another room he would often start talking or singing. Talk about feeling rejected! He wanted to talk and sing to me but only if I was in another room. Then yesterday he started to talk a little whilst I was in the room. I rewarded this with much excitement and went over to play with him and talk and sing up a storm. He thought this was a lot of fun but of course I don’t have time to do that all day so eventually it had to stop and unfortunately he then began to scream for more attention.

Today however, he has talked more than scream. We have played head bops across the room, sang some songs, done our animal noises and now he is taking a nap after having had a bath and preening session.

There is still a big learning curve ahead and I have to remember that this was where the whole situation began those years ago and I am now back in that same spot. We both need to adjust and it will take some time but if I don’t react to the screaming I believe things should be a lot better in the coming months.

So after a short break of 5 minutes or so. I returned and picked up his cover and told him it was time to go to bed. He had been hanging out on top of his cage with his ‘nesting’ behaviour. I placed the cover over his cage explaining it was time to go to bed and he was in the newly created ‘Tee-Pee’ under the cover sitting on the edge saying “In your bed”, “Pluto, in your bed!” which he has made up after telling the dogs to get in their bed.

He was being a stubborn, defiant little monster. Then he decided to climb out on top of the cover where he asked for kisses and cuddles. At this point I was not going to be putting my face anywhere near him as he was still showing signs of being angry. Instead, I warned him by saying “Hop Up” as I slowly but steadily pushed my finger closer to him. He lunged to bite but my finger was in and under his chest with him hopped up before he could get hold.

Then, to change the mood I gave him a rough up and ruffled his feathers, made a bit of a game out of it. Made sure he was happy and then I said “Ready for Nigh Nigh’s” and he finally said ‘Nigh Nigh’s Time” and I placed him in his cage.

What an ordeal! But the thing to remember is they will test you ALL the time and it is so important that you try to react as calmly as you can and try your best to ignore the situation. By saying ‘Ouch’ or pulling away because you are scared is the worst thing you can do.

The mistake I made tonight was that I didn’t read his body language before I placed my hand near him - I was just thinking about putting him to bed - By not reading his behaviour he bit me which meant I then had to suck it up and make sure I wasn’t going to reinforce it (and now am left with two bites in two knuckles!) then I had to try and calm the whole situation down.

Had I have read his body language and tried a different technique by persuading him to come give me kisses on a different perch he wasn’t ‘protecting’ I wouldn’t have been bitten.

I went to the store and bought an organic bread mix, came home and cut up broccoli, green beans, fresh corn off the cob, green peas, grated carrot. I got the processor out and threw in two eggs whole, oats, the veggies and then I had this ‘bright’ idea, I’ll throw in some of those pellets he wont eat. So I mixed it all up, put it into my bread mix, put it in a tray and sprinkled some seeds on top and baked it in the oven. When i pulled it out, it was so moist and looked soooo yummy.

Parrot Bread

Moist Parrot Bread

All excited, I wait for it to cool down to a nice warm bread and I cut a piece off for Pluto. At first he proclaims how yummy it is however after a few minutes he looks at me and runs down to the side of the cage asking “Do you want some?” meaning he doesn’t like it and wants something else. I check the leftovers to find he has picked out the corn and peas and left the rest!!! For goodness sake I could have just put them in a bowl on their own instead of going to all this trouble!

So what do I do? I taste it! hehehe I was thinking what on earth is wrong with it that he wont touch it, I better taste it. Well the ‘pellets’ that he hates, had flavoured the WHOLE bread. It was a complete disaster and serves me right for thinking I could get one over on a Quaker Parrot! hehehe

The next morning I had one more idea up my sleeve. Rather than toast his regular human bread in the morning I toasted the ‘new’ bread and spread a little peanut butter on it to see if I could get him to eat it. Nope! He sat there and licked the peanut butter off, ripped the bread apart to find the peas and corn and left the rest, screaming for his usual breakfast.

So lesson learnt. Never try to get one over on Pluto when you are dealing with food! And just give up and give the bread to the dogs!

Well last night I thought I would create a couple of practice videos and by the end I was convinced I had no chance of making a video that was even watchable. Jase thought it was hilarious and I was just plain embarrassed. Pluto seemed to have a reasonably good time though chattering away whilst I was trying to talk.

So today, I thought I would attempt to create one again. I took a couple of notes with me just in case I went blank and surprisingly only glanced at them a couple of times after being interrupted by the little green monster.

I can’t believe I actually uploaded the video however I think I am currently in denial that it is me. I guess at the end of the day, it isn’t as though you all know me personally.

