Let the Screaming Begin!

We spent about a 1/2hr with the folks we bought Kiwi
from discussing different things such as how Kiwi’s
cage was set up at their house, what toys she liked,
what kind of schedule she was on, and so forth. We
learned quite a bit about her and felt ready to bring
her home!

The first couple days were a breeze. We set the cage
up just like we were told she liked it, provided her
the same food she had been eating, and even put her
old toys in her cage to try and make it homey!

Kiwi for the most part just sat in her cage and looked
at us as we looked at her. Once or twice we would
try to approach her but it quickly became apparent she
wasn’t ready for that kind of contact by scurrying away.

We did not want to force affection on our new found friend
and decided to give her several weeks before we started
to befriend her more actively. One of things we read
was spending a lot of time in close proximity to the cage
will help your bird get comfortable with you quicker.
My wife works from home and with Kiwi’s cage right next
to her desk we felt this should help speed up the
“friendship” process.

Well I was wrong then and I’m sure I’ll be wrong again
many times in my life but boy was I wrong then! About
3 days after Kiwi’s grand homecoming the screaming started.
I was very aware that birds made screaching noises but
I was not prepared for the noise that came from this
little bird.  I found the information at this Conure page
very helpful!

As mentioned in my previous post we live in a condo and
after about 2 days of screaming off and on, from sun up to
sundown I thought our eviction notice would be forthcoming.
Thankfully the screaming did come to a hault at bed time.
Once her cage was covered and the lights were off or dimmed
she would give her lungs and our poor ears a break.

Several more days of this led me to this conclusion. Either
we need to get this behavior fixed or I was going to have
to find a padded room somewhere for my wife. Keeping
in mind she works all day within an arms distance of our
little siren! We both loved the bird (I convinced my
wife daily of this) so giving her away was not an option.

I started doing some research online as I was sure
someone else somewhere had run into this very problem
and conquered it. Not only that but they probably shared
their experience online as I am now. Isn’t the net a great
thing?

Tomorrow I am going to do a quick review of what I found and
what worked. I now have a well behaved bird whom both Janell
(my wife) and I are happy to have!