-=> Quoting Kathy Johnson to Oliver Kneip <=-
 OK>butter,etc...) but this screeching it bits the ears a bit harshly now and
 OK>our son just had ear sergery so he's a bit sensitive about it now so what
 OK>can i try to stop this screeching thing!
 KJ> Welcome to Parrots! I'm the moderator. I hope I can help somewhat.
 KJ> Is Oscar tame at all? Does he seem to like your family's company? If
 KJ> so, then try putting another cage in a room away from where his cage
 KJ> usually resides. When he screams, put him immediately into the other
 KJ> cage and close the door to that room until he is totally quiet, or 5
 KJ> minutes MAXIMUM (any longer and he'll forget what got him put in
 KJ> there). Don't acknowledge ANYTHING he does until he's quiet. As SOON as
 KJ> he is being quiet, bring him back out. If he screams again, put him
 KJ> RIGHT back into the other cage. Again, leave him there until he's quiet
 KJ> or until 5 minutes have passed, then bring him out again.
 KJ> You MUST be totally consistent when you do this, or it will only
 KJ> confuse him. But it works--AS LONG as the bird WANTS to be with you. If
 KJ> he's screaming because he doesn't LIKE you, then this will make him
 KJ> scream even more, just so he can be put in the other cage!
 KJ> Good luck!
The following is based on my training in behavioral therapy:
If I were going to try to modify a parrot's behavior, I would first
try to determine some sort of baseline data. For instance, what times
of day is the bird screeching, is it screeching when people are near
it or when it is alone? (That goes back to what you said...) What is
going on around the bird when it screeches? You want to try to gain
insight into as many possbile factors as you can, before you start
attempting to modify the bird's behavior. If a pattern is discovered
that the bird is screeching right before mealtimes, say, or is
screeching when no one is in the room with it, then that would point
to a possible reenforcement for the bird if they fed it, or ran back
into the room and yelled at it, or squirted it. (The bird LIKES getting
squirted...) And they would have to modify their OWN behavior in these
cases.
Making a graph of the times and how long the bird is screeching is a
good way to start a baseline. Then you can try to figure out what's
going on just before, during, and after the screeching occurs.
If the bird wants company and needs to learn to be alone, then your
procedure would be exactly what to do. Reward the bird for being
quiet and remove the bird from your presence if it starts screeching.
If it's around mealtimes, withhold the food until the bird shuts up, and
then feed it as a reward for being quiet.
And, as you said, you must be consistent with this. All the members of
the household must be doing the exact same things with the bird, or it
won't work...and they'll have to be patient; as any animal's behavior
takes a while to change, and sometimes the undesirable behavior gets
WORSE before it gets better. (The reason for that is due to the bird's
already being reinforced for the bad behavior and it will keep doing
it hoping for the unintentional reward.)
A great example of behavior modification can be found in the "NATURE"
program on PBS on parrots that featured the woman psychologist and her
parrot "Alex." When she presents Alex with an object and asks him to
answer questions about it, she does nothing that rewards him until and
unless he gives the desired response. She then rewards him with (1)
Praise, (2) Allowing Alex to bite the object, or (3) Gives him a nut
to eat. Since parrots like to chomp on stuff, the object-biting is
a reward based on the parrot's own instinctual behavior.
If he gives only a partially-correct answer, he still doesn't get a
reward until he says the entire thing, and the psychologist does nothing
until that entire correct response is given. She sometimes says,
"Say the whole thing" when he doesn't give a full response, but I
noticed that she waits and Alex usually will correct himself. Since
they've been doing this for 17 years, Alex's behavior is the product
of a very long behavior modification process and he didn't just start
out with everything he does. It probably took a year or more just to
find out what reinforcers would work on him...and they didn't start
out right away with presenting objects to him and asking him questions.
That was the final result of a very long, painstaking teeny-tiny one
step-at-a-time process.
Hmm...maybe I should write a book...
... Answers: $1, Short: $5, Correct: $25, dumb looks are still free.
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