Well I hope you enjoy the first training session with Pluto and if anything get to have a bit of a giggle.

Check out the training videos section and you’ll find it right there.

Common Names: Quaker parrot, Monk parakeet

Scientific Name: Myiopsitta monachus

Length: 11-12 inches

Lifespan: 25-30 years

Origin: South America, Brazil

Colour: Green, blue wing tips and grey chested

*Also available in blue where the main green feathers are a light blue colour.

Diet

65-80% pellets designed for parrots.

15-30% of vegetables and fresh fruit.

Occasional treats such as nuts and human food.

No avocados or fruit pits.

Quaker’s need a lot of attention and need to feel apart of the family. Without this attention diverse effects can occur such as screaming, feather plucking and even self mutilation.

When deciding to take a Quaker into your home you must understand that you are not just buying a pet bird. You are in an effect adopting a child. Quakers are intelligent with little personalities that need to be entertained. They are just like having a 2-3 year old child running rampant around the house. They can’t quite communicate all their needs, get upset, get excited and get bored if not entertained. This is when the mischievousness sets in and they can become rowdy, destructive and aggressive towards others.

It takes a lot of love and care to try and turn around a deprived, depressed Quaker or any neglected parrot for that matter and so from the bottom of our hearts we ask that you do really make sure you are ready to take on this responsibility before you bring a Quaker into your home. A Quaker can live for 30 years, so it is a long commitment to make.

Read all you can
We recommend you read books and other websites like ours before getting caught up in the exciting “chatty feathered Quaker companions” and bring one home. The more knowledge you have about these little critters the better equipped you will be when deciding to purchase a Quaker and when/if you bring one into your family.

Visit: www.quakerparrots.com and ponder around the forums, ask questions and read other owners tales. You will be greeted with pleasant Quaker owners who are only too happy to help and of course tell you about their own little friends.

It has been suggested that a Quakers cage should have an area that is so covered in toys so they can hide behind the toys for security. This also means they have a lot of different toys to attack and play with to keep them entertained when you are not home.

Quaker Parrots are not usually as destructive as larger parrots and so often toys can last for a long time. This is a great bonus allowing you to collect toys over time that you can circulate through the cage and play areas.

It is a good idea to have a mix of toys that they can play with, puzzles, paper, wooden, cotton, bells and more…

Other good suggestions are to have toys you can rotate each month so that your parrot doesn’t become bored with the same old toys.

Pluto is spoilt to some extent as we both work from home, allowing us to spend much time with Pluto. However, we do go out for long periods sometimes and Pluto has learnt to adapt to this.

Yet when we know we will be out for an extended part of the day we try to use this time to give Pluto some interesting things to play with, that he doesn’t normally have the opportunity to play with. For example yesterday, we gave him some bits of natural string that he could cart around the cage and some paper towel that he could shred to pieces. “I personally was hoping he would make a nest”

Types of Parrot Toys

There are a lot of fun toys available to buy and make. One of our favourite which unfortunately is not easily available in Australia is what is called the “Jolly Ball”. This is a plastic ball originally made for ferrets to run through. Some clever people came up with the idea to hang it and then hang strings of toys from the ball. Quakers love to climb in and out of the ball and play with the toys.

Other great ideas are paper wheels, where a roll of paper is placed on a wheel and the parrot can pull the paper off and destroy it. Toys like this are great for parrots that a feather-pluckers as it can help to distract their condition when they a ripping up paper.

It is important that you check your Parrot’s toys on a regular basis to ensure they are still safe to play with. A few things you can look for are;
rust on connectors, bells and metal objects.
that your bird can not get their toes caught in loops of string or chains

Make your own toys!

There are so many creative ideas available to start making your own parrot toys! And it’s cheaper! You can get so much enjoyment from watching your little friend play with your hand made toy!

The easiest most effective play toy we made for Pluto once; was scrunching up some newspaper in the centre and then ripping some “spider legs”. We just placed it into the side of the cage and let the legs dangle and Pluto happily played with it for hours.

Amazon even has some creative books available.

Parrot Play Stands

We don’t have a parrot play stand but we did make one a few months ago that never got used. A lot of parrot owners have different stands throughout the house enabling them to take their Quaker parrot into which ever room they happen to be in.

We made a stand out of “Bottle Brush” an Australian native and Pluto did enjoy picking at the bark. We have seen some very creative stands made from plumbing pipe, sticks, old Christmas tree stands and more.

Of course you can also buy stands, some are very creative and can even be looked at as a centre piece.

The idea again is to dangle lots of toys from the stand so that your little mate has something to play with.