Umbrella Cockatoo

Cockatoos are native to Australia. These wonderful white or pink birds have found their way to the U.S. and into our hearts. As beautiful as they are, their screaming can peel the paint off the walls. Help your cockatoo kick the screaming habit.

Umbrella cockatoos are white birds with an impressive white crest. They are large parrots, measuring up to twenty-eight inches in length. Umbrella cockatoos love to cuddle. They are like big teddy bears when it comes to getting some love. An owner of one of these birds will have to spend a fair amount of time doling out the hugs and kisses.

Now, for the part you've all been waiting for-the BUT. But, when Mister or Miss Umbrella Cockatoo doesn't think that they are the center of attention in the house, they may scream their heads off. If you and your bird companion don't want to be the victims of apartment eviction or angry stares from neighbors, you've go to get that screaming under control.

There are three reasons that your cockatoo may have a screaming fit. One, he is locked in a cage for several hours out of the day. True, we all have to work if we want to eat, but use the time you are with him to talk and have close contact.

Two, he is left alone in a room. Cockatoos are social birds. They like to be where the people are. Keeping him away from family areas can make him scream for attention. As long as you are not in the kitchen, bathroom, or other place with potential fume hazards, let your bird participate in family time.

Third, your umbrella cockatoo is being saucy. He wants his way and uses his loud scream to get it. A scream could be saying, "hey, Where's the treats?" or "do I have to push this door open myself or what?"

It is easier to break the screaming habit before it starts. Granted, cockatoos love to scream. They may never carry on a conversation like one of your chatty friends, but they could win a walk-on role in a horror flick. Knowing all of this, determine the reason that your pet is screaming.

Trying to get his way is the bad habit you want to nip in the bud. When he screams, substitute that screaming with another sound. Try whistling. I'm not a good whistler, but you can purchase a whistle from any toy shop. Every time he screams, blow the whistle.

On second thought, the whistling could become annoying too if you live in an apartment. Only use this substitution for home or aviary dwellings. For apartments, teach this bird to talk. Replace the scream with a word or a phrase. Don't respond to him unless he is using the word instead of the scream. You will meet his demand if he asks without screaming. The umbrella cockatoo may want to make a game of the new sound he has learned.

Offer an encouraging hug or back stroking when he uses the substitute phrase instead of screaming. Since he loves attention, your bird will soon see the benefits of not screaming. Study his body language just to be sure that he is not screaming because of danger or fear.

Be certain you behavior is not reinforcing the screaming habit. Running over and giving your Cockatoo attention when they scream will undoubtedly teach this smart bird how to get their way. Additionally, strong negative behaviors like yelling or splashing water are almost as satisfying for your cockatoo. While it takes a tremendous amount of patience and training, the best reaction to a scream is no reaction. Gradually, using the tips mentioned above, your Umbrella Cockatoo will learn that screaming gets him nothing, however a nice calm serenade will get him your undying attention and devotion.

Awhile back we had one of our subscribers who had a screaming cockatoo. If you've never had the pleasure of waking up to a screaming cockatoo imagine your alarm clock magnified by 1000 and factor in it goes off randomly throughout the day. If you really want to get a feel for the wonderful sound check out http://mytoos.com/

Anyways, our subscriber had great luck stopping his cockatoo's screaming by carrying around his garage door opener in his pocket and opening or closing the garage door every time the cockatoo would start screaming. For one reason or another that particular cockatoo did not like that noise at all and would immeadiately cease screaming.

And now just recently we had another reader e-mail us letting us know she had similiar results using a flashlight. Her cockatoo did not like the flash light and after shining it on her a couple times during the screaming all she has to do now is bring it out and let her cockatoo see it.

Well here's my thoughts on this:

Danger Point #1:

Punishment has VERY unpredictable outcomes as a training technique.

Sometimes punishment works like it did for our subscribers mentioned above, but I've heard other parrot owners give me completely different feedback who've tried the SAME thing.

Some birds liked the light and thought it was SUPER intriguing; treating it as a FUN game to play. And since the bird liked the light it started screaming more, so it could see the light again. This same thing goes for loud noises too... I know lots of Cockatoos whose owners have attempted to play loud, startling noises when their Cockatoo screams, only to have the Cockatoo LOVE the noise, causing them to scream more so they can hear it again.

And then sometimes people write in saying that same technique of playing a scary noise when the bird screams works PERFECTLY... it's all very unpredictable. But besides just being unpredictable, negative punishment has other side effects too...

It can DAMAGE your bird's relationship with you!

When I originally talked about this technique of using negative punishment to stop cockatoos from screaming, I told the story above of how one of my subscribers had a Cockatoo who lived in the garage, whose owner figured out that his Cockatoo would stop screaming whenever the garage door opened.

The Cockatoo was moderately startled by the garage opening and soon learned that screaming caused that 'scary garage door' to move again... thus stopping the Cockatoo from screaming any more.

This worked for TWO IMPORTANT reasons...

Reason #1: It only moderately scared the bird

Reason #2: It was NOT possible for the bird to associate the negative punishment with its owner

Which brings me to...

Danger Point #2:

When using negative punishment, you run the risk of damaging your bird's relationship with you, ESPECIALLY if you let it see you as the inflictor of the punishment.

So in order for this to work, you really shouldn't even be in the same room with the bird. Because if your bird screams, and it sees you look at it, or flinch to hit a button that causes a negative experience, it will learn that you are the one Inflicting that negative experience...

And if that happens you've got a 50/50 shot as to whether your bird decides to obey you and stop screaming, or decides to FEAR you as the inflictor of its punishment.

Meaning your bird won't scream any more, but STOPS trusting you, causing him to bite you more and more as time goes on.

There's even some scientific evidence as to why this happens...

Many scientists and animal behavior specialists believe that negative punishment training techniques are ESPECIALLY unpredictable with undomesticated animals. (Parrots are still VERY undomesticated)

Something about a living creature that is NOT domesticated causes it to react with either a FIGHT or FLIGHT response when punished. And rarely just submitting, like a small puppy dog might do when smacked by its owner.

So if you plan on using negative reinforcement as a training technique, be VERY aware of the risky game you are playing, and be SUPER careful about letting the bird know you are the one causing the punishment... because I can guarantee that your bird knows you're the one holding that flashlight and its sincerely possible that you could already be causing your bird to think of you as it's SCARY mean owner that it needs to think about running away from, or possibly attacking, if you continue down this road without being VERY careful.

It would be much less risky to the relationship with you and your parrot if instead of using punishment as a training factor, you trained a replacement behavior.

I've talked about training replacement behaviors before, so I won't spend much time on it here, but essentially a replacement behavior in this case might be to teach your parrot to TALK to get you're attention, instead of screaming for It.

For more information on cockatoo training you can check out our Parrot Behavioral Specialist's site http://kimbear.com She is a great trainer and does all of the individual consulting for our customers!