When The Parrot Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy!!!!

[kendrafitz]

Anyone else know this to be true?

This week has been absolutely crazy. My son has football 6 days a week, I have been running him around doing fundraising for him, my daughter has camp and is acting in a show for 4 performances. What this means for Rosie is Mom is not available nearly as much as she should be. If I'm not out being a taxi, I am doing hair/makeup (which takes over an hour), at a show or catching up on laundry or meals.

ROSIE IS NOT HAPPY!!!! She has not been given as much attention as she wants and has had enough. We have lots of yelling and pinching to show her absolute disgust and displeasure.

This morning she demanded UP!?!?! immediately without even eating breakfast. She screamed if I spoke to anyone and would not tolerate me doing any chores. Then my mother had the audacity to call. Usually if I put the phone on speaker Rosie loves talking to my mom. Not today. Rosie, who was perched on my shoulder screamed at full volume directly in my ear several times. My ears were ringing and are still hurting over an hour later. Sigh...

So there you go, if the parrot ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Sigh...

Uh oh, she just spotted me typing on my tablet. Game over. She stopped eating, demanded UP and attacked the tablet, grabbed my pinky and is refusing to let go. Guess it's time to preen the queen.

Anyone else have a similar experience with a disgruntled parrot?

[Cedardave]

Sounds like Rosie has got you well trained.But. Would you really want it any other way?For us, our gang has the benefit of there almost always being someone home.But Im away from home for two days at a time a couple times a week for work..no one gets quite as demanding...but they certainly screem with happiness everytime I return home.Our one Military Macaw sits only a few feet away from where I sit on the couch..when I get to sit.The second I have a phone call she lets me know my focus should be on her.Of course,one macaw calls out and then the rest reply...then the smaller birds get in on it and I have to go outside if I need to take the call.So I suppose we all have our Divas.

[Mare]

You certainly are the busy woman, Kendra! Sassy gets that way with Tim when he pays attention to more than her while he is holding her, she'll add a bloody bite to really get the point across. I always knew when Amigo was feeling slighted on attention, he would get very clingy. ...Your poor ears!! :(

[Lady]

Oh boy Kendra, I too feel for your busy and demanding schedule. I don't know how you do it with Rosie being so demanding. I couldn't handle that.

[Mare]

Oh boy Kendra, I too feel for your busy and demanding schedule. I don't know how you do it with Rosie being so demanding. I couldn't handle that.


Yeah, but..what would your choice be, Alice? In Kendra's situation..she has no choice BUT to handle it! You GO, Kendra..and put in some ear plugs!

[Blancaej]

My Savannah gets bent out of shape.Lol! Not to Rosie's level though. But my girl was socially neglected for many years at her previous home. So she appreciates any attention she can get. ;) But I would say she is the most demanding.

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[Lady]

Well Mare it would be easy for me to say what I would do but that doesn't mean that it would work. I haven't raised a bird from the baby stage and as cute as they are it would be so easy to spoil them. I say I couldn't handle it because she is much stronger in character to be able to! Even all I have learned from all of you, I know there would be some things I couldn't tolerate and would try to gear that behavior to something I could manage. Hind site is always much easier.

[kendrafitz]

Thanks everyone! We all survived the weekend so all is good. ;) We have been preening and snuggling for the last 3 hours. She is going through another super heavy molt so I am guessing that compounded her angst.

I was actually interested in finding out if anyone else deals with similar issues. Granted, I do love to kavetch though.

It sounds like others do deal with this, just not as extreme as with Rosie.

I want to be clear that I love my Rosie girl. She is a highly opinionated, stubborn, ornery and bossy girl. But she is also funny, super loving, sweet and very empathetic. So the good outweighs the not so good.

Alice - you are right. Rosie is spoiled and a lot of the issues we have are my fault. No doubt about it. Partly bc she was a cute baby, but mostly bc my husband works from home. So I need her to be quiet and not screaming. Since Rosie is smart, she has caught on and screams when she wants me. She knows most of the time I have no choice but to give in to her so Jef can work. It's a tough cycle to break.

