Please PLEASE HELP!

[PepperFetouh]

my alexandrine is driving my husband crazy, i know he loves him cause he always prefers sitting with my husband, yet every time he sees him he has to start screaming bloody murder!!! when im alone with "hawk" he is quite does cute noises & clicking. this is pissing off my husband and its making things uncomfortable & im scared my husband will soon tell me to give him away!

also what does it mean when the bird tilts his head back puffs his head feathers and caws softly? he does this sometimes and i dont understand why?

hawk is 3 months old im just guessing he is a boy cause om starting to see black feathers

anyways i really really need help PLEASE ANY SOLUTIONS

[ellieelectrons]

Hi

We have a similar situation in our family. Our female is quite besotted with my husband and that also seems to make her more likely to scream at him and bite him. She gets all agitated when he is in the room. Unfortunately I don't have any solutions at this point but I thought it might help for you to know that you are not alone!

I will think about it though.

Is your husband willing to try new things with the bird? My husband sort of is... but never really puts the time in which is what makes it hard in my case.

Ellie.

[PepperFetouh]

Ellie:
my husband is sort of a baby when it comes to the point of helping out, i tried to convince him to pay no attention to "hawk" while he is in his screaming stage and he can start cuddling him when he is quite,but noooo my husband has to go to hawk the minute he starts screaming and starts cuddling him! which makes hawk scream even louder. hawk never bites my husband he seems to always want to sit with him on his shoulder or on his chest under his neck and do nothing but scream!

[ellieelectrons]

I've had an idea for something you could try.

Any reading I have done from experts about screeching indicates that firstly you can't expect that your bird will be quiet all of the time. However, there are normal birdy sounds and then there are terrible, incessant screeching/screaming sounds that are undesirable. It is also natural for them to be most vocal at sun up and sun down (interestingly, my guys don't really follow that trend). Articles that I've read indicate that the way to address problem screaming is to figure out what is the trigger and address the trigger. I'd encourage you to try to figure this out. I haven't found that easy myself beyond the fact that it is generally caused by my husband's presence but I haven't figured out anything beyond that. Here are some links to some more information:
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com.au/2008 ... g-for.html
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com.au/2011 ... ounds.html
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com.au/2008 ... story.html
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com.au/2008 ... -down.html
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com.au/2008 ... arrot.html

Firstly, can you tell me if you use treats with your bird and who usually does it and how you use them?

If you can't figure out the root cause, the idea I've had revolves around rewarding your bird with treats for being calm around your husband. You could do it or he could do the rewarding. It could go something like this:
When your husband enters the room, the bird gets a reward if it is calm and doesn't scream. If it does start screaming either your husband leaves the room and the behaviour is ignored until it stops at which point your husband can reappear and the bird can be rewarded if it remains calm.... or instead of him retreating, he can just stand still, not talking to the bird, not looking at the bird until the bird calms down and then you can offer the bird the treat. The idea is that the bird will learn that it will receive rewards for being calm around your husband. Feel free to adapt this idea in a way that will suit your household.

As the behaviour has built up over time, it is going to take time to improve the situation... but with reflection and mindfulness, willingness and patience I believe it can be done.

Ellie.

[ellieelectrons]

I posted my previous message as you posted yours... so I'm responding to your most recent message here. From what you are saying I think your husband is reinforcing your bird's behaviour so he needs to change his if he wants the bird's behaviour to change - it's his choice.

Ellie.

[tonian2]

Sounds to me like you ladies need to put your husbands out!!!! Just kidding of course!!

[ellieelectrons]

lol. The problem is that my husband doesn't spend enough time with them... and he doesn't spend enough time with them because Janey is prone to giving him nasty bites that bleed to the face and she doesn't like his glasses (and he can't see without them)... so I can't really blame him for that. It's a bit of a vicious cycle. We think she is inclined to do it because she likes his dramatic reaction when she bites him - so all he can do is try not to react so dramatically.

Just yesterday I had to grab her (which I rarely do) off him because she was going for his face. I don't think the biting is malicious on her part, but it is not nice for the person on the receiving end.

It also doesn't help that she has some sort of fatal attraction to my husband. He just has to walk in the room and she gets agitated and starts to get noisy.

I've been thinking about some techniques to try to calm her down... so will let you know if I have any success.

Ellie.

[PepperFetouh]

i decided to cut my husband off from any cuddling time, he is not even allowed to carry hawk,when he walks into the room he says hello gives him a kiss without carrying him and then he sits in the room completely ignoring him until he shuts up then he gets up goes to him without carrying says good boy and gives him a treat! it started working for a day or two then hawk decided to start going crazy and fly around the house!

[ellieelectrons]

Hawk is responding to being treated differently. The plus-side is that he's noticed the difference your behaviour and so has changed his. Is the flying around behaviour a problem? I don't mind my guys flying around so long as they don't hurt themselves or damage anything else.

The other thing you could try is letting your husband pick hawk up (once hawk is quiet) but get him to put him down the minute he starts making inappropriate noises... this does assume however that once he's on you, you can get him off easily. My guys can sometimes be a bit difficult to remove once they've attached themselves to you!

Good luck.

Ellie.

[sanjays mummi]

Hi Ellie, I think Janey is attacking her reflection in your hubbys glasses, and it is nothing personal. Animals have no sense of self, so as far as Janey is concerned your hubby has another little Janey perched on his nose. Lol!//

[ellieelectrons]

Hmmm, interesting thought, you reckon that could be the case even though she is on his shoulder at the time? She attacks the wings on the glasses more than the glass itself. It also probably doesn't help that his hair is short. Perhaps I should just get him a wig? lol

Ellie.

[sanjays mummi]

Ah, well..., back to the drawing board.