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I run a small bird sanctuary and someone brought in an untame indian ringneck female. She is very nervy although she will occasionally take food from my hand. The problem is that she is so extremely noisy!
She doesnt scream as such but to me it sounds like she is calling - to be honest it sounds like a seagull!
I have had to start covering her cage up at night as she starts being noisy from around 5.30am in the mornings which is totally unacceptable and unfair to the neighbors - she then continues the noise all day. To be honest it drives me mad as its plain annoying. She's a lovely little thing but the noise is awful. I have two other ringnecks of my own who live separately from her as a pair and neither of them have ever made such noises. I also know she isnt calling to them as she made this noise before she was given to us.
Obviously my goal as a sanctuary is to rehome her but no one is going to adopt a bird who is manic and noisy. Please does anyone have any idea what is wrong with her or how to shut her up? (She also makes the same noise only louder when she is flying about and has plenty of toys and food).

I'm pretty much at the end of my tether and the neighbors must be too although they have not complained...yet.

Hi. In all honesty, I don't know what to do here. I think my Rocky made some noisy noises when I got him, but he no longer does, AND I am forgetful. I've compared him to a few other IRNs I considered bringing home and came to appreciate he is a quiet gem among birds.

It seems that IRNs can still make a godawful noise with a piece of food in their mouths. She may or may not be responding to the environment. The things I read about wild IRNs suggest they do make a lot of noise naturally, and mine certainly make noise when others (birds, dogs, radios) make noise too.

That said, I think your best bet would be to challenge the bird mentally. I don't mean just to toss in a puzzle or a foraging toy or two. I mean find a way to constantly challenge the bird. I don't know what way that would be, except to make her work for every bite of food. However that would present a good challenge for you, going behind and making sure she got enough to eat. Also, she may need to be taught to forage.

I did read about a strategy from Mattie Sue Athen that might be worth investigating, and if you try it I really hope you'll tell me how it goes. This strategy she called "packing the cage" and it involved filling the cage with leafy branches. I think it was to provide the bird a safe little hide spot and plenty of forage and destruction opportunities. Maybe you can Google to read about that and decide if you want to try it. Eventually I wold like to pack half of Rocky's cage (it's double wide so there's room for this) to see his reaction. Need to wait for some of my bushes to grow in first.

Keep us posted on this difficult challenge. I know there are lots of people waiting for the fix to this one. And I understand your situation - while I'm very tolerant and, I think, understanding, screaming is high on my list of deal-breakers for bringing home a new bird.

-MissK

Hmmm, my female is doing that aswell. She starts at 6:30am and its all throughout the day. Thought her little noises are very cute its her screaming she does for a few minutes. I've put a new toy in which she doesn't bother with. I'm thinking of putting a new one in.
She's starting my macaw screaming as I'm sure she does it on purpose and even goes on the side of he cage he's at and screams.