I have started putting her up in my room when she screams. She actually seems to love it there so she now spends a good portion of her day there. Both with me and alone. Anyway, when she yells I will ask her if she wants to go upstairs ALL BY HERSELF? Sometimes it is no and she composes herself. Sometimes she ends up upstairs...at least 1/2 of the time I think that was her goal to start with.

Anyway, it is very difficult to change her behavior bc of our situation. When Jef is away for business it is very quiet bc she knows I just ignore her yelling. She is a smart, manipulative girl, just like any toddler. So I guess unless Jef starts working out of the house we are where we are.

The way I see it is most people don't know what really goes on behind closed doors. Most people only talk about the positive things. I talk about the things that are good and bad. This way someone who is having a similar issue doesn't feel that it's only them. Also, it may inform people thinking about bringing a parrot home of the downside. Lord knows, I had no clue I would be deaf 4 years ago. ;)

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[The Pinkertons]

The way I see it is most people don't know what really goes on behind closed doors. Most people only talk about the positive things. I talk about the things that are good and bad. This way someone who is having a similar issue doesn't feel that it's only them. Also, it may inform people thinking about bringing a parrot home of the downside. Lord knows, I had no clue I would be deaf 4 years ago This is a very important topic to bring to the forefront of big bird ownership...you are absolutely correct in the facts of caring for these creatures as a whole , and the importance of the long-term effects of the family dynamics. They sense and respond to the ambient energy,. she feels your anxiety, which exacerbates her frustration within the flock dynamics. Take notice,the overall mood in the household, if things are crazy or calm ,. I know for certain around our house if things are crazy the animals are upset too, if we are calm so are they.

[lolsavannahh]

haha you basically just described lovebirds in one sentence! If Nash is having a bad day.. he puts me in a bad mood! He won't want to play, or step up or anything.. and he's in a bad mood a lot.. he luckily doesn't have the beak or sound capacity of your birdy... but he sure tries!

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

The mood in our house is generally quite serene, apart from Casper's morning shriek and flock call. Its very hard to have a rant about anything because Casper mimics us ranting which means we all end up with the giggles.

[The Pinkertons]

The mood in our house is generally quite serene, apart from Casper's morning shriek and flock call. Its very hard to have a rant about anything because Casper mimics us ranting which means we all end up with the giggles. That's what I'm referring to about The Ambient Energy ! for example I work from home...it's just me and my animals all day, My husband comes home and everyone is in an up-roar, the birds start screaming the dogs are all over the place. they feel the tension he brings with him to what is otherwise a quite ambient energy, the dynamics completely changes from serene to chaos. :th_eek:

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

Give him a kiss and a beer and send him out with the dogs. Status quo restored :)

[The Pinkertons]

Give him a kiss and a beer and send him out with the dogs. Status quo restored :) Lord knows I've tried, sometimes it works sometimes it don't. I'm the one with the beer and out with the dogs :th_shakehead:

[Lady]

I know all our birds are spoiled, even if we didn't have them from babies. Having them from babies I know I would be in a tough spot now, because I already spoil Lady as I know others do the same. I wouldn't really call it spoiled in the sense that we have to try everything to learn what they want. I still get a good pressure bite from Lady when I insist on things my way and try to get her to come out of her cage and she is having nothing to do with it. I know she doesn't want to do some things that I want her to do and when I run out of ideas to get her to do them, it's my fault that if she gives me a bite because I pushed to far.

I too can ignore her loud screaming most of the time. Other times she gets left alone till she stops. Not to long ago we were having difficulties just having a conversation with Lady in the room. She would continuously scream, what works for us most of the time is to cover her cage. Granted she sometimes still will keep on screaming but if we speak softly she tends to get quiet as if to hear what we are saying. Then and only then do we open the cover somewhat so she can see and be part of our gathering. Some techniques work some of the time, but I not yet found something that always works all the time. It's an on going process that we try our best to learn